So memorable was Emma Swift’s 2020 collection *Blonde on the Tracks*—a knowing set of reworked Bob Dylan tunes—that it was easy to forget she hadn’t released a full album of original material. Until now, that is. *The Resurrection Game* is a lush yet melancholy outing inspired by the Sydney expat’s self-described nervous breakdown and the recovery process that followed. Recorded between a 16th-century abbey on the Isle of Wight and Nashville studio The Duck with a cast of her adopted city’s luminaries, the album leans into slow and sumptuous string arrangements as Swift imparts lessons from her mental health journey with a winking edge of melodrama. Despite the sugared softness of her voice, there’s often darkness lurking in her words. On “No Happy Endings,” she delivers the bleak titular assessment as if it’s the most positive news, while “Signing Off with Love” lists the ways in which her bathroom mirror hates her. Channeling Peggy Lee as much as Patsy Cline, Swift alternately croons like an old-world balladeer and a down-and-out country singer. Her voice is especially fragile against tiptoed backing as she finds unexpected rays of hope near the start of “Catholic Girls Are Easy”: “I’ve learned how to love/And I’ve learned not to care.” Those heartening vibes may not last, but Swift always finds the humor in life’s harder moments.
Three key ingredients helped shape Ocean Alley’s fifth studio album. The first was acclaimed producer Nick DiDia, whose work with artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and Rage Against the Machine helped the band harness a more rock-oriented approach on songs like “Thru Everything” and “Life in Love.” “It was a little bit daunting at first because he’s worked with so many good bands,” bassist Nic Blom tells Apple Music. “But it was so easy to work with him. He had a lot of influence in helping us build sections and telling us what instruments would sound good where.” Another key ingredient was simply the experience the five-piece had accumulated since forming in Sydney’s Northern Beaches in 2011. “We can hear all the years that have come before us,” explains guitarist Mitch Galbraith. As for how that manifests on *Love Balloon*, Blom says they were “just a bit more mature about our writing process. We focused on spending more time with the tracks and demoing, and figuring out parts and sections that complement each other.” The third major influence was a sense of fun, a response to the darker tone of 2022 predecessor *Low Altitude Living*. “With ‘Thru Everything,’ ‘Left of the Dealer,’ ‘Life in Love,’ and ‘Down the Line,’ we were able to just have fun with the writing,” says Blom. “I think we needed to do that because the last one was kind of serious.” The resulting album, says the bassist, covers “every different mood,” from the Steely Dan-esque groove of “Tangerine” and the Creedence Clearwater Revival-influenced “Left of the Dealer” to the island vibes of “Sweet Boy” and the blissful soul of “Ain’t No Use.” Here, Blom and Galbraith take Apple Music through *Love Balloon*, track by track. **“First Blush”** Nic Blom: “It’s a smooth acoustic intro and we thought that suited the start of the record. It’s a nice way to ease into everything.” Mitch Galbraith: “We appreciated the aesthetic of having the opener and closer \[‘Drenched’\] with acoustic guitar in them.” NB: “I think \[vocalist Baden Donegal\] wrote that after he’d moved from the east coast to the west coast, so it’s kind of about that whole move over west with his family.” **“Tangerine”** NB: “We were going for a bit of a Steely Dan vibe. It’s got the big riff and then it drops into that groovy section, and Nick \[DiDia\] was like, ‘Congas and percussion would sound amazing here.’” MG: “The cleansing power of the ocean has been part of all of our lives for ages, and once you know that it’s pretty obvious what Baden is singing about. It’s him writing a poem about how he loves escaping to nature. We all share that sentiment.” **“Ain’t No Use”** MG: “The song took some cues from Baden’s initial \[vocal\] delivery. He started singing those lyrics in that soulful way and then we could all hear it—this is going to have a bit of soul to it. We leant into it.” **“Sweet Boy”** MG: “That one’s based off a poem I wrote about myself, but also another friend. Baden was looking for lyrics, ’cause it was a song Nic had written most of and brought to the group. So I showed him the poem and he really liked the idea, and he basically used the first two stanzas as lyrics. It’s just about keeping your head held high in a tough situation and not blaming too many of the bad things going on around you on yourself or your character.” **“Love Balloon”** NB: “\[Baden\] was writing about the love balloon hitting the ceiling, and we had \[the title\] written on the whiteboard. It looked nice written down so we were like, it could be a cool name for the record. We had a couple of songs that were in contention. ‘First Blush’ was another one we thought would be a cool record title, but we fell on ‘Love Balloon’ ’cause there’s so many songs about love on the record.” **“Thru Everything”** NB: “We started that one with a different groove, but made the chords a bit faster and more chuggy.” MG: “I know \[Baden\] writes his lyrics really candidly, and they’re not necessarily really detailed and descriptive, but I know they come from his feelings and his life. So you can probably take \[this song\] pretty literally.” **“Left of the Dealer”** NB: “Bit of a Creedence Clearwater vibe. That rolling, rocky stuff. And Angus \[Goodwin\] on his lead guitar just nails that vibe. I think the title was just a play on words. It suits the style of song. It’s just a good little hook.” **“Down the Line”** NB: “It was the vibe to go a bit Western. In the past we’ve leant into a couple of Western-influenced songs.” MG: “‘Dahlia’ was one that we did in the past.” NB: “It was nice to have a bit of fun with stuff like dropping reverb tanks to make it sound like lightning when Baden says, ‘ride the lightning.’ You take the reverb tank out of the guitar amp and drop it and it crackles. It makes a cool noise.” **“Life in Love”** MG: “We used to write songs like this before we even released music, in the garage—we’d just drop into a blues jam randomly after bashing rock chords and stuff. When we wrote it, we were laughing at each other going, ‘There’s no way Nick’s gonna find that impressive or approve of that.’ And as soon as we did it he goes, ‘That end part was actually cool.’ We thought he’d hate it.” **“Drenched”** NB: “The minute we wrote this song it immediately felt like the ending track. It just felt like it summed it up perfectly. Baden’s lyrics are really nostalgic—it’s an ode to being a kid again, basically.”
