All the Pain Money Can Buy by Fastball

All the Pain Money Can Buy, Fastball's second album, hit stores on Hollywood Records on March 10, 1998. The Austin, Texas, band had started out as Magneto U.S.A. and only took the Fastball name after signing with the label, and here they sound like pure pop craftsmen in rock clothing: sharp, bright hooks, jangling guitars and a sly streak of melancholy under the bounce.

"The Way" was the breakout, climbing to number one on Billboard's Adult Alternative chart and earning a Grammy nomination, and "Fire Escape" and the woozy, late-night "Out of My Head" followed it out the door. The record went gold in June and platinum in September, hung around the Billboard 200 for a year, and remains the most successful thing Fastball ever released. The Austin Chronicle's awards named it 1998's Album of the Year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.