Fastball scored a hit single In 1998 with "The Way," (a Spanish-tinged ode to the plight of a senior-set version of Thelma and Louise) which propelled their album All the Pain Money Can Buy to platinum sales. The resulting pressure to match the success of that album proved a bit daunting for the Austin-based trio, and after The Harsh Light of Day an album that was a classic example of the sophomore slump, they took a few years off before returning to the scene with this, their first album for Rykodisc.

Keep Your Wig On, Is being both hailed and criticized for being shamelessly Beatlesque. Now that I've had my at-bat with the new Fastball I'm a little disappointed that it isn't a little "more" Beatlesque. Most of the tunes smack of the heartland power-pop sound of post-Mark Olsen Jayhawks. True, the opening prelude "Shortwave," sounds like a afterthought of a tune that might have been left off Let It Be. And the second track "Lou-Ee, Lou-Ee - well a five-year-old could peg that one as a homage to a John Lennon opus (circa '65). But that's about where any real Beatle-borrowing ends.

"I Get High" sounds like a classic Billy Joel tune and ironically the song deals with car accidents "Redlights flashing behind my cracked up rear-view mirror." Also in the mix is a few up-tempo salsa send-ups that sound like the stuff Raul Malo does when he's moonlighting from the Mavericks. There's also a song or two that smack of Fountains of Wayne (in fact FOW's Adam Schlesinger produced two of the tracks.)

The showstopper of the album (which actually reminds me of Fastball) is the second to the last track "Falling Upstairs." This is the only song that brings the goods in the same compellingly listenable way that made a fan out of me when they released their first album. Yes the hook of the song is Beatlesque, but it's also Fastball-esque and is the most lyrically interesting song. At the end of the game, I can only give this pitch a very marginal recommendation, not because it's derivative, but because this Fastball just doesn't seem to have much zip on it, and it's a little bit low and outside.