My Amazon Reviews: Fountains of Wayne "Utopia Parkway"

Head Out On The Highway
3 Out Of 5 Stars

I'm one of the fans of Fountains of Wayne that grew into the band backwards, tricked into loving them by the fact that "Stacy's Mom" was such a ridiculous earworm that I had to have "Welcome Interstate Managers." Then I went to "Traffic and Weather," which I loved just about as much. Then it was time to go to the beginning and get albums one and two. Adam Schlesinger, Chris Collingwood and company have what almost every power pop wannanbe band in the world aspires to, and that is an uncanny ability to craft songs that sound recognizable on the first listen, even if you think it was by somebody else originally.

So why only three stars for "Utopia Parkway?" Well, despite the fact that the debut was classic almost from the first note, here FoW fall victim to the dreaded sophomore slump. You know the one where you have all your life to write the first album and 8 months to come up with the second? That's what "Utopia Parkway" sounds like to me. The influences are just a bit too obvious, the jokes a little too insider, and the songs just short of flawless. They still had more hooks that the proverbial tackle box, but there are themes on "Parkway" that they'd perfect in later albums. "Denise" sounds like it was the blueprint for "Traffic and Weather's" "Someone to Love," and "The Senator's Daughter" a warm-up for "Hackensack."

The band's penchant for checking off ironic references also doesn't make it past the obvious, like mentioning 38 Special in "Red Dragon Tattoo" or a certain contempt for the denizens of "The Valley Of Malls" (even with the killer guitar lick). I think this was the only time I listened to a Fountains Of Wayne album where I didn't instantly fall in love with everything there. Be that as it may, These guys love their pop conventions more than they sneer at them, which makes even the lesser of their records treats for power pop geeks like me. Even the mellow pop groove of "Sky Full Of Holes" 12 years later confirmed at just how brilliant Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood can be even when they coast. ("Sky Full Of Holes" was one of my favorite albums for 2011, I should add.) "Utopia Parkway" was just a minor pothole in a career that has seen more than its share of genius moments.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Fountains Of Wayne "Traffic And Weather"

More Songs about Cars and Girls. And Meteorology
4 Out Of 5 Stars


Fountains of Wayne's Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are big fans of flipping the big box of Pop Conventions and seeing what tumbles out, and with "Traffic And Weather," they go for those two big standards of pop-tunery, Cars and Girls. You'll find a prominent vehicle or woman in every one of these songs but one (and it happens to be the album's worst), often to great, humorous affect. Be it Seth and Beth is the punchy opener "Someone To Love" or the set of displaced goofballs playing a game of town-to-town hopscotch on "New Routine," it's all about the people and the motion.

If you're willing to extend the metaphor a bit and allow yourself to change "cars" for any form of transport, then the theme still applies. The wistful final song "Seatbacks and Traytables" is about the traveling musician losing track of where he is as the road wears on. While we're at it, there's the weather of the album's title. Just about every song here has some kind of storming moment, like the bucketing rain in "Hotel Majestic" or the country-pop of "Fire in The Canyon's" the rain on the plains. It's the title song itself that works absolutely the best, as the News Anchor finally caves in to his desire for his Co-Anchor and makes his move to a slinky funk track.

However, this is the first FoW album I've bothered skipping tacks on. "Michael and Heather At The Baggage Claim" is too forced of a song to hold up to repeated listening. It sounds like a throwaway from a band that has never done one before. Then there's the "Planet Of Weed." If you're writing a song that sounds like a couple of freshman stoners wrote if after partying too hard, there's a good chance you should leave it off your album. But there it sits, stinking up the CD like week old bong water. It sounds even worse when you compare it to the brilliant "New Routine" that comes right after, which opens with a rhyme of diner to Carl Reiner. Or the line in "I-95" about the fading radio station that now sounds like "a kick-drum filled with static."

That's why I'm willing to forgive "Traffic and Weather" its lone super-dud. Even more so because lazy-radio corporation bean counters couldn't risk giving "Stacy's Mom" the worthy chart follow-up of the title song or "Someone To Love." Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger waited another four years to let out the excellent "Sky Full Of Holes," which pulled back a bit but is just as delightful, and has their most emotional song ever on it, "Cemetery Guns." As an FoW fan, I recommend both.