Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne
Of the albums that I borrowed from my English teacher in middle school, this is probably the one that has imprinted on my psyche the hardest. I think I lent him Empros by Russian Circles in exchange for this one. Anyway, I bought it secondhand somewhere over the past few years after I had grown to truly love Fountains of Wayne as only someone who has seen the town of Wayne flood more times than he can count can.
For what was essentially a two-man studio project at this point, Fountains of Wayne do a remarkable job at pretending to be a real band. There's a lot of clean, polished guitar work, some scuzzy keyboards, drums and bass that recede into the background. The production emphasizes the guitars and vocals. Ask any Fountains of Wayne fan what they like about the band, and they're probably going to mention the lyrics. While not as zany as They Might Be Giants or King Missile, the lyrics are clever and funny in a casual way. The songs are relatable to grown-ups with office jobs; that's not a market most rock & roll bands chase. Chris Collingwood's plain, understated lead vocals and Adam Schlesinger's thin harmonies are nothing special for pop music, but they're perfect for these songs. When Fountains of Wayne want to go beyond guitar pop they can kick on the pedals and blast off into power pop wonderland. The combination of Big Muffs and pop rock stylings that date the record to a very particular time and place, but this album still sounds full and clean in 2026. They do a lot of cool stuff with (what I'm assuming to be) FilterFreak here, with the vowel overtones in the background of "Everything's Ruined" and tight wah-wah leads on "Survival Car" and "Please Don't Rock Me Tonight". I've been chasing the delay/feedback outro on "Joe Rey" for as long as I've been recording music.
Sure, Welcome Interstate Managers is probably the album, but I have so much sentimental attachment to Fountains of Wayne. As I've grown as a listener and as a New Jerseyan, this album shows more and more of itself. I've watched the PATH train platform fill with bums after midnight. I've had to curse out boys who curse at girls. I've been to parties where I wasn't in the mood, where I made the trendy guy mad and where the DJ wasn't humming. Even so, there's still things that I'm hearing for the first time - I only just clocked the blatant rip off of the guitar riff from Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper" in the outro of "I've Got A Flair".
This is one of a handful of albums to which I know every word, every harmony. There are no skippable songs. It's all good, all the way through, and often tips over into great. 36 minutes well spent every time.