Good Mood (album)

Good Mood is the fifth studio album by Australian indie pop band Ball Park Music. The album was released on 16 February 2018. Two singles have been released from the album, "Exactly How You Are" and "The Perfect Life Does Not Exist". The band promoted the album with a national tour in February and March 2018. It was the first album to have song-writing contributions by guitarist Dean Hanson.

Good Mood
Studio album by
Ball Park Music
Released16 February 2018 (2018-02-16)
RecordedMay–July 2017
GenreIndie pop
ProducerBall Park Music
Ball Park Music chronology
Every Night the Same Dream
(2016)		 Good Mood
(2018)		 Ball Park Music
(2020)
Singles from Good Mood
  1. "Exactly How You Are"
    Released: September 2017
  2. "The Perfect Life Does Not Exist"
    Released: December 2017

At the ARIA Music Awards of 2018, the album was nominated for three awards; Producer of the Year, Engineer of the Year and Best Cover Art[1]

Recording and production

The album was recorded at the band's studio located in an industrial estate in Stafford in Brisbane, named the Bunnings Warehouse Recording Studio, and produced by the band.[2] It was engineered by Cromack, mixed by Paul McKercher and mastered by William Bowden.

On the song-writing, Cromack said, "I put some rules on myself: everything had to have the classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus pop structure. I had a ball. And with my lyrics I was like, 'For God's sake, Sam, be clear about what you want to say!'. So often we look down on pop music, but the rules didn't crush our creativity."[3]

Cover

The photo on the cover was taken by Dean Hanson, who said, "It was maybe a couple of months into the recording, we were sitting in the studio one morning… Sam came in and showed us a few images he’d seen of horses rearing in cool places and we thought it was a powerful image. As we always do, come out with ridiculous ideas, we thought it’d be an amazing album cover if we could get someone to rear their horse in front of the garage door of our studio."[4]

Critical response

The Sydney Morning Herald said, "Opening with the poppy, yet summery laid-back feel of "The End Times", this self-produced album brings studio whiz and ARIA award-winner Paul McKercher into the mix, elevating frontman/guitarist Sam Cromack's vocals to a new level and highlighting his lyrical strength."[5] The Herald Sun claimed, "The experimentation and attention to sonic detail here (it's a headphones album) makes this their Pet Sounds", and compared "The End Times" to, "a ragged Go-Betweens-style indie gem".[6]

The Australian noted, "the affable plain-spokenness, the facility for melodies that can cure a vitamin D deficiency and, yes, the festival-friendly anthems with unabashedly broad appeal" and declared it their best album.[7]

Track listing
  1. "The End Times"
  2. "I Am a Dog"
  3. "Frank"
  4. "The Perfect Life Does Not Exist"
  5. "Exactly How You Are"
  6. "Hands Off My Body"
  7. "So Nice"
  8. "Dreaming of America"
  9. "If It Kills You"
  10. "I Am So in Love with You"

Charts
Chart (2018) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[8] 5

References
  1. Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) (11 October 2018). "2018 ARIA Award Nominees Announced". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  2. Andrew McMillen. "Ball Park Music rises from uni beginnings to stardom". The Australian.
  3. Craig Mathieson. "Having a ball: Ball Park Music find their mojo with Good Mood". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  4. Al Newstead. "Ball Park Music aren't horsing around with their feel-good new album". Triple J.
  5. Marty Boulton. "Courtney Barnett's first new music in three years is out now". Sydney Morning Herald.
  6. "New album reviews: Vance Joy, Black Panther, MGMT and more". Herald Sun.
  7. Caitlin Welsh. "Ball Park; Orava; Lion's Paw; Sonny Smith; Richard Russell". The Australian.
  8. "ARIA Australian Top 50 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
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