Appearances sure can be deceptive. On encountering Austin, Texas-based FASTBALL for the first time with this album, your reviewer initially harboured thoughts of a Husker Du-style trio judging by their moniker, the album's title and the tousled, plaid shirt'n'sweater-clad trio on the cover.
Just goes to show how wrong you can be, as a little research shows the band's core trio of Miles Zuniga, Tony Scalzo and Joey Shuffield to have a lengthy history; to have hit platinum paydirt with their 1998 album "All The Pain Money Can Buy" and -sonically - in reality adopting a well-crafted, songwriterly stance akin to classic American power pop outfits like Big Star, The Raspberries and Cheap Trick.
Thankfully, not in a horribly derivative kinda way, though, as "Keep Your Wig On" is a pretty consistent collection of tunes, mostly co-written by Scalzo and Zuniga, and fleshed out by earthily professional playing and some canny production nous from Mike McCarthy (of Spoon fame) and Adam Schlesinger from Fountains Of Wayne.
Bearing such a pedigree, it's not too great a surprise to discover that much of the album succumbs to well-presented, but still sightly gritty power-pop anthems such as the hipshakin' "Lou-ee, Lou-ee" and "Drifting Away", though the full-on guitar sound is tempered by lyrics steeped in a desire to escape from the rat race. Indeed, both "Airstream" (almost a wannabe 21st Century "On The Beach") and Zuniga's "Perfect World" (sample lyric: "Nobody's gonna solve your problems, it all comes down to you") offer a hard-headed realism which is tangibly attractive
Elsewhere, they throw the odd, pleasing curveball such as the brief, introductory piano ballad "Shortwave", which has effective Flaming Lips-style harmonies and "Red Light", which harbours a Mexican-fuelled early rock'n'roll feel with organ, jubilant handclaps and fanfare trumpets. All rather irriesistible, as is the Schlesinger-produced "Someday", which is quintessential, slow-burning American guitar fare.
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More of this and "Keep Your Wig On" would really be a cracker, but sadly they fall on their collective arse pretty heavily on a couple of occasions. Despite a brief burst of spy theme guitars, you know you're in trouble when "'Til I Get It Right" blasts off with a lyric like "I spent all my money at the record store, bought a copy of 'Revolver' and some Gang Of Four", even if their consumer taste is impeccable. Which is more than can be said of the track's asinine rockabilly inclinations. It's a stunner compared to Scalzo's "I Get High", mind, where his faux-falsetto and the music's sickly Supertramp aspirations are truly wince-worthy. Gah!
Still, we'll forgive them a few blushers as most of "Keep Your Wig On" proffers a natural inclination towards cranked and well-crafted melody and a distinct tendency to experiment which will surely keep their powder dry. Fastball's is a sound tailor-made for Stateside radio, so whether they'd ever truly hope to compete this side of the pond is debatable, but regardless of that there's more than enough here to warm the cockles of self-respecting power-pop fans the world over.
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