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Rating: Anger, despair, loneliness. These are the first words that come to mind when I think of Fuel, and specifically about their debut album, 'Sunburn' dated 1998.
The Fuel were one of the many American rock bands born riding that great wave that hit and submerged the USA starting from gray Seattle. Formed in 1989 in Brownsville, in the rural areas of Tennessee, by guitarist Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie, initially under the name Small The Joy; the band, after recruiting singer Brett Scallions, emigrated in 1994 to Pennsylvania, in search of their first record deal, assuming in that same year, after the entry of drummer Jody Abbot, the definitive name Fuel. Over the next three years, the band rehearsed for their debut by releasing as many as 5 EPs; until, in 1998, thanks to the commercial success of the single 'Shimmer', the group finally managed to enter the studio, to record this debut album under the big Sony label.
'Shimmer', the album's signature song, which starts slow and vulnerable and then gains momentum in the bridge, turns out to be a successful and easily digestible song, which guaranteed that recognizability, combined with easy appeal, which was the launching pad for the group's ambitions. The album then unfolds between the dark and reflective rhythms of 'It Come To This', and the passionate crescendo of the title track, which carries the song from the delicate chords of the verses to the emphasis of the chorus, with singing suspended halfway between anger and anguish of the singer; contrasting with the positivity of the electrifying opener 'Untitled' and the brightness of 'Song For You', a truly moving track with another memorable chorus. There are also heavier and tighter tracks, such as 'Jesus Or A Gun', a tough song both musically and lyrically, likely inspired by the many 'peace' campaigns undertaken by their homeland's armed forces; the driving 'Bittersweet', or the less incisive 'New Thing', 'Mary Pretends', and 'Ozone', with ever-explosive rhythms, without giving up the usual melodic openings always present in the choruses.
The album closes with the wonderful 'Hideaway', a (semi-)acoustic and nihilistic jewel that truly devastates in depth for the atmosphere full of unease and anticipation that the band manages to recreate, between guitar notes sometimes sweet, sometimes more aggressive, and the suffering and distant voice of singer Brett Scallions.
'Sunburn' reveals itself as a convincing debut, expressing the true soul of the group, one forged from years and years spent playing even in the worst bars and clubs, hoping and waiting to make it; this despite the subsequent album, 'Something Like Human', released two years later, surely being valid and containing what are probably their most successful songs, namely 'Hemorrhage (In My Hands)' and 'Bad Day', but sounding already more elaborately planned and less sincere than this debut; more influenced by the modern rock sounds already dominant in America of those years, riding the wave of bands like Creed, Staind, Goo Goo Dolls or Alter Bridge, whose influences would become even greater in the subsequent 'Natural Selection'.
In the years following 2003, the band encountered a continuous revolution, which first saw the departure of singer Brett Scallions and drummer Miller; after replacing them with Tommy Stewart and Toryn Green, the group released their fourth album, 'Angels And Devils' (2007), which received good commercial feedback. After the tour of that year, however, the group seemed to stagnate due to problems with the record label, until former singer Brett Scallions formed a new band with bassist Jeff Abercrombie, called 'Refueled'; which, after some years, following an agreement between the singer and former guitarist Carl Bell, would revive the old Fuel brand, to keep alive at least the memory of a group that perhaps came too late, compared to the times, to reap the successes and acknowledgments it would have deserved, even outside the States.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Bittersweet (03:52)
Seven sins of wantonness and
everything that's good is gone
Sell it for the glory from the peers
Silicone priestess scratch the back and
twists the knife to bone
Kick against the pricks and scrape the shins
I'm the enemy in the enemies now
Chorus:
Swallowed the pill
And drank to the fill
All these things I carry now
In this bittersweet, in this bittersweet now
Try to hold the world there sinking,
swimming in a paper cup
Try to own the one beneath the skin
Held up to the flame still singing
skin begins to draw and tuck
Never told there's not a chance to win
What couldn't be, wouldn't be now
(chorus)
Bittersweet
Love is bittersweet
Hold your hands up to the sky and try
So hard to rise above
But everything is beating down
(chorus)
Swallowed the pill
And drank to the fill
All these things I carry now
In this bittersweet
In this bittersweet
In this bittersweet, now
03 Shimmer (03:34)
She calls me from the cold
Just when I was low
Feeling short of stable
All that she intends
And all she keeps inside
Isn't on the label
She says she's ashamed
Can she take me for a while?
Can I be a friend?
We'll forget the past
Or maybe I'm not able
And I break at the bend
We're here and now
Will we ever be again?
'Cause I have found
All that shimmers in this world is sure to fade
Away again
She dreams a champagne dream
Strawberry surprise
Pink linen on white paper
Lavender and cream
Fields of butterflies
Reality escapes her
She says that love
Is for fools that fall behind
And I'm somewhere between
I never really know
A killer from a savior
'Til I break at the bend
We're here and now
Will we ever be again?
