Fastball
Painting The Corners - The Best of Fastball

THE REVIEW

Many semi-unknown musicians have managed to pull a memorable hit out of the hat only to immediately return to anonymity: it’s known that the laws governing the hit-parades are sometimes bizarre, and the goddess of fortune is notoriously blind; however, sometimes these chart meteors are people who have what it takes to aim for success on a much larger scale than that one-off hit wonder, for example, Fastball: quite a few people remember them for "The Way" from 1998, an extremely catchy melody, an incisive and melodic voice just right, a rich and pleasant guitar-oriented pop rock sound, and lyrics that are anything but stupid and banal; considering that, as evidenced by this "Painting The Corners: The Best Of Fastball" from 2002 "The Way" is by no means an isolated case, how is it possible that a power-trio of such talent is not listed among the stars of contemporary rock? The answer is encapsulated in 3 damn letters: MTV; yeah, the malevolent entity that during that period made "artists" like Green Day and Blink 182 successful among teenagers and shortly contributed to the rise of Coldplay to the title of absolute emperors of sleek world rock had no interest in supporting this unnamed Texan trio with a not-so-cool look, whose singer continued to work in an Austin cemetery until the release of the second album?

Perfectly summarizing their characteristic sound, this best of 2002 includes songs from Fastball’s first three albums: "Make Your Mama Proud" from '96, "All The Pain Money Can Buy" from '98, and "The Harsh Light Of Day" from 2000: the trademark of the trio led by singer, bassist, and keyboardist Tony Scalzo is simple and highly effective power-pop, declined in various forms, from quick punk-edge shards like "Make Your Mama Proud", "Human Torch", and the overwhelming "Emotional" to the reggae keyboards of a perfect pop song like "Out Of My Head", hitting almost grunge inflections in bitter-tasting ballads like "Slow Drag", which almost seems to have the shadow of Hole's "Pretty On The Inside" hovering over it, or the disturbing and almost rarefied atmosphere of the gem "Vampires", the vaguely sixties arrangements of "Love Is Expensive And Free", and of course the enjoyable power pop of "Are You Ready For The Fallout", "You're An Ocean", "Fire Escape", and "Sooner Of Later": riffs that immediately get stuck in your head, full and pulsating bass, energetic melodies of great impact, lyrics full of irony; the opposite of the reigning blandness in the post-grunge mainstream rock. In a burst of candid musician ego, Tony Scalzo declared: "I think there's a couple of bands that are still putting out real good quality guitar rock song, and I think we're one of them". Honestly, I cannot disagree with him.

They certainly haven’t changed the history of rock, but the songs of Fastball are excellent and very welcome travel companions at any time of the day: they convey a wonderful feeling of passion and sincerity; no looks, no poses premeditated, no divism of any sort, pure and simple love for music, and for this, Tony Scalzo, Miles Zuniga, and Joey Shuffield should only be proud; proud of their career moving forward resolutely in total indifference, proud of being snubbed by MTV, proud that Bono will never deign to duet with them, proud to be Fastball and for not having sacrificed their own dignity on the altar of success, and excuse me if that’s not a lot...