Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs

Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs is the debut studio album by Australian indie pop band Ball Park Music. Released in Australia and New Zealand on September 9 2011 on Stop Start/EMI, the album was produced by Matt Redlich and features two singles from the band's first two EPs – "iFly" and a re-recorded version of "All I Want Is You" which would be reissued as a single to drive the album. Previous stand-alone singles "Sad Rude Future Dude" and "Rich People Are Stupid" were also included. A further three singles – "It's Nice To Be Alive" (July 2011), "All I Want Is You" (September 2011) and "Literally Baby" (December 2011)" were released and gained extensive radio play on triple j, Nova and Channel [V] prior to and during the album's release.

Recording and production

Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs contains material that had been written by the band's frontman Sam Cromack from the mid 2000's through to the album's release in 2011. A number of demos were recorded for the record with the track list resulting in 11 tracks. A further song – "Big Big Mess" – from a previous session was released during this period as a b-side for the physical version of "It's Nice To Be Alive".

The album was recorded in Brisbane with producer/engineer Matt Redlich between January and June 2011 in his home studio called Massive Studios.

Critical response

Response to the album was generally favorable. It was nominated for a triple j Award for Album of the Year and achieved a #10 position on the station's listener-voted poll. The AU Review voted it at #2 for 2011 and Mess + Noise slotted it at #40. Jody Macgregor at Rave Magazine gave it four-and-a-half stars and Album of the Week while Triple J Magazine awarded it 8/10 and Junior gave it 5/5.

The album debuted on the ARIA chart at number 36.

Credits

All songs written by Sam Cromack and arranged by Ball Park Music Produced, engineered and mixed by Matt Redlich at Massive Studios Mastered by William Bowden at King Willy Sound Artwork by Polly Bass Boost

Track listing

All music and lyrics written by Sam Cromack:

"Literally Baby" – 2:47
"It's Nice To Be Alive" – 3:29
"Sad Rude Future Dude" – 2:17
"All I Want Is You" – 3:29
"Rich People Are Stupid" – 2:15
"Alligator" – 4:36
"Birds Down Basements" – 3:48
"Shithaus" – 3:26
"iFly" – 2:33
"Glass Jar" – 2:46
"Happy Healthy Citizen Of The Developed World Blues" – 5:37

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