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| |  | |  |  | | After a four-year hiatus notable for some film and television soundtrack work, a lapsed contract, and a relaxed songwriting schedule Fountains of Wayne return with their third and best CD to date. The New York-based power-pop quartet delivers a diverse feast of infectious melodies and endlessly clever lyrics. Songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood still slide on a sweet scale between the Beatles and the Monkees, but they've branched out from '60s sounds to include bona fide alt rock ("Little Red Light," "Bought for a Song"), orchestrated pop ("Halley's Waitress"), a country lark worthy of Dwight Yoakam ("Hung Up On You"), and hints of psychedelia ("Supercollider"). The Cars-flavored "Bright Future in Sales" and "Stacy's Mom" warrant heavy-rotation airplay. Following their acclaimed eponymous debut and the vastly underrated Utopia Parkway, Welcome Interstate Managers leaves no doubt that Fountains of Wayne are gaining strength. --Jeff Shannon | | | | |
| | | | | Disc 1
- Mexican Wine
- Bright Future In Sales
- Stacy's Mom
- Hackensack
- No Better Place
- Valley Winter Song
- All Kinds Of Time
- Little Red Light
- Hey Julie
- Halley's Waitress
- Hung Up On You
- Fire Island
- Peace And Love
- Bought For A Song
- Supercollider
- Yours And Mine
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| | | | | | Without adoubt,one of my top ten albums of all time! |  |
Fountains of Wayne(or FOW if your in the know!)are an all around fantastic band in my opinion.In 2003 when this cd first came out,i remember picking it up in Tallahassee while i was visiting a friend.needless to say this was the soundtrack for the weekend,if not for the next several months straight.a great album to just sit back and relax to.'Hackensack'maybe one of my all time favorite songs...Ever!
| Has a surprise around every corner, and I love it! | |
Fountains of Wayne burst on the scene in the mid-1990s, and have been producing that great Power-Pop sound ever since. Featuring great guitar work, and nice excellent vocals, the band has a great sound that keeps you coming back for more.
I must admit, though, that I don't entirely know what to make of this album. The songs are all great to listen to, but when you get familiar with the words, you start scratching your head. Halley's Waitress is a lovely song that turns out to be about a waitress who keeps disappearing. Fire Island sounds so good, until you realize it's about teenagers throwing a (literally) smashing party while their parents are out of town. Stacy's Mom is an upbeat toe-tapper that turns out to be about a young man's crush on his girlfriend's mother. And I could go on.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't ruin the songs, quite the opposite. This is a very silly album that has a surprise around every corner, and I love it! This really is a fun album, one that I enjoy listening to over and over again. Three cheers for Fountains of Wayne!
| Pleasurable Listening | |
It seems that every holiday season, I hear one or two jingles on the TV
commercials that are so beautiful that I pursue their source on the
internet. Last year it was the Mattel commercial song "Have Fun", and
this year it was the song accompanying a catalog for gifts, "Valley
Winter Song, by Fountains of Wayne. They are a soft rock group with
songs having harmony and pretty melodies. For those not full of teen
or early 20's anger, this is very pleasant listening.
| One song takes me back a few decades... |  |
...to a time when you didn't have to be "edgy" (which is to say "punk wannabes") to get signed. As I write this, "Valley Winter Song" is being used on L.L. Bean's Holiday TV ad. On strength of the 30 lousy seconds heard in that ad, I ran a Yahoo search for the title based on the lyrics of that clip, came over here and downloaded the track. It reminds me of a cross between Simon & Garfunkel's "Flowers Never Bend In the Rainfall" and the work of a group nobody talks about these days: The Cyrkle (remember "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn Down Day?). I hadn't thought about that band for ages and I used to play those two songs in garage bands. I keep hearing the phrase "power pop" in other reviews and I've been more and more suspicious of labels every day. Particularly since I first heard that term applied to Foreigner and Journey. Plus suggestions that the entire content of this group's albums isn't necessarily consistent with the "Winter" song. So what have we got here--an S&G/ Cyrkle of the 21st Century? That will be a refreshing change, given how we're inundated by gangsta rap pounding from nearby cars in traffic.
| "He was killed in a cellular phone explosion" | |
When I heard these words, the first of the first song, I was completely hooked.
It's a great album, full of 1960's-sounding music, but with themes from the 1990's and 2000's. Every song's a winner, with lyrics that stick in your mind.
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