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Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (long, rambling review) by Fullofkittens 08/09/2003, 10:25am PDT
Got the new FoW album (Welcome Interstate Managers) a few days ago.

WIM is a sort of loose concept album about your life, assuming that your life is like mine was a year ago. Specifically, all the songs are about what it's like to be an office slave while trying to stay rock, or maybe not so rock. If you're an office worker in NYC, it's exactly about your life, as songwriter extraordinaire Adam Schlesinger also includes even more than his customary number of NYC landmark references. One of the creepiest/greatest moments of my first listen to the record occurred during "Little Red Light," where he describes being stuck at the Tappan Zee and whistling because he has no radio - which was exactly what I was doing less than 12 hours before I heard the song. So, that's my bias towards the record.

If you're not familiar with Fountains of Wayne what do they sound like? Well, there was a solid 8 years there where Weezer didn't put out any records, and that left a gap that needed filled. They have the crunchy guitars and the twenty-something-but-cutesy lyrics, minus the creepy pedophilia and uncomfortable self-loathing that both made Weezer's Pinkerton sort of hard to take while giving it an unexpected depth. Fountains of Wayne, in general, is as catchy as Weezer but doesn't rock out as hard and doesn't have a dark edge. They're funner.

So, how's the new record? It starts off with "Mexican Wine," which is both FoW's BEST SONG SO FAR (truly, better than anything on their previous two records, in terms of complexity, catchiness, and production value - all just fantastic) and kicks off the career-related theme with its last verse, which nails the wistful but not-very-angsty tone of the record: "I used to fly for United Airlines/but I got fired, for reading High Times/my license expired in almost no time/now I'm retired." The 2nd song "Bright Future In Sales" is a good song they've been trying to write for years unsuccessfully - a bouncy fast song that doesn't die on the vine (like the just-okay "Survival Car" and the also-just-okay "Lost In Space"). It's good, but it does suffer from the Fountains of Wayne Guitar Solo Syndrome, in which they, as always, take it *down* several notches with a boring, poorly mixed and erroneously conceived guitar solo. Oh well. They're still pitching a no-hitter here.

Third song: "Stacy's Mom." Where "Mexican Wine" was the best song in their career, if you listen to the album in sequence, it is quickly deposed by "Stacy's Mom." Not only is this song the best FoW has EVER DONE, it's also better than anything on any Weezer record but the blue one. 10 seconds in, where the repeated couplet "Stacy's Mom/has got it goin' on" gets supported by some 808 handclaps, I was saying "Fuck yes... fuck yes..." By the end, where they're dropping wicked Rick Springfield styles and singing 3-part harmony "STACY'S MOM - AH-AHHHHHHHH-AH!" it was all I could do not to jump up from my bus seat and make a "Touchdown" sign with my arms. YES!

Fourth song "Hackensack" is a decent slow one about a friend that got famous and moved away. At this point, Welcome Interstate Managers is the best pop rock record since the blue album. It's better than Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend. I can't believe it.

Then the 5th song comes and they hit a brick wall. "No Better Place" is pretty crappy. Very depressing, considering the circumstances. There are some other good songs (standouts: "Valley Winter Song" is beautiful and employs a really innovative texture that's folky but with a lot of very modern flourishes like subtle sine-y synths; "Hey Julie" is as good as "Mexican Wine" in a different way), but the momentum never comes back. Shit. What starts out as one of the best records I own ends up being not even as good as their previous album Utopia Parkway. Oh well.

Worth getting for less than $10. Buy or steal "Stacy's Mom" immediately, you can't live without this song.

FoK
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Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (long, rambling review) by Fullofkittens 08/09/2003, 10:25am PDT NEW
    I'm sold - liked their first album, I'll pick this up. NT by Senor Barborito 08/09/2003, 10:31am PDT NEW
    Re: Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (long, rambling review) by Chairman Mao 08/09/2003, 12:55pm PDT NEW
        It would be, if they'd kept their streak going. But they didn't. NT by Fullofkittens 08/09/2003, 12:57pm PDT NEW
    Stacy's mom: Anti-MILF by Entropy Stew 08/09/2003, 11:04pm PDT NEW
        !!! by Fullofkittens 08/10/2003, 12:47am PDT NEW
            No, he's right, sorry you lose. NT by Choson 08/10/2003, 2:44am PDT NEW
                Argh! NT by Fullofkittens 08/10/2003, 6:20am PDT NEW
        I Know it Might Be Wrong, but I'm in Love with Stacy's Mom. by creativepig 08/10/2003, 4:40pm PDT NEW
            You are also wrong. NT by Choson 08/10/2003, 9:03pm PDT NEW
                We have a serious gap in taste here by Entropy Stew 08/10/2003, 10:41pm PDT NEW
                    At least we can all agree on The Doors and Pink Floyd. Right? by Fullofkittens 08/11/2003, 1:06am PDT NEW
                        Actually we can all agree on the stuff you're making. NT by Senor Barborito 08/11/2003, 6:14am PDT NEW
                        Don't like the Doors or Floyd? Wow, you are quite the intellectual. by Mr. Cranky 08/11/2003, 6:42am PDT NEW
                            Is there some kind of rule that those bands are for retards? NT by Fullofkittens 08/11/2003, 9:28am PDT NEW
                                Weak. NT by Mr. Cranky 08/11/2003, 10:17am PDT NEW
                        Re: At least we can all agree on The Doors and Pink Floyd. Right? by mrs. johnson 08/20/2003, 9:20pm PDT NEW
                            Style point when writing by Senor Barborito 08/20/2003, 9:59pm PDT NEW
                                The contradiction was on purpose... NT by mrs. johnson 08/21/2003, 1:51am PDT NEW
                                    Clarification accepted - I do that myself if I think it will upset people. NT by Senor Barborito 08/21/2003, 1:59am PDT NEW
                                Way to nitpick the best sentence he's written in a month NT by Entropy Stew 08/21/2003, 7:06am PDT NEW
    Re: Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (long, rambling review) by Ice Cream Jonsey 08/11/2003, 1:22pm PDT NEW
        Re: Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (long, rambling review) by FoK 08/11/2003, 1:44pm PDT NEW
    Now this is a novelty. by Lizard_King 08/20/2003, 8:45pm PDT NEW
        DIE. PLEASE. NT by Your secret identitty 08/20/2003, 9:09pm PDT NEW
 
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