Wayne Hanson's Smashing Trick
3 Out Of 5 Stars
A most unlikely supergroup, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger asked pal pop singer Taylor Hanson (who'da thunk?) to team with him and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and then hauled in Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos to pound the skins. So you have a multi-generational and multi-stylistic team who cranked out a one shot (so far) album under the moniker "Tinted Windows." Not surprisingly, with Hanson's and Schlesinger's affinity for power-pop and Carlos used to backing the glammy rock of Cheap Trick, the album is a power-popper's dream.
What is so funny about this is just how teen-pop this sounds. Rack up Jonas Brothers' "B-B-Good To Me" with "Kind Of a Girl" and you'll be hard pressed to tell which cut is the Disney act. James Iha is all but a reformed jangle popper this time around, and the whammy he puts into "Messing With My Head" or "Nothing To Me" is going to make you wonder why he didn't ditch Billy Corgan years ago. It's also easy to tell Carlos is having a ball when he digs into "Can't Get a Read on You."
"Tinted Windows" is by no means a brilliant album, at best it will make Dwight Twilley, 20/20 or fans of The Knack get nostalgic for their skinny ties. Or fans of any of TW's respective members (and frankly, there were a couple moments where I found myself wondering what FoW's Chris Collingwood would have done with a few of these. However, for straight-up four-piece power-pop rock with no synths, the Tinted Windows' debut makes me hope for maybe another go-round.
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