'Cause I have found
All that shimmers in this world is sure to fade
Away again
It's too far away for me to hold
Too far away
It's too far away for me to hold
Too far away
Ah-ow
Yeah, it's too far away for me to hold
Too far away, ah-ow
It's too far away for me to hold
Too far away
It's too far away for me to hold
Too far away, ah-ow
It's too far away for me to hold
Too far away
Guess I'll let it go
04 Jesus or a Gun (03:58)
Walk away, I walk the wire
And my fields are burning in the flames
Feel my way, blind in the mire
Struggling from your voice inside my head
Chorus:
But now everything's trying to drag me down
But I'll rip the sky from the ground
But tell me now, who's my saving one
Jesus or a gun
Stripped away my last desire
Nothing comes and nothing's sent away
Happiness I couldn't hire
Struggling from these thoughts inside my head
(chorus)
All that's safer falls from my favor
When it over who will cry for me
It's safe to say I don't desire
Everything you push inside my head
And I'll reject it until I'm dead
(chorus)
05 Sunburn (04:23)
The sky was dark this morning
Not a bird in the trees
And silence hung suspicious and anxious
Like a blanket covered scream
And you were gone
You were not there for me
And I cursed the sky and begged the sun to
Fall all over me
This life's not livin', baby
Livin' ain't free
If I can't find my way back to me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down
All my friends are searching
Quiet, desperately
Look into their eyes you'll see the faithless crying
Save me, save me, save me
And what are they to feel
And who are they to be
And what am I to do with, do with me, just let the sun
Fall all over me
This life's not livin', baby
Livin' ain't free
If I can't find my way back to me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down
Until my eyes cry out
'Til my head is free from doubt
'Til my lungs sigh right out
'Til I'm wiser
Let the sun
Fall all over me
This life's not livin', baby
Livin' ain't free
If I can't find my way back to me
Let the sun fall down
Let the sun fall over me
This life's not for livin', baby
Livin' ain't free
And if I can't find my way back to me,
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down over me
Let the sun fall down... over me
06 New Thing (03:19)
Take me out alive
Take me out it's all so stale
Give me another life
Excuse me if i tried and failed
And I don't mind if I fall
It's not that far at all
Chorus:
I got a new thing, it's so inspired
It's not the real thing, but it's for me
Because the real thing I don't desire
So it's the new thing I choose for me
Denial comfort me
Built the gallows high
You gave me plans and silver nails
The architects of pride
But I'm the one you're hanging now
And I don't mind if I fall
It's not that far at all
(chorus)
And I don't mind if I fall
It's not that far at all
(chorus)
08 Song for You (03:46)
It's all I want
It's all I needed now it's through
It all comes back to you
The only one
The one I needed I abuse
More color for the bruise...
And so I sing this song for you,
There's nothing left for me to do
Goodbye dear one,
Venus I thought you'd bless me too
So selfish to presume
And so I sing this song for you
And I hope that what is true
Will find a way to you
I sing this song for you
Venus never showed the way
The stars would not be sold
Heaven stole the light of day
And we were never told
So dark the day...
So dark the day...
So dark the day...
So much for life, for life and love
And now it's done
The color always changes hue,
From bright to black and blue
And so I sing this song for you
And I hope that what is true
Will find a way to you
I sing this song for you
And so I sing this song for you,
There's nothing left for me to do
09 Mary Pretends (03:36)
Mary pretends she's so insane, so insane, so insane
Mary pretends she's so insane, so insane, so insane
She just sits back and laughs at the pain
Laughs at the pain, laughs at the pain
Mary pretends she's so insane, so insane, so insane
Falling down of her mind
Gives her everything she wanted from the world
Close her eyes, drift inside, so alive
She gotta know what it feels like
She wants to know how to fly
She wants to know what it feels like to die
Goodbye (all x2)
Falling down of her mind
Gives her everything she wanted from the world
Close her eyes, drift inside, so alive
She gotta know what it feels like
She wants to know how to fly
She wants to know what it feels like to die
Goodbye
Goodbye
Time to die
10 Ozone (03:49)
I wanna make her go, I wanna make her come
I wanna push her away
Don't wanna feel no pain
Don't wanna feel no shame
Don't wanna feel this way
I'm so alone here
Why must I be
Chorus:
I'm the one she calls ozone baby
She waits alone for me to come down
But I want to fly like silly angel
Aim for the sky, straight into the sun
I wanna make her feel, I wanna make it real
I wanna give her away
She wanna keep me here
She wanna hold me dear
She wanna make me stay
She's so alone here
She don't need me
(chorus)
My sun, on you, burning, singe you
Confined inside, rot from my lies, sucker
I'll only hold you down, I'll only steal your crown
I'll only make you cry
I'll only break your pride, and eat you up inside
Why should you even try
I'm so alone here
Why must I be
(chorus)
11 Hideaway (04:07)
Hideaway, take me now
I cannot face another round
And I'm flipping through these pages
For a name to take my place
Close my eyes, wish that I could find a place
To hideaway
Troubled days cloud my eyes
Stole the sun from my skies
And in this darkness I am tossing, turning
Lying wide awake
Hold my breath, wish that I could find a place
To hideaway
Hideaway, take me now
I cannot face another round
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