''Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by Australian

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

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

Ball Park Music Ball Park Music are an Australian five-piece indie rock band from Brisbane, who formed in 2008. The band consists of Sam Cromack, Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness, Dean Hanson and Daniel Hanson. Their debut studio album '' Happiness and Surroundin ...

, released in Australia and New Zealand on 9 September 2011 through Stop Start and

EMI Music Australia EMI Recorded Music Australia Pty Ltd (called EMI Music Australia until May 2013) is an Australian imprint of Universal Music Australia, formerly a subsidiary label of EMI Recordings Ltd and, between 1979 and 1996, that of Thorn EMI. It is Austral ...

. The album debuted at number 36 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 ...

, and peaked at number 26 following the release of their self-titled sixth studio album. The album was produced by Matt Redlich and spawned the singles "Sad Rude Future Dude", "Rich People Are Stupid", "It's Nice to Be Alive", "All I Want Is You" and "Literally Baby". The album also features "iFly" from ''Conquer the Town, Easy As Cake''. At the 2011 J Awards, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year.

Recording and production

''Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs'' contains material that had been written by the band's frontman

Sam Cromack Ball Park Music are an Australian five-piece indie rock band from Brisbane, who formed in 2008. The band consists of Sam Cromack, Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness, Dean Hanson and Daniel Hanson. Their debut studio album '' Happiness and Surroundin ...

from the mid-2000s 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. The band later said, "It was recorded in his parents basement in East Brisbane. He had a beautiful tape machine that made us sound a hundred bucks. We used to save our money until we had enough to go back to the studio and do another song. This meant the album was recorded in dribs and drabs over the course of about a year."

Critical response

''The AU Review'' voted it at #2 for 2011. Jody Macgregor at ''Rave Magazine'' gave it four-and-a-half stars and Album of the Week. ''Triple J Magazine'' awarded it 8/10.

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

Personnel

Ball Park Music * Sam Cromack – writing, vocals, guitar * Jennifer Boyce – vocals, bass guitar * Daniel Hanson – drums * Dean Hanson – guitar, vocals * Paul Furness – piano, synthesiser Technical * Matt Redlich – production, engineering, mixing * William Bowden – mastering Artwork * Polly Bass Boost – artwork

Charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hapiness and Surrounding Suburbs (Ball Park Music album) 2011 debut albums Ball Park Music albums EMI Records albums