Welcome Interstate Managers

Fountains Of Wayne

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 10, 2003)
• Original Release Date: June 10, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B00009QGF2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (224 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,688 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Rock > Power Pop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
After a four-year hiatus notable for some film and television soundtrack work, a lapsed contract, and a relaxed songwriting schedule Fountains of Wayne return with their third and best CD to date. The New York-based power-pop quartet delivers a diverse feast of infectious melodies and endlessly clever lyrics. Songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood still slide on a sweet scale between the Beatles and the Monkees, but they've branched out from '60s sounds to include bona fide alt rock ("Little Red Light," "Bought for a Song"), orchestrated pop ("Halley's Waitress"), a country lark worthy of Dwight Yoakam ("Hung Up On You"), and hints of psychedelia ("Supercollider"). The Cars-flavored "Bright Future in Sales" and "Stacy's Mom" warrant heavy-rotation airplay. Following their acclaimed eponymous debut and the vastly underrated Utopia Parkway, Welcome Interstate Managers leaves no doubt that Fountains of Wayne are gaining strength. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Year's Best, June 10, 2003

By	CCRCAR (Austin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

Power pop has long taken a backseat to other genres and that's a real shame, especially when you consider that Fountains of Wayne is one of the best in the business. "Welcome Interstate Managers," the eastern coast quartet's third album, is easily one of the year's top albums.

The disc is full of sparkling, tuneful gems that just don't seem to stop. Stand-outs include the CD's impossibly catchy first three songs, "Mexican Wine," "Bright Future in Sales," and the first single, "Stacy's Mom," which deserves to be a #1 hit. The Fountains also shine on softer ballads like "Valley Winter Song," and "Hackensack." Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood might well be this decade's Difford and Tilbrook; Collingwood has some of the sweetest vocals this side of Chris Stamey.

Although the band is less successful on songs like "All Kinds of Time," and "Peace and Love," they don't distract from the disc's overall quality. I thought their last release, "Utopia Parkway," was one of the best cds of the last 10 years...what a shame it didn't get the attention it deserved. Here's hoping the band gets more notice on this one... buy it, you won't be sorry...and you'll probably end up buying their other two albums as well. They're really that good.

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Wait, June 11, 2003

By	Steve Neuman (St. Cloud, MN United States) - See all my reviews

It's been four years since Fountains of Wayne graced us with Utopia Parkway, which is right behind the Replacements' Tim in the "Why The Hell Didn't This Album Make Them Huge?" line. Pop hooks that hit you like Mike Tyson in 1986, lyrics about .38 Special CD collections and Bactine to prevent infection, and it sold diddly. Further proof, if you needed any, that the world is a dull, dirty place.

Well, they're back with Welcome Interstate Managers, and it is good. The first three tracks would be the best 1-2-3 punch of any album this year if the White Stripes didn't exist. That the subject matter includes cell phone explosions, a booze-addled salesman and lust for someone's mom both proves their genius and shows a tin ear for commercial prospects. Thank God. A lesser band would have taken the Cars-y riff on "Bright Future in Sales" and attached it to a song about a girl who needs love in the worst way, a way that only the lead singer can provide. I'm not saying we don't need those songs, but we do need to right the balance between boy/girl songs and soul-deadening career options songs. I think we're at one trillion to seven right now.

After you've played this troika over and over and get to the rest of the album, you'll notice that they show equal facility with the down tempo numbers as well. "All Kinds of Time," "Hackensack" and "Fire Island" have a wistfulness that Paul Simon used to conjure, and you will hum them for days.

Please, buy this record. Your summer depends on it.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pop returns to the top, August 7, 2003

By A Customer

This CD has had me astonished for two months and I'm not sick of it at all yet. It has an overall feeling of catchy, absorbent and clever music so strong that makes you not want to listen to anything else. The band's sound is reminiscent of classic pop-rock, but no one else today makes this kind of music more cleverly and tastefully than they do.
A first listen is enough to realize that you are in front of a top quality album, highly catchy and smart, but it's after repeated tries that you finally lose all doubts that this is not less than a big pop masterpiece. Personally, perhaps I prefer the slower and more intimate songs (gems like 'Hackensack', 'Valley Winter Song', 'All Kinds of Time', 'Hey Julie' or 'Fire Island'). But on the other side, the more electric stuff is also brilliant: 'Mexican Wine', 'Stacy's Mom' and 'Bright Future in Sales' are perfect, unsurpassable catchy power pop songs. Then you have the sweet mid-tempo extravaganza ('Halley's Waitress'), the lovely country ballad ('Hung Up On You'), the tasteful, slightly psychedelic number ('No Better Place')... truly, it would be quicker to tell which kind of great pop song is not on this album than to go over all the gifts it contains. And this perfectly written tunes are also so smartly arranged that you can enjoy finding all the lot of musical layers that support and embellish the songs while they always remain fresh and true. I know someone may find all this praise exaggerated; but not someone who loves great pop music -basically, great melodies and great lyrics- and has listened to this CD (both conditions must hold). This latter one knows what I'm talking about (and so will you if you buy this glorious CD).