![\"fountainsofwayne_outofstate\"](\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fountainsofwayne_outofstate.jpg\" "\\"fountainsofwayne_outofstate\\"")
<\/a> 6. Out-Of-State Plates<\/i> (2005)<\/b><\/p>\nEven on the least consequential collection of studio work they\u2019ve ever issued, the two-disc B-sides-rarities-and-leftovers (\u201cPlus two new tracks!\u201d) collection Out-Of-State Plates<\/i>, Collingwood, Schlesinger and company still manage to deliver a two-disc master class in songwriting and performance, topped off with a lead single (the ringing, hilarious \u201cMaureen\u201d) that stands up with their very best. <\/p>\n
5. Fountains Of Wayne<\/i> (1996) Chock full of keen observational humor, lovable-loser characters, and fat guitar hooks, the group\u2019s debut takes its cues from Cheap Trick, Weezer, and other geek-rock idols while carving out its own distinctly literate and Jersey-specific brand of snarky guitar pop. This one has more underdeveloped songs than any of their subsequent albums, but that\u2019s kind of like saying Meet The Beatles<\/i> isn\u2019t as creatively accomplished as Sgt. Pepper\u2019s<\/i>; as in, what of it? Any album with tunes as giddily clever as \u201cLeave The Biker\u201d and \u201cPlease Don\u2019t Rock Me Tonight\u201d is more than all right in my book.<\/p>\n Utopia Parkway<\/i> is in many ways Fountains Of Wayne<\/i> on steroids; the same basic idea, but bigger and stronger in just about every respect, as the boys add more vintage synths, more handclaps, and more hilariously delusional mallrat losers. \u201cRed Dragon Tattoo\u201d alone is worth the price of admission, as our lovesick, freshly-inked, Howard Wolowitz-like narrator declares \u201cNow will you stop pretending I’ve never been born \/ Now I look a little more like that guy from KorN\u201d over a surging riff. C\u2019mon, venture down \u201cUtopia Parkway\u201d to \u201cThe Valley Of Malls,\u201d where \u201cIt Must Be Summer.\u201d You won\u2019t be sorry.<\/p>\n 3. Sky Full Of Holes<\/i> (2011) The group\u2019s most recent, and indisputably underrated, release Sky Full Of Holes<\/i> finds Collingwood and Schlesinger at the top of their game but feeling a little older, a little more reflective and a little less snarky than in the past. \u201cThat Summer Place\u201d has all the drive and artfully sketched characters you could ask for, but the undercurrent is one of ennui and dysfunction. \u201cRichie And Ruben\u201d are every bit as delusional as past FOW protagonists, but a tad less sympathetic, and for every sunny number like \u201cA Dip In The Ocean,\u201d there\u2019s a more serious counterpart such as \u201cHate To See You Like This.\u201d Still, the two most memorable tunes here are a poignant ballad about a military funeral (\u201cCemetery Guns\u201d) and the aforementioned song about nothing, the impossibly catchy bundle of nonsense \u201cSomeone\u2019s Gonna Break Your Heart.\u201d<\/p>\n 1. Welcome Interstate Managers<\/i> (2003) Speaking of thinking too hard, one of the many things I think too hard about is the perpetually-shifting monster that is the list of my top 50 favorite albums of all time. An impossible task, inasmuch as nothing stays in place for long as my tastes and perspectives on the music continue to evolve\u2014with certain exceptions. I could write up said list 100 times, and this album would be on it every single time, more than likely in the top 20 every time. I mean, the biggest criticism I could come up with in my original review<\/a> is that, at 16 tracks, it might actually be too much of a good thing. Never mind Stacy and her hot mama; this album is filled to overflowing with stellar tracks like the driving \u201cBright Future In Sales,\u201d the poignant \u201cValley Winter Song,\u201d and the ringing, brilliant \u201cNo Better Place,\u201d not to mention the best song ever written about a sporting event (\u201cAll Kinds Of Time\u201d). And the second tier is filled out by a B-roll list of tracks that likewise feature some of the sharpest, funniest, catchiest, finest songwriting of the century. At the risk of triggering another round of writer\u2019s block, I\u2019m gonna call this one like I hear it: Welcome Interstate Managers<\/i> is a bona fide rock and roll masterpiece. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fountains Of Wayne Albums Ranked Worst To Best<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":48813,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"feature_type":[32],"class_list":["post-47766","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-feature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"fountainsofwayne_st_150\"](\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fountainsofwayne_st_150.jpg\" "\\"fountainsofwayne_st_150\\"")
<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n![\"fountainsofwayne_utopia_150\"](\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fountainsofwayne_utopia_150.jpg\" "\\"fountainsofwayne_utopia_150\\"")
<\/a> 4. Utopia Parkway<\/i> (1999)<\/b><\/p>\n![\"fountainsofwayne_sky_150\"](\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fountainsofwayne_sky_150.jpg\" "\\"fountainsofwayne_sky_150\\"")
<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n![\"fountainsofwayne_traffic_150_01\"](\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/fountainsofwayne_traffic_150_01.jpg\" "\\"fountainsofwayne_traffic_150_01\\"")
<\/a> 2. Traffic And Weather<\/i> (2007)
<\/b>
How do you follow up a career-making album that exceeded the expectations of pretty much everyone, including the artists? If you think about it too hard, it\u2019s a pretty terrifying prospect, and let\u2019s face it, songwriters who rely as much as Collingwood and Schlesinger do on observational and situational humor probably think about most things too hard. And in fact, Collingwood has confirmed<\/a> that he developed a major case of writer\u2019s block after Welcome Interstate Managers<\/i>, with the result that Schlesinger was the primary writer of 11 of Traffic And Weather<\/i>\u2019s 14 tracks. The amazing part is, you can\u2019t tell. At all<\/i>. Every track and every character still feels like the product of the typical Collingwood-Schlesinger mind-meld, from the low-budget auto-hipster behind turbo-charged lead single \u201c92 Subaru\u201d to the leering anchorman on the title track to the lovesick long-distance driver on \u201cI-95.\u201d Even familiar characters like the slippery con man of \u201cStrapped For Cash\u201d and the cranky geriatric buddies whose conversation bookends \u201cNew Routine\u201d become fully-realized individuals with hopes, dreams and quirks that would do any fiction writer proud. Traffic And Weather<\/i> might not have generated as much mass media hoopla as Welcome Interstate Managers<\/i>, but it\u2019s the latter\u2019s equal in every way that counts.<\/p>\n![\"fountainsofwayne_welcome\"](\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fountainsofwayne_welcome.jpg\" "\\"fountainsofwayne_welcome\\"")
<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n