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Track Listings
| 1. Mexican Wine |
| 2. Bright Future In Sales |
| 3. Stacy's Mom |
| 4. Hackensack |
| 5. No Better Place |
| 6. Valley Winter Song |
| 7. All Kinds Of Time |
| 8. Little Red Light |
| 9. Hey Julie |
| 10. Halley's Waitress |
| 11. Hung Up On You |
| 12. Fire Island |
| 13. Peace And Love |
| 14. Bought For A Song |
| 15. Supercollider |
| 16. Yours And Mine |
| 17. Elevator Up |
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Customer Reviews
Why, I can’t really say. All the essential FoW elements are there, from the headrush chorus of Stacey’s Mom, with it’s crystalline harmonies and keyboard riff which makes a bid to be the catchiest FoW song ever (yep, even including Red Dragon Tattoo) to the melancholy sweetness of Winter Valley Song, which sounds like a throwback to the first album.
So, the problems. Well, the album is overlong. Compare it to the first record, where every song had a place and a purpose, and there are at least 4 fillers. Hung up on You, Peace and Love, Little Red Light and Yours and Mine should all have been reserved for B-sides. Secondly, at times the songwriting seems like FoW-by-numbers. Fire Island should be the equal of Prom Theme, but falls short, just lacking the X-factor. Too many songs fall into the ‘mid-tempo trap’ of the weaker material on Utopia Parkway, like Fine Day for a Parade.
Enough bad stuff – it doesn’t come naturally to criticise my favourite band ever. The first 3 tracks are classic FoW, bubbling guitars and spot-on harmonies. Bright Future in Sales and Stacey’s Mom should both reach number 1, if there is any justice in the world. There isn’t, so they won’t even break into a top 40 dominated by R&B. All Kinds of Time and Halley’s Waitress stand up to anything they have released previously, both beautiful, delicate songs, that other artists would kill to have written.
If any other band had released this record, it would be an amazing achievement. But FoW have become victims of their own success. Being the best songwriters in their field means that if they write anything less than perfection it is seen as a fall in standards.
So, in conclusion. If you are a fan, BUY IT, there is still more than enough great music on it to warrant buying it 10 times over. Just don’t expect it to unseat Fountains of Wayne as the best album of all-time. You will still love it, as it still has plenty of those little moments of genius that FoW fans know all about. If you are not a fan (yet), BUY IT, just buy the first 2 albums as well, and listen to them in the order they were recorded.
Like many, I guess, I came across FoW through 'Stacey's Mom' which is a brilliantly catchy tune. I then heard them on Simon Mayo's Album Chart Show on R2 which whet my appetite for more.
This album has so many cool facets. It's funny, incisive and well observed, musically interesting and varied, and very well played.
'Hey Julie' is my personal favourite, but every other track is a gem in its own right.
In summary, if you like well written, well performed guitar based music, you can't go far wrong with this album.
Too funny? Self-deprecating. Too chirpy? Bittersweet. Too derivative? Drop in the ending of "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles ("Leave the Biker", from FOW) or even rip-off yourself, tongue firmly in cheek (3/4 way into Little Red Light, from W.I.M.)
The Fountains of Wayne live in a concept world designed to make us empathize more with the real world, and their latest album expands their vision more fully than the last two. Yet the band's irony makes these viginettes all the more poignant, and that surely is the key to thier brilliance.
Will this album make them more famous? Probably, as Stacy's Mom works her way through MTV2 into the hearts and minds of the nation's kids.
Do they deserve to be more famous? Hell Yeah! They can squeeze more ideas into a 2 1/2 minute pop song than many bands fit into a career.
The big question is, though - Do I want them to be more famous? Or would i prefer to think this world existed only for my entertainment, and that i was the only person in the world that owned the only album ever, to namecheck both the Tappan-Zee bridge and Nyack...
Sigh, ok world, you can share....
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