Utopia Parkway Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne Album Reviews

Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood met at Williams College in Massachusetts. They formed Fountains of Wayne, christening themselves after a garden furniture and statuary store in Wayne, New Jersey. Although the pair recorded their debut largely independently, they were joined on tour and on subsequent albums by guitarist Jody Porter and Posies’ drummer Brian Young.

If the quality of pop music could be measured by the number of memorable choruses and hooks, there’s a case for Fountains Of Wayne being the greatest pop band since the 1960s British invasion. Their first two albums are fun power-pop with memorable tunes, but the deeper you journey into their discography the less convincing it becomes.

Fountains of Wayne’s lyrics lack any form of personal conviction or empathy, instead serving up irony-laced stories of office workers and suburbanites, like ‘Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim’. Schlesinger and Collingwood are intelligent operators, but their detached brand of pop, dealing in the mundane, can ultimately feel hollow, especially on their weaker albums.

Fountains of Wayne made five studio albums, starting with 1996’s Fountains of Wayne, as well as the b-sides and outtakes collection Out-of-State Plates. Adam Schlesinger passed away from Covid-19 complications in April 2020, effectively ending any chance of a reunion.

Fountains of Wayne Album Reviews

Fountains of Wayne | Utopia Parkway | Welcome Interstate Managers | Out-of-State Plates | Traffic and Weather | Sky Full of Holes

Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne debut

1996, 7.5/10
Fountains of Wayne’s debut album is their most stylistically homogeneous record, which is generally a good thing as this band’s often strongest at straight-up power-pop. The band’s formula of marrying abrasive guitars to bright pop melodies is effective. Fountains of Wayne was recorded by Schlesinger and Collingwood as the only official group members, with Danny Weinkauf, who’d later join They Might Be Giants, guesting on bass.

Only the slowed down, reverb-heavy closer ‘Everything’s Ruined’ deviates from the formula, although stand-out track ‘Sick Day’ throws in jazzy keyboard breaks and acoustic guitars. And there are plenty of enjoyable riff rockers like the dorky ‘Leave The Biker’ (“I wonder if he ever has cried/Because his kitten got run over and died”), ‘Sink To The Bottom’, and ‘Radiation Vibe’.

Occasionally Fountains of Wayne verges on banality, like ‘Please Don’t Rock Me Tonight’, but it’s mostly fun; soulless and disposable, yet without compromising on intelligence or pop-craft.


Utopia Parkway

Utopia Parkway Fountains of Wayne

1999, 8/10
For their sophomore effort, Fountains of Wayne trade the straight up power pop of their debut for a wider lens; while there are still plenty of guitar rockers like ‘Denise’ and ‘Lost In Space’, they also veer across the pop map, from the string soaked balladry of ‘Prom Theme’ to the psychedelic ‘Go, Hippie’. This confidence results in a stronger album than their debut, as it has a core of excellent songs that are superior to the best songs from the preceding album. But countering this, there are a few too many songs that simply don’t work; the goofy ‘Hat And Feet’, the sappy ‘Prom Theme’ and irritating ‘Laser Show’ all highlight the group’s inherent goofiness.

Take away the three missteps above though, and there’s an excellent twelve-song album here. ‘Troubled Times’ is a glorious piece of acoustic-driven power pop, sounding more heartfelt than almost anything else in the band’s catalogue (“Maybe one day soon it will all come out/How you dream about each other sometimes”), and incorporating a soaring chorus, a beautifully constructed middle eight, and a monster bass hit in the pre-chorus. While songs like ‘Denise’ and ‘I Know You Well’ are elegant in their simplicity, some of these tracks are much more intricate; the verse of ‘Amity Gardens’ is disarmingly melodically and rhythmically complex, while ‘Go, Hippie’ launches into a heavy guitar attack and impressive solo. Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith guests on backing vocals on the pretty ‘Fine Day For A Parade’.

Utopia Parkway needs pruning, but it still stands as Fountains of Wayne’s best album. After Utopia Parkway failed to break them as a major commercial act, they took a break. Schlesinger rejoined his previous band Ivy and Collingwood formed country-rock band Gay Potatoes, before reconvening for 2003’s Welcome Interstate Managers.


Welcome Interstate Managers

Welcome Interstate Managers Fountains of Wayne

2003, 7/10
Welcome Interstate Managers featured the hit ‘Stacy’s Mom’, which amusingly garnered a best new artist Grammy nomination for a band who’d previously released two major-label albums. Despite the extra attention that Welcome Interstate Managers received, it’s a little weaker than their previous albums. It’s too long, and the artifice that’s always been a niggling feature of this band is too clearly showing over the album’s sixteen tracks

Welcome Interstate Managers is front-loaded – the opener ‘Mexican Wine’ is the strongest song with its arrangement that leaves out the rhythm section until the second verse. The tantalising keyboard riff that leaves the listener dangling before the second verse is a piece of arranging brilliance. The hit ‘Stacy’s Mom’ is hooky and overtly poppy, and it’s probably the song that Fountains of Wayne will be remembered for, for better or worse, while there’s more memorable power-pop with ‘No Better Place’. Pretty songs like ‘Halley’s Waitress’ and ‘All Kinds of Time’ helps to make the later parts of the album enjoyable, but all the best songs are near the start.

