Why, oh why is genius so often ignored in its prime? Too often, scientists from centuries past were ignored until years after their deaths. Countless writers and painters have lived and died in poverty, only to be vindicated by the adoration of later generations. Music can sometimes be the same way, too. Every year I discover bands that sound fantastic and memorable, only to learn that they've long since stopped recording and broken up. It's nice to have what they left us, but I can't help feeling that if I had followed the band in their prime, I might have been able to latch on to a little more of the spontaneous excitement.

Don't let another great band slip through your grasp while they're at the top of their game. Since the mid-nineties, New Jersey based Fountains of Wayne have been perfecting the craft of power-pop music. Their songs are three-minute slices of jangly guitar hooks with smart, witty lyrics and rabid harmonies. Their first two albums, Fountains of Wayne and Utopia Parkway were both critical favorites, scoring high marks amongst those who know music pretty well and amassing a small, but fiercely loyal cult following for the band. The masses never caught on to the vibe, though. Even though both of these albums features some of the catchiest singles in their respective years of release, they could never get the mass respect they richly deserve. After the tepid sales of Utopia Parkway, Atlantic records dropped them, and it seemed as if they would simply become another band destined for their deserved fame only after they had broken up.

Fortunately for us, though, Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger, the core members of the group, refused to accept defeat or compromise their principles, and kept on making the kind of music they themselves enjoy, the listening public be damned. Fortunately for those of us who have heard Fountains of Wayne's earlier albums, S-Curve records heard the new songs that Collingwood and Schlesinger were working on, and they realized how much potential still existed. Now, four years after Fountains of Wayne's previous album, we've finally got their new album, Welcome Interstate Managers.

Fans of their previous album (which is, more or less, everyone who has heard either of them) will recognize many of the musical elements. Of course, the overall feel of the album is one strong, solid pop driven by heavy power chords, cheery harmonies, and hand-clapping rhythm lines. The subject matter of the songs deals primarily with the mundanities of everyday life, telling simple stores that everyone can relate to. Likewise, the cultural references lay these songs squarely in the New York/New Jersey area of the country. Clearly, though, Collingwood, Schlesinger, and company are trying to grow, and have branched out a bit musically on this album, as we can tell from the first three songs (which happen to be among the strongest of the album's offerings)>

We open with Mexican Wine, a song that mixes pop sensibilities with a psychedelic flavoring in both the lyrics and instrumentation. Consider the opening verse for a moment:

He was killed by a cellular phone explosion
They scattered his ashes across the ocean
The water was used to make baby lotion
The wheels of promotion were set into motion

Sure, it's a bit goofy sounding, but the whole song has a twisted sense of internal logic where the rhymes are at least as important, if not more so, than the logic of the song. Behind these surreal lyrics, we've dense layers of fuzzy guitar, harpsichord-like keyboards, and mellow trumpet solos. Mexican Wine owes as much to the Beach Boys and the Beatles as it does to the Raspberries and Big Starr.

Next we've got Bright Future in Sales, in which the band toys with straight-ahead rock rather than lighthearted pop. The hooks are fast and heavy, and the lyrics pull off the difficult task of sounding fun and energetic on the surface, while oozing a darker, more sinister subtext. The result is an anthem of self-destruction and self-delusion set in the wasteland of the post-college workforce. Just look at the how many layers these lyrics work on:

Sleeping on a planter at the Port Authority
Waiting for my bus to come
Seven scotch-and-sodas at the office party
Now I don't remember where I'm from
...
I'm gonna get my shit together
Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too far and I don?t want to fail
I got a new computer and a bright future in sales

With the next track, Stacy's Mom, we finally get some pure, unadulterated power-pop like we heard all over Fountains of Wayne's first two albums. Even though Collingwood and Schlesinger are now well into their thirties, they can still capture the awkward confusing emotions of the teenage years like they're channeling the spirit of an old John Hughes movie from the eighties. Over a background of tight guitar licks, pop keyboards, and hand claps, Collingwood sings about unrequited love with one of the neighborhood divorcees, with lyrics like:

Stacy can I come over after school?
We can hang around by the pool
Did your mom get back from her business trip?
Is she there, or is she trying to give me the slip?
You know I'm not the little boy that I used to be
I'm all grown up now, baby can't you see?
...
Stacy's mom has got it going on
She's all I want and I've waited so long
Stacy can't you see, you're just not the girl for me
I know it might be wrong, but I'm in love with Stacy's Mom

The feeling is blissfully ignorant and a little pathetic, but infinitely hopeful in a way that anyone who has been a teenage boy can surely relate to.

This mixture of styles, all rooted in pop to one degree or another, keeps weaving it's way through the rest of the album. We get more psychedelia with Supercollider, more rock with Little Red Light, and more power-pop with the bouncy Peace and Love and the guitar-heavy No Better Place. They even branch out to a strong country song of love and loss with Hung Up On You, full of steel guitar and chunky bass lines.

Overall, the album is bright and upbeat, but there are few pensive moments of reflection and regret. Hackensack, with its soft minor chords structures, deals with the sadness of being the last person left in your hometown once everyone else has moved away to make something of their lives. The largely acoustic Valley Winter Song captures the reflective thoughts and emotions of a New England winter, and All Kinds of Time (featuring James Iha on guitar) reflects on the limitless possibilities of life that can reveal themselves to us in the strangest moments, as Collingwood sings about the thoughts in the head of a football quarterback in the split-second before making a throw.

Much of the album is straightforward, but we do hear a few moments so wry and sublime, that nothing can stop us from smiling. Consider these lyrics:

It's been so long, so long
Darling don't you know
We miss you when you're gone so long, so long
Darling don't you know
We miss you when you're gone, ahh?

Sure, these lyrics, coupled with the laid back, light funk groove of the music, make this seem like the kind of cheesy love song that might have played on the AM airwaves back in the seventies. But when we consider the title (Halley's Waitress) and listen to the verses, the subject matter of a waitress who won't come back to refill the coffee springs out at us, proving that Collingwood and Schlesinger can be clever enough to take even the most mundane subjects and make them catchy and clever.

All things said, the track list runs as follows:

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

Perhaps Welcome Interstate Managers will be the breakthrough album for Fountains of Wayne, earning them widespread attention, exposure, and acclaim. It certainly deserves to do so. But them again, their previous albums should already have done so. The next few months will show if the album is destined to make them the stars they deserve to be, or if it will simply be another great album but overlooked that listeners will finally discover years from now, after its too late and the members of the band have hung up their guitars and gone their separate ways. Regardless of the album's outcome, I get the impression that for the foreseeable future, Collingwood and Schlesinger will continue to make the kind of music they enjoy, regardless of how the public at large receives their efforts. That'll be good enough for me.



(Incidentally, Fountains of Wayne are starting their summer tour in the beginning of July. Having seen them at Chicago's Double Door last fall when they previewed some of the songs for Welcome Interstate Managers, I can say without a doubt that they put on a fantastic show. If they play anywhere near you, go see them. They'll surely win you over.)

Recommended: Yes