Sophomore albums often fall into one of two categories: carbon copies of the debut that preceded them, or experiments in which the artists consciously push away from their past approach. Fountains Of Wayne\u2019s Utopia Parkway<\/i> does neither, instead representing an almost-perfect developmental midpoint between the rough sketches of their self-titled debut and the detailed masterworks of their breakthrough third album, Welcome Interstate Managers<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The opening title track perfectly describes a character that songwriters Chris Collingwood (lead vocals and guitar) and Adam Schlesinger (bass, keyboards, harmony vocals) are still telling stories about today\u2014the slightly delusional loser dude who\u2019s convinced he\u2019s got it all figured out. He\u2019s a flame-painted Chevy pickup in a world full of Ferraris, and he\u2019s still convinced he\u2019s going to win the race, to use a \u201c\u201992 Subaru\u201d-type analogy.<\/p>\n
\u201cRed Dragon Tattoo\u201d is an early highlight, its ringing power-pop exuberance underscoring the tale of a guy who\u2019s trying desperately to fit in with the inked crowd favored by the wannabe tough girl he likes, but it\u2019s going to be a real stretch because \u201cI never did hard time \/ I bought a .38 Special CD collection \/ Some Bactine to prevent infection.\u201d The kicker, of course, is that it his gamble doesn\u2019t work: \u201cWill you stop pretending I\u2019ve never been born \/ Now I look a little more like that guy from KorN.\u201d (If that line doesn\u2019t make you smile, well, it really should.)<\/p>\n
\u201cDenise\u201d shows off the pair\u2019s eye for details (\u201cShe drives a lavender Lexus \/ She lives in Queens but her dad lives in Texas\u201d) over a driving beat and big guitars courtesy of Jody Porter (guitars) and Brian Young (drums). But sometimes a Fountains song is just about creating a vibe; thus you get what are on some level throwaway tunes like \u201cHat And Feet\u201d\u2014a cute image but not much more\u2014and \u201cGo, Hippie,\u201d which deploys a \u201970s space-rock vibe to make fun of aging burnouts, a favorite FOW target.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Valley Of Malls\u201d demonstrates yet again that Collingwood and Schlesinger are able to inhabit the disaffected suburban worker-drone mentality like no one else in rock; these guys get it, and know how to turn it into clever stories and wry one-liners. The cheery cheesiness of \u201cLaser Show\u201d has odd charms all its own, another go at chronicling the lives and passions of suburban loser\/stoners. Of course, you can\u2019t really call a tune a throwaway that manages to rhyme \u201cKirk and Lars\u201d; props for that.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, you can find the boys beginning to explore more thoroughly the airy, evocative melancholy that has since become a key element of their work in tunes like \u201cTroubled Times,\u201d \u201cA Fine Day For A Parade,\u201d the wistful \u201cProm Theme\u201d and the elegiac closer \u201cThe Senator\u2019s Daughter.\u201d And if that doesn\u2019t float your boat, there\u2019s always reliably effervescent power-pop numbers like \u201cLost In Space\u201d and \u201cIt Must Be Summer.\u201d <\/p>\n
Utopia Parkway<\/i> is the document of a band that knew what it wanted to do, stuck to its creative guns, and continued to improve its craft album after album. This sophomore album is simply point two on a straight line the boys are still traveling, upward and onward to the heights of clever, literate power-pop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6919],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42916","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fountains-of-wayne","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42916"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42916"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}