Melbourne’s Jess Ball has just dropped the video for her new single ‘Roundabouts’, and if you haven’t come across her yet, this is a very good place to start.
Ball first made her name as a go-to topliner in the dance and electronica world — credits with Dash Berlin, Charlie Hedges and EDX, a number one on Beatport’s Future House chart, one of SiriusXM’s biggest electro songs of the year. Over 100 million streams before she’d even launched her solo career. In 2024 she stepped into the alt-pop world with debut EP Where You Go, followed by a collaboration with Jelani Blackman on ‘Lately’ that earned her early praise from Clash and Clout. The building blocks have been there. ‘Roundabouts’ feels like the moment it all clicks into place.
The song is about going in circles in a relationship you already know is finished — that particular exhaustion of trying to make something work when deep down you’re both just running the same patterns on repeat. “What begins as genuine love slowly turns into a tit-for-tat mentality,” Ball explains. “Instead of care and understanding, there’s toxicity, mind games, and jealousy.” It’s a feeling most people will recognise immediately, and she captures it without ever overdoing it.
Sonically it sits in a sweet spot between Cigarettes After Sex’s atmospheric cool, Olivia Dean’s warmth and something with a little more edge underneath — alt-pop production, hip-hop beats and muted brass that give the track real texture without crowding out the vocal. And Ball’s vocal is the thing here. Expressive, distinctive and emotionally precise, it’s the kind of voice that makes you want to listen more carefully. Written with producers Antoni Polimeni and Richy Sebastian — who between them have over 500 million streams — the track is impeccably put together.
The video, directed by Ben Willis and shot in Spotswood, Melbourne, keeps things simple — constant movement, changing landscapes, walking as a metaphor for getting out and moving on. It suits the song perfectly.
One to watch. Genuinely.
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