Music: Fastball: Little White Lies

Our Take

For whatever reason, Fastball ended up being one of those bands that completely went over my head throughout the 90’s as I didn’t find out about them until just recently. From what I understand the group had quite the dedicated following towards the end of the 90’s, and then disappeared from the spotlight for awhile. After an almost five year break (their last album was released in 2004), Fastball has returned with Little White Lies. This album offers twelve tracks of very catchy pop/rock, and will definitely make people like me wonder just how it took them so long to get into this group.

What makes this band so immediately interesting and appealing is the variety in their instrumentals and simple, yet catchy riffs. While every song on the album could be categorized as pop rock, each song explores a different type of pop rock. Whether it is the more dance rock oriented “Little White Lies” or experimental flair of “Angelie”, each song on Little White Lies offers something new and ensures that listeners won’t quickly get bored. It also helps that each track works with relatively simple yet highly addictive riffs, which ensures that once this album comes to an end that listeners will be ready to put it on again. It all works very well, and even though 2008 and 2009 have been the year of the 90’s revival (with acts such as Seven Mary Three and Local H returning), Fastball sounds anything but dated.

Vocalists Tony Scalzo and Miles Zuniga offer listeners very melodic singing that just about anyone can enjoy. Many of the songs are based around one of them getting the spotlight and serving as the main vocalist for a particular song while the other provides back ups, and this works well as it establishes some nice harmonies on quite a few of the tracks. Fastball also has some interesting lyrical content, offering social commentary on tracks such as “The Malcontent (The Modern World)” and more romantic oriented themes on “Angelie”. This also helps the album to engage its listeners, and gives it a lot more staying power.

Some people may have forgotten about Fastball, but Little White Lies will remind them why they originally were so attracted to this group in the first place. In fact, the songs on this album may be even more memorable and addictive than anything the band has written previously. This definitely showcases that Fastball still has a lot of life left in them, and here’s hoping we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the near future.

http://www.fastballtheband.com

Chris Dahlberg
March 20, 2009