More than ever for Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers is pushing into guilty pleasure territory – there are good tunes, but it’s too insincere to love whole-heartedly.


Out-of-State Plates

2006, not rated
A double CD compilation of outtakes and b-sides. Thirty tracks seems like overkill, but covers of Aztec Camera and Jackson Browne are interesting.


Traffic and Weather

2007, 6/10
Fountains of Wayne took four years to release a follow-up to ‘Stacy’s Mom’. The group originally tried to develop the songs out of jam sessions, to get Porter and Young more involved, but only ‘Strapped For Cash’ was used for the record. Collingwood was struggling with personal issues, so most of Traffic and Weather was written by Schlesinger. As the title implies, the record’s more prepossessed with mundane issues than ever, and dorky lyrics like ‘Planet of Weed’ and ‘Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim’ are to the record’s detriment.

Traffic and Weather was the weakest Fountains of Wayne album to date, but there’s at least one great song. ‘Yolanda Hayes’ tells the tale of a dissatisfied DMV employee and has a great verse melody and trumpet despite the generic “who do you love?” chorus. ‘Strapped for Cash’ is reminiscent of the first album’s ‘Sick Day’, with its jazzy keyboards, while ‘Someone To Love’ is an enjoyably propulsive opener.

More than ever before Fountains of Wayne’s shtick is formulaic on Traffic and Weather, but there are strong songs to dig out if you’re a fan.


Sky Full of Holes

2011, 5.5/10
Because Collingwood was struggling with personal issues, Schlesinger took control of Traffic and Weather. With Collingwood able to contribute as an equal partner again on Sky Full of Holes the change in dynamic caused tension in the pair’s relationship; Fountains of Wayne split after this record. Leading into the recording, the group performed acoustic tours. Accordingly, Sky Full of Holes features more stripped-back arrangements than previous Fountains of Wayne records, heading toward country at times. It’s not necessarily a strength – on ‘Hate To See You Like This’, a solid power-pop song is slowed down into a monotonous country dirge.

The record’s generally better when they increase the energy level, as on ‘Radio Bar’. There’s a nice stretch in the middle with ‘A Dip in the Ocean’ and ‘Cold Comfort Flowers’, while the opener ‘The Summer Place’ is also strong. The one sedate country song that works is ‘Cemetery Guns’ – “Cemetery Guns go bang bang bang/Shooting all the sky full of holes” is a great line. The deluxe version also includes an excellent cover of The Moody Blues’ ‘Story in Your Eyes’.

Sky Full of Holes isn’t an ideal swansong for Fountains of Wayne – the success of ‘Stacy’s Mom’ arguably derailed their career, transforming them from a talented power-pop band into gimmicky one-hit-wonders.

Ten Best Fountains of Wayne Songs

Troubled Times
Sick Day
Mexican Wine
Yolanda Hayes
Denise
Fine Day for a Parade
Amity Gardens
Radiation Vibe
Stacy’s Mom
Go, Hippie

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7 Comments

  1. Great overview. Probably not surprising that I loved Fountains of Wayne when they were around – when they were on they could write close to perfect power pop gems. And I liked how they could take everyday / ho hum things and craft them into such tight melody structures – little vignettes of daily life, sometimes pretty poignant. I agree that over time it got a bit tired though. Some of my favorites that I didn’t see on your list are Bright Future in Sales, Hey Julie, and my all time favorite – Red Dragon Tatoo – the lyrics kill me.
    Now will you stop pretending I’ve never been born
    Now I look a little more like that guy from KorN
    🙂

    • Did you ever check in on their last record – I experienced diminishing returns after Utopia Parkway so never checked in on the last one.

      I like Bright Future in Sales especially – it’s a great one-two punch with Mexican Wine, although I kind of wish they’d spread those songs out a little more, and trimmed some. It’s kind of long and front-loaded.

      • No never did – wasn’t aware they did anything past Traffic And Weather. Will check it out. Agree that things went downhill over time.

      • Ok went and listened to Sky full of holes, their last one. So heres the thing – what made FoW great was their ability to take everything vignettes and turn them into clever catchy power pop perfection. Trying to impress a girl by getting a tatoo, skipping work, being hung over at work, wishing that pretty girl in the bar would dump her loser boyfriend, trying to find love in a new town, even thinking her high school friend’s Mom is hot. But on this last album, its been reduced to basically random descriptions of everyday life with really no point, set to melodies that sound fondly familiar but don’t quite reach that old level. The well was definitely running dry – in fact on several songs instead of lyrics its just yeah yeah yeahs and humming. I was listening on Spotify and most telling was when all of a sudden I heard a song that was really good – I was like ok here’s one – only to realize that the album had ended and Spotify had moved on to a random song from an earlier album.

  2. Great band. One of many I’ve somehow overlooked posting on. Looks like we are more in agreement than dis, so here are my scores. On any given day, the first two could be reversed.
    F of W – 8.5
    Utopia Parkway – 8
    Welcome Interstate – 7.5
    Traffic and Weather – 7
    Sky – 6.5
    Out-of-State – 7 (some of the b-sides are fabulous)

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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.

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