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

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...

Fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have t ...

Background

Produced by

Steve Berlin Steven M. Berlin (born September 14, 1955, 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 Fle ...

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American 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 music such as cum ...

, Berlin personally selected the tracks for the album from a list of songs provided to him by

Tony Scalzo Tony Scalzo (born May 6, 1964 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American rock musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the band Fastball. Early life Tony Scalzo was born in Hawaii to a mother from Arizona and an Italian-American fath ...

and Miles Zuniga. Berlin recruited bassist Bruce Hughes to play bass, reuniting Hughes with band, and allowing him to take over bass duties from Scalzo. This freed Scalzo to concentrate on keyboards and guitar. This album marks the first time since ''

The Harsh Light of Day ''The Harsh Light of Day'' is the third studio album by pop-rock band Fastball, released in September 2000 by Hollywood Records. It contained the single release "You're an Ocean," which spent eight weeks on the ''Billboard'' Bubbling Under c ...

'' 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 OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...

and the Beatles. ''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,

and Miles Zuniga performed live tracks for ''Paste Magazine''.

Track listing

# "Friend Or Foe" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:56 # "White Collar" (

) – 3:31 # "Holding The Devil's Hand" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:12 # "Redeemed" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:04 # "All Gone Fuzzy" (

) – 3:17 # "The Help Machine" (Miles Zuniga) – 4:14 # "Surprise Surprise" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:32 # "The Girl You Pretended To Be" (

) – 2:18 # "I Go South" (Miles Zuniga) – 2:31 # "Doesn't It Make You Feel Small" (

) – 2:56 # "Never Say Never" (Miles Zuniga) – 3:11

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

, keyboards,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

* Miles Zuniga – vocals, guitar * Joey Shuffield –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Guest musicians * Andy Steck –

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 The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

(track 1) * Bruce Hughes –

, additional vocals * Charlie Sexton – guitar (track 8) * Gordy Quist – additional vocals * John Chipman –

(track 1) * Kevin McKinney – guitar (track 10) *

–

References

2019 albums Fastball (band) albums {{2010s-rock-album-stub