Fountains Of Wayne became America's prime Brit-poppers at the turn of the century. Assembled by
New York via Boston singer and guitarist Chris Collington and by
producer and multi-instrumentalist Adam Schlesinger (who plays in
Ivy and
wrote the hit song THat Thing You Do for the eponymous movie),
the project yielded a classic of Sixties pop revival,
Fountains Of Wayne (Atlantic, 1996).
Except for two melodic gags a` la
They Might Be Giants
(Leave The Biker, Please Don't Rock Me Tonight),
the songwriting duo is terribly serious in its
re-examination of the melodic tradition, running the gamut from
surf music at Ramones pace
(Survival Car),
Cheap Trick's sugary power-pop (I've Got A Flair),
and especially latter-day Beach Boys (the hit Radiation Vibe).
Far from boring the listener with predictable refrains, the duo
shows enough eclectism to alternate
daydreaming ballads (Everything's Ruined) and
catchy, effervescent ditties (She's Got A Problem).
The stories are not very important, but sometimes they too mark a revival
of sort, a revival of ordinary life in small-town America:
Sick Day (the standout) sounds like the Hollies (gorgeous harmonies) covering
Freedy Johnston (plaintive realism).
After a three-year hiatus, Utopia Parkway (Atlantic, 1999) repeated
the same show:
Valley Of Malls is the The Might Be Giants-esque satire du jour,
Hat and Feet is the Freedy Johnston-ian ode du jour,
Denise is the Ramones-ish lullaby, etc.
What changed is an arrangement a bit heavier on the keyboards and the
orchestra, that sometimes echoes the Cars' synth-driven bubblegum
(Red Dragon Tattoo) and sometimes mimicks ELO's grandeur of
piano and strings (Prom Theme, perhaps the standout).
Welcome Interstate Managers (S-curve, 2003) is still classy pop music,
although the least inventive one could do in 2003.
From the stereotyped Mexican Wine to the synth-laden Cars-ian singalong Stacey's Mom (the hit), this is a show of state-of-the-art pop muzak, best when
enhanced with sugary harmonies that evoke the naive sounds of Buddy Holly,
Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel (Halley's Waitress, Hackensack, Valley Winter Song, Hey Julie).
The bouncy, mild rockers Bright Future in Sales and Little Red Light add a bit of pepper to the proceedings.
They rank among the most diligent purveyors of the pop chorus, but not much else
is to be found on their albums.
Out-Of-State Plates is a 28-track, two-disc compilation of rarities and unreleased tracks.
Traffic And Weather (Virgin, 2007), whose unifying theme seems to be
existential boredom and therefore signals a transition towards adulthood,
features at least one song worthy of
Stacey's Mom and Radiation Vibe: Someone to Love.
But the whole project is irrelevant as possible, and it's beginning to show.
The Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist James Iha, Fountains Of Wayne's bassist Adam Schlesinger, Cheap Trick's drummer Bun Carlos, the Hanson brothers' vocalist Taylor Hanson formed the supergroup Tinted Windows that debuted with the mediocre power-pop of Tinted Windows (S-Curve, 2009).
Fountains of Wayne's
Sky Full of Holes (2011) went largely unnoticed but it was actually
not much worse than the previous ones. Actually,
Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger proved to be thoughtful if humorous
songwriters
(Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart, Hate to See You Like This)
while still capable of happy radio-friendly refrains
(The Summer Place, Dip in the Ocean).
Adam Schlesinger died in 2020 at 52.
