''The Help Machine'' is the seventh studio album by American

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

Fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch (baseball), pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. Its distinctive feature is its high speed. "Power pitchers," such as former major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, relied on the ...

Background

The album was produced by

Steve Berlin Steven M. Berlin (born September 14, 1955, in Philadelphia) is an American saxophonist, keyboardist and record producer, best known as a member of the rock group Los Lobos and, before that, Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs, the Blasters, and the Fl ...

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional ...

, who personally selected the tracks for the album from a list of songs provided to him by members Tony Scalzo and Miles Zuniga. Berlin recruited bassist Bruce Hughes, This freed Scalzo to concentrate on keyboards and guitar. This album marks the first time since '' The Harsh Light of Day'' that a Fastball album does not feature songs co-written by Scalzo and Zuniga. The first single off of the album, "The Help Machine", addresses the effects of consumerism. According to Zuniga, " he song isjust about emptiness and the feeling that things that are supposed to make us happy don't."

Critical reception

Described as "ethereal", the album also features the band's signature sound with comparisons to

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

and the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

. ''Pop Matters'' magazine referred to the album as "pop perfection." The album features a "thick modern sound" and is considered to be a great introduction to the band's catalog. Critics called the album "near perfect" and considered it one of the best albums of 2019. To support the album, Tony Scalzo and Miles Zuniga performed live tracks for ''Paste Magazine''.

Track listing

# "Friend or Foe" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:56 # "White Collar" ( Tony Scalzo) – 3:31 # "Holding the Devil's Hand" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:12 # "Redeemed" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:04 # "All Gone Fuzzy" ( Tony Scalzo) – 3:17 # "The Help Machine" (Miles Zuniga) – 4:14 # "Surprise Surprise" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:32 # "The Girl You Pretended to Be" ( Tony Scalzo) – 2:18 # "I Go South" (Miles Zuniga) – 2:31 # "Doesn't It Make You Feel Small" ( Tony Scalzo) – 2:56 # "Never Say Never" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:11

Personnel

* Tony Scalzo –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, keyboards,

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Miles Zuniga – vocals, guitar * Joey Shuffield –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Guest musicians * Andy Steck – drums,

wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

, juno (track 6), e-bow,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(track 1) * Bruce Hughes –

, additional vocals * Charlie Sexton – guitar (track 8) * Gordy Quist – additional vocals * John Chipman – drums (track 1) * Kevin McKinney – guitar (track 10) *

– percussion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Help Machine 2019 albums Fastball (band) albums