Some voices are once in a generation. The likes of Roy Orbison or Elvis Presley. And now here’s the Rhode Island-raised singer-songwriter, his truly tremendous tenor soaring supremely on this soulful indie-Americana rock number about how love makes glorious fools of us, and heralding his upcoming debut album For the First Time, Again, out on 30 January, 2026 via Rough Trade.
The song comes with charming, fun video by Ballgame’s friends and roommates Joey Casale and Victoria Gagnaire Stein. Recorded live, the song is the first one that Ballgame wrote explicitly knowing there would be a record and that it would change his life. “I had met [producer Jonathan] Rado and he told me to write the biggest song in the world, so I sat down at my kitchen table for two days and put the puzzle of the composition together. It’s turned into an anthem about love of love and the fools it makes,” he explains. It’s one to which we can all raise a toast.
The album is produced by acclaimed indie producer-multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Rado (Foxygen, Miley Cyrus, Weyes Blood) and Ryan Pollie (Los Angeles Police Department). Known as unapologetic “analog fetishists”, Rado and Pollie shape the sonics of Ballgame’s work with propulsive acoustic guitar, soulful rhythms, colourful keyboards, occasional horns, and lush harmonies, all rendered with the same recording technology as in classic albums of the 1960s and ‘70s. Drummer Amy Aileen Wood (Fiona Apple) and bassist Wayne Whitaker contribute mightily to the pulse and character of the album.
To explore and enjoy more by Tyler Ballgame, see also the other embedded links below.
Soul overboard
Living lover, pleasure to be ignored
Toast, raise it to
Leavened heaven cut in the shape of you
I could not explain my love to you
Hoping that it’s why I feel so screwed
Never mind the where and why
It’s a lonely life
I believe in love and that’s fine
Oh I believe in love
I believe in love and that’s fine
Was it so naive to think it wanted me alive?
Left overnight
I would never level the tree of life
But some leave it on the lime
Lemon’s never been much a friend of mine
I could not explain my love to you
Hoping that it’s what my heart wants to do
Never mind the where and why
It’s a lonely life
I believe in love and that’s fine
Oh I believe in love
I believe in love and that’s fine
Was it so naive to think it wanted me alive?
Such a shame to wander as wandering do
Let her measure love as the crow flies too
Seems a sad enclosure
Now the walls are gone
Heavy-headed. King me in Babylon
I could not explain my love to you
Hoping that it’s what my heart wants to do
Never mind the where and why
It’s a lonely life
I believe in love and that’s fine
Oh I believe in love
I believe in love and that’s fine
Was it so naive to think it wanted me alive?
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