Product Description

Following a four-year hiatus that found Fountains of Wayne going from Atlantic Records to S-Curve Records, New Jersey'sfavourite power-pop outfit delivers WELCOME INTERSTATE MANAGERS, the band's third opus. FOW does an excellent job of capturing the suburban zeitgeist that dates back to the band'sname (derived from a Garden State backyard fixtures emporium) and carrying on from 1999's excellent UTOPIA PARKWAY.
Wielding boatloads of hooks and harmonies, Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood delight with songs about high school sweethearts (the melancholy "Hackensack"), a good woman's love in the face of a crap job (a sweet, semi-acoustic "Hey Julie"), and exploding cell phones (an anthemic "Mexican Wine"). With its handclaps, rad harmonies and perky synths, the irresistible "Stacy's Mom" fantasises about a best friend's mom, and seems tailor-made for any future American Pie sequels. Other pop manna includes the Beatlesque "Fire Island", thecountry-fried "Hung Up On You" (featuring guest lap steel player Robert Randolph), and the Brit-pop psychedelia of "No Better Place". WELCOME INTERSTATE MANAGERS easily notches a place on any Best of 2003 list.

Track Listing

1. Mexican Wine
2. Bright Future In Sales
3. Stacy's Mom
4. Hackensack
5. No Better Place
6. Valley Winter Song
7. All Kinds Of Time
8. Little Red Light
9. Hey Julie
10. Halley's Waitress
11. Hung Up On You
12. Fire Island
13. Peace And Love
14. Bought For A Song
15. Supercollider
16. Yours And Mine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18581 in Music
• Released on: 2003-09-15
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Be ready for variety
A lot of people talk about FOW's power pop/rock and for sure a number of tracks here fall into that category and they are fantastic. But what strikes me about this CD is how much variety there is on it. If all you want is power pop/rock you'll be disappointed, if you want power pop/rock, country, slow or medium paced ballads, striking melodies, rhythms, arrangements and not a dud track in sight, then this is for you !

Every one a winner
It's very rare for me to find an album that I want to listen to all the way through without feeling the need to skip a track or two. Radiohead's 'The Bends' is one such album, and 'Welcome Interstate Managers' by the excellent Fountains of Wayne is another.

Like many, I guess, I came across FoW through 'Stacey's Mom' which is a brilliantly catchy tune. I then heard them on Simon Mayo's Album Chart Show on R2 which whet my appetite for more.

This album has so many cool facets. It's funny, incisive and well observed, musically interesting and varied, and very well played.

'Hey Julie' is my personal favourite, but every other track is a gem in its own right.

In summary, if you like well written, well performed guitar based music, you can't go far wrong with this album.

Smile Inducing Songs
Radio can be strange sometimes, it will promote a huge hit single that will catapult this relatively unknown band into stardom in the UK, then suddenly thats it, this unknown band once again disappears into the shadows. This was very true for The Bloodhound Gang after The Bad Touch got them global recognition they faded away from the light and now Hefty Fine is barely getting any attention.

Fountains of Wayne are practically in the same league here, since Stacy's Mom became a popular song, and its not suprising really since it is one of the best songs to come out during the summer time. I managed to hear Hey Julie quite a few times on my local radio, which prompted me to buy the album. Was it worth it or was it not?

Well to quote Jaret from Bowling for Soup 'If these songs don't bring a smile to your face then your obviously in some sorta coma'. These songs have got to be some of the most uplifting tunes to be on a record, even their song about an american football moment 'All Kinds of Time' is strangely beautiful. It is very hard to categorise Fountains of Wayne, since you have the pop tinged tunes of Mexican Wine and Stacy's Mom, then there's the sped-up punkish tunes of Little Red Light and Bright Future in Sales, THEN there's the ballads like Hailley's Waitress and Valley Winter Song.

I think my personal favourite will always be Hey Julie, never has there been a song that is so simple in its playing and lyrical content,but yet as remarkably uplifting in my mind.

This is definately a record that will brighten up anybodys day
:-) Buy it now and turn that frown upside down.