''Puddinghead'' is the third studio album by Australian

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band

Ball Park Music Ball Park Music is an Australian five-piece indie rock band from Brisbane consisting of Sam Cromack, Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness, Dean Hanson and Daniel Hanson. Since forming in 2008, the band has released eight studio albums. Their debut, '' ...

, released on 4 April 2014 by Stop Start and Inertia Music. It was supported by two singles, " She Only Loves Me When I'm There" and "Trippin' the Light Fantastic", as well as two national tours and one European tour in 2014. The album was nominated for

Best Rock Album The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sever ...

at the

2014 ARIA Music Awards The 28th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which include the 2014 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine ...

, and Australian Album of the Year at the 2014 J Awards. It peaked at number two on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

Recording

The album was self-produced in a share house in the Northern Suburbs of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. Reflecting on the recording process of their previous two albums, frontman Sam Cromack said that "they were done in a real whirlwind," but with ''Puddinghead'' the band "could properly sit down and spend some more time just focusing on making a record."

Release and reception

The album had three songs feature in the Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2014, with the lead single highest-placed at number 19. ''Puddinghead'' also placed at number two on the 2014 Triple J Album Poll. The title of the album is a reference to a

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

insult. Cromack wrote the album's title track "Puddinghead", however it did not make the album – it was instead released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of "Trippin' the Light Fantastic" when it was digitally released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on 23 May 2014. Music publication ''Kill Your Stereo'' gave the album a five-star writing, praising ''Puddinghead'' as a "fantastic release" that is "the strongest thing that they've released throughout their entire career so far." ''Scenewave Australia'' wrote the record features "powerful riffs, gorgeous harmonies and soaring vocals, intricately woven into delicious melodies," also calling it "their most accomplished release to date."

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians * Ball Park Music – producer, engineer; ** Paul Furness –

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

(1, 5),

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

(1–4, 7, 10), 8-bit keys (1), piano (2–5, 7, 9, 11), Nord flutes (2, 8, 10),

Roland SH-101 The Roland SH-101 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1986. Though it did not achieve significant commercial success, it later became a staple of electronic music in the 1990s, particularly house music ...

(3, 9, 11),

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

(4–8, 11),

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

(5, 7, 10),

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

(7) ** Jennifer Boyce –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

(1, 3–11), vocals (all tracks) ** Sam Cromack – vocals (all tracks), writing (all tracks), guitar (all tracks),

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

(1), bass guitar (2), synth (5, 7), acoustic guitar (7, 11),

beatbox Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually a Roland TR-808, TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock music, rock, popular music, pop, jazz, an ...

(7), acoustic guitar (10),

ambient noise Background noise or ambient noise is any sound other than the sound being monitored (primary sound). Background noise is a form of noise pollution or interference. Background noise is an important concept in setting noise levels. Background no ...

(11) ** Daniel Hanson – drums (all tracks),

cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell (instrument), bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. ...

(1), tambourine (1–2, 6),

electronic drums Electronic drums are a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

(3, 5), percussion (5, 7), synth (5), vocals (5) * Chris Darbyshire –

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(5),

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller th ...

(5) Additional personnel * Tony Hoffer – mixing * Dave Cooley – mastering * Polly Bass Boost – artwork

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Ball Park Music albums