Tag Archives: Alternative Rock

Music

39: All the Pain Money Can Buy (Fastball)

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Album: All the Pain Money Can Buy
Artist: Fastball
Year: 1998

1. The Way
2. Fire Escape
3. Better Than It Was
4. Which Way to the Top?
5. Sooner or Later
6. Warm Fuzzy Feeling
7. Slow Drag
8. G.O.D. (Good Old Days)
9. Charlie, the Methadone Man
10. Out of My Head
11. Damaged Goods
12. Nowhere Road
13. Sweetwater, Texas

I bought this album after hearing and enjoying The Way and Fire Escape. I quickly grew to like Out of My Head but it was then subsequently overplayed on the radio. I still listen to the album because the non-singles are so darn consistent.

Warm Fuzzy Feeling is probably the shortest song on this countdown that is oranged up, clocking in at just under two minutes. Catchy, and lyrically interesting.  Sweetwater, Texas is a beautiful, haunting ballad and rounds out the rest of the album well.

I’m trying to figure out why Good Old Days is abbreviated G.O.D., since the initials are never used in the song (unlike P.Y.T. by Michael Jackson). Is it just a God reference? I’m generally not a fan of parentheticals in song titles as they just become unnecessarily unwieldy, and it makes even less sense here.

Music

73: Bringing Down the Horse (The Wallflowers)

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Album: Bringing Down the Horse
Artist: The Wallflowers
Year: 1996

1. One Headlight
2. 6th Avenue Heartache
3. Bleeders
4. Three Marlenas
5. The Difference
6. Invisible City
7. Laughing Out Loud
8. Josephine
9. God Don’t Make Lonely Girls
10. Angel on My Bike
11. I Wish I Felt Nothing

I originally had Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi in this spot, but then I listened to it a couple of days ago and was bored out of my mind. For an album that is very polished and has no really bad songs, it does surprisingly little for me these days. So I looked at the albums that just missed the cut and decided that Bringing Down the Horse, while flawed, doesn’t bore me and still enjoys an occasional playthrough.

The album is quite top-heavy, starting with its best song, One Headlight and continuing with probably its second best song, 6th Avenue Heartache. The passion in Jake Dylan’s voice really comes through in these two songs. Though, while he’s got a better voice than his father, he does very little with it for the rest of the album. The melodies are generally catchy, but the songs don’t really distinguish themselves from each other with Jake sounding the same on every one. Their second biggest hit, The Difference, has good verses but an awful chorus where Jake holds down the notes way longer than he’s capable of. The slowly worsening album is saved just a bit right at the end with I Wish I Felt Nothing, an understated angsty ballad.

I don’t think I’ve listened to one second of anything else by this band, and from looking at the charts, it doesn’t look like anyone else has either. If you have, please throw down your critique in the comments.