First impressions can be tricky. Sometimes they\u2019re borne out by the rest of an experience and sometimes they\u2019re way off the mark. The source of the disconnect is often expectations.<\/p>\n
Fastball\u2019s first-in-seven-years 2017 release Step Into Light<\/i> was their strongest album since their 1998-2000 heyday, an exuberant set brimming with energy and brio. The trio of Miles Zuniga (vocals, guitars, keys) Tony Scalzo (vocals, guitars, keys) and Joey Shuffield (drums) again demonstrated their mastery of catchy, melodic guitar rock embellished with terrific vocal harmonies and plenty of attitude, while interspersing their power-pop confections with more musically diverse character studies.<\/p>\n
My first impression of follow-up The Help Machine<\/i>\u2014based on the first four tracks\u2014was that the boys had lost some of their fire. Opener \u201cFriend Or Foe,\u201d a loping mid-tempo Zuniga number with a rather sing-songy melody, doesn\u2019t leave much of an impression. Then Scalzo steps up with the sunnily sardonic \u201cWhite Collar,\u201d a half-hearted shot at a too-easy target, pleasant enough but not one of his best. Next up, \u201cHolding The Devil\u2019s Hand\u201d is all atmosphere, space and tension, while \u201cRedeemed\u201d dials the guitars up a notch for a snarky rejoinder to a proselytizing acquaintance. Both are engaging enough, but feel more like digressions than foundations of an album, the sort of thing you\u2019d slot in around track seven or eight, rather than up front. <\/p>\n
And there it is\u2014the real story. By the time I\u2019d made it through the entire album twice, I realized my first impression was all wrong. What\u2019s different about this album is not that Fastball has mellowed, but that they and producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) have more or less flipped the band\u2019s typical approach to run order, pushing the catchier, more up-tempo numbers that feel like the heart of this particular set of songs into the five-through-eight slots.<\/p>\n
Scalzo\u2019s \u201cAll Gone Fuzzy,\u201d sitting at track five, in fact feels like a prototypical Fastball album opener, with Shuffield delivering a thumping backbeat that Zuniga and Scalzo decorate with ringing guitars and superb harmonies. Next up, Zuniga\u2019s title track initially furthers the \u201cthey\u2019ve mellowed\u201d impression with its airy, pulsing synth-and-vocals opening, until the rhythm section and guitars enter at the chorus and you realize that, despite its rather subdued vibe, this is one of the catchiest tunes the band has ever recorded. <\/p>\n
Zuniga\u2019s \u201cSurprise Surprise\u201d feels more familiar, a crunchy-guitars thumper with plenty of drive, a tight, bruising solo, and rich harmonies, leading nicely into Scalzo\u2019s snappy honky-tonk plea \u201cThe Girl You Pretended To Be.\u201d Track nine, the appropriately moody \u201cI Go South,\u201d is where things finally start to feel like they\u2019re probably where they should be. The album finishes strong with the one-two punch of Scalzo\u2019s tart, thrumming rocker \u201cDoesn\u2019t It Make You Feel Small\u201d followed by Zuniga\u2019s sweet Tex-Mex country-blues \u201cNever Say Never.\u201d<\/p>\n
First impressions aside, this is another strong outing from a band that seems to be enjoying a musical renaissance as it moves into its 25th year. The Help Machine<\/i> offers another engaging set of punchy, playful numbers fueled by a potent brew of sweet melodic hooks and salty, hard-won wisdom. The run order feels counter-intuitive to me, but I\u2019ve got no argument with the songs themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6028],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45755","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fastball","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45755"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}