Track Listing

1. Someone To Love
2. 92 Subaru
3. Yolanda Hayes
4. Traffic And Weather
5. Fire In The Canyon
6. This Better Be Good
7. Revolving Dora
8. Michael And Heather At The Baggage Claim
9. Strapped For Cash
10. I95
11. Hotel Majestic
12. Plant Of Weed
13. New Routine
14. Seatback And Traytables

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29671 in Music
• Released on: 2007-05-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

AMERICAN POWER-POP WITH BITE
The 'Stacey's Mum' guys finally hit their stride with Traffic & Weather, releasing a record filled with intelligent Cheap-Trick like pop rockers and delicate ballads.
Yolanda Hayes, Someone To Love and 92 Subaru tackle unusual themes (waiting in line, nerd love and classic cars respectively) and turns them into pop gold. Fire In The Canyon is a lovely throwaway country strummer and Revolving Dora is a catchy Monkees/Beatles hybrid. Lyrically the songs veer from the bizarre to the sublime - Strapped For Cash is mirth inducing cartoon rock where as Micheal & Heather is a woozy harmony laden beauty.
The Fountains Of Wayne are still in-thrall to their hero's - Beatles, Squeeze and ELO - and with every record they just get better and better. The current kings of intelligent harmony driven American pop/rock.

cw

Best Album Since Debut
You have to give this album time. At first I was disappointed with it, but slowly it grows. Now I think there are more good songs than Interstate. My fave at the moment is I-95, it's beautiful.

I'm putting up a sign saying "Gone Fishing for Power Pop"
I'm a little biased, as I place people in three camps: those who love Fountains of Wayne, those who like Fountains of Wayne, and those who have not heard of Foutains of Wayne.

This is the fourth studio album, and follows the B side compilation album, Out Of State Plates, which is pretty good in that "B sides that are occasionally inspirational, occasionally weird" way.

The first instinct is that this is more of the same, which for me is a good thing. Fountains of Wayne take banal situations and turn them into love stories (e.g. Yolanda Hayes), as well as bringing an occasional smile to the listener with their ear for a tune and turn of phrase.

"Fire in the Canyon" seems to be the band's obligatory Country moment, and 92 Subaru is power pop of the sublime and ridiculous. Who has the idea of writing about a Late 92 Baby Blue Subaru?

The album is a good length, the songs are all less than 4 minutes long, there is no self indulgence here. Other reviews suggest there is a lack of identity behind this album, but that could be said of a lot of bands. This is uplifting power pop at its foot tapping best.