Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Fountains of WayneBrand: Baker & Taylor
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-04-03
Music Label: Virgin Records
Soundtracks:
- Someone To Love
- '92 Subaru
- Yolanda Hayes
- Traffic And Weather
- Fire In The Canyon
- This Better Be Good
- Revolving Dora
- Michael And Heather At The Baggage Claim
- Strapped For Cash
- I-95
- Hotel Majestic
- Planet Of Weed
- New Routine
- Seatbacks And Traytables
Free Music Notes for Traffic and Weather
Free Music Review: Wit, Whimsy, & Wistfulness
Hit: 5 Stars
Fountains of Wayne specializes in clever pop storytelling. To enjoy them, you need to appreciate the way a small detail tells you everything you need to know about the characters -- whether they are being described or singing -- in their songs. Almost every lyric here has its moments: some of the lines here are genuinely funny while others are poignant.
"Someone to Love," which kicks off the cd, sets us up beautifully: the whole time we are listening to the song, we think that these two people are made for each other. Even their names (Seth and Beth) rhyme. We hear how Seth "calls his mom / Says he's doing fine / She's got somebody on the other line." That's brilliant -- Seth is a corporate lawyer whose mother has more of a life than he does. Beth's "job of her dreams" is banal: "Re-touching photos for a magazine / Aimed at teens." She wears contacts (presumably to make herself more attractive) but has nothing more to look forward to than a bad sitcom and "an hour in the shower." But rather than put these two together, the song ends with Beth cutting in front of Seth and leaving him "for dead" just to get a taxi. That kind of ironic sucker-punch makes the point that these people will remain alone unless they completely change the way they go through their days.
Most of the other songs are strong as well. "Strapped for Cash," "I-95," "New Routine" (with its great line about old men who "talk about real estate, prostates, Costco"), and "Hotel Majestic" are particularly good. "Planet of Weed" is hilarious once you realizes it is making fun of the whole stoner mentality, especially when the speaker can't focus long enough to come up with rhyme for "Oliver Stone". On the other hand, "'92 Subaru" is hilarious on first listen: "Pumping in / Oxygen / From some Swiss mountain / Alarm system so confusing you can't even get in / This thing is a beast / Value will only increase / We're negotiating terms like peace in the Middle East." Be forewarned: you'll never be able to take any rock song about a car seriously again. Oddly, the title track -- though clever in spots -- is uncharacteristically a little too repetitive.
Lyrically, FoW compares favorably to other bands who prefer wit and whimsy over bombast. They are as clever as Barenaked Ladies but without the occasionally juvenile humor (I like BNL, but in their hearts Page and Robertson are still in 9th grade) or as They Might be Giants without being obscure or arch. They can be as sharply ironic as Elvis Costello, but they aren't angry. Their love songs are sweet but not treacly. Musically, the band shows quite a bit of range on the pop spectrum. You can hear influences from the Beatles to Gram Parsons to the Grateful Dead to Jackson Browne (more than the Eagles, which others have mentioned) to Joe Jackson to ELO to Squeeze to Weezer.
This is adult music -- smart, funny, and melodic. Many reviews here say that FoW doesn't take itself seriously. That's misleading. Good pop song-craft is serious. But Collingswood and Schlesinger aren't trying to change the world, and they aren't trying to be poets. And as much as I appreciate bands trying to do the former (U2) or the latter (Death Cab for Cutie), Fountains of Wayne's irony and intelligence will get you through more of your days smiling.
Traffic and Weather Poster
A new, indelible cast of characters is inducted into the FOW pantheon of stars on Traffic And Weather: Yolanda Hayes, a sullen object of affection behind the glass at the Department Of Motor Vehicles; Seth Shapiro and Beth Mackenzie, two lonely, hardworking New Yorkers who cross paths - sort of - in "Someone To Love" (which features Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur singing backing vocals); the exhausted couple in "Michael and Heather At The Baggage Claim", dragging themselves onto an airport shuttle bus after a long trip; newscasters in heat in the album's title track, and many others. Hapless protagonists like the suspicious boyfriend of "This Better Be Good" and the hit-man target in "Strapped For Cash" are also classic Fountains Of Wayne narrators.Travel and transportation continue to figure heavily in the on-the-go world of FOW. The guy who buys himself a "'92 Subaru" is convinced that the right pimped-out ride is all he needs to get the girl; in the Beatlesque "i-95" a driver explores a rest area gift shop late at night, on the way to visit his loved one; we hear of "an eerie kind of sadness on the highway today" in the Gram Parsons-tinged "Fire In The Canyon" (featuring backing vocals by the Candy Butchers' Mike Viola, who was the voice of "That Thing You Do"). The misery of sitting in coach on a delayed flight is examined in the wistful waltz "Seatbacks And Traytables" (which contains a guest appearance on guitar by James Iha). And in the semi-epic "New Routine", we follow a series of characters who each randomly pick a new place to live, only to discover someone else there who can't wait to move away.
Punctuated by 2005's sprawling compilation of B-sides and outtakes (Out-of-State Plates), a nearly four-year interval between fresh recordings has done nothing to tarnish Fountain of Wayne's pop-drenched songwriting tandem of Chris Collingswood and Adam Schlesinger. This 14-song bash is a late-'60s/early-'70s time warp that exploits every facet of the pop action plan (chiming guitars, infectious choruses, sinful harmonies) and begs for radio play. As usual, the band never takes itself too seriously, crafting melodies around a lively, vigorous cast of characters that practically come to life. There's a DMV attendant who can't shake our attention (the bouncy, piano-boosted "Yolanda Hayes"), an airport-stranded couple waiting impatiently for lost luggage (the folksy "Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim"), and ex-lovers who blame it on the highway ("Fire in the Canyon," which explores the radio country-rock of the Eagles and America). They sing of an old-model Japanese car to get the girl ("'92 Subaru") and Renee seeing you "at the Gap in a baseball cap" ("This Better Be Good"), and any way they shake it, even after a too-long interruption, Collingswood and Schlesinger rarely miss the mark. --Scott Holter
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