Fountains of Wayne ‘Out-of-State Plates’
Sometimes, life just isn’t fair. Sometimes, the ugliest guys get the girls, you fancy your girlfriend’s mum and your job sucks so much you could raise the Titanic. And for some bizarre reason, New York’s Fountains of Wayne aren’t bigger than they are.
It’s certainly not from want of trying. Unlike the majority of bands from the City That Never Sleeps, Fountains of Wayne focus their attentions on the inhabitants of the suburbs of the Tri-State area of New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island, people who live against a backdrop of shopping malls and quiet neighbourhoods who commute on a daily basis in an effort to take a bite out of the Big Apple before it turns round and takes a bite out of them. It’s a bit like a Kevin Smith movie but with the fart gags taken out. Like Smith, Fountains of Wayne combine a talent for sharp observation but with an unerring knack for a guitar-driven hookline and melody that’s usually delivered in three minutes.
As with The Kinks’ Ray Davies or Parklife-era Blur, songwriters Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger treat their subjects without judgement or prejudice but instead use dignity and huge dollops of humour to tell their stories. But it’s the fact that these stories are wrapped in such pop perfection that’s the real icing on the cake.
‘Out-of-State Plates’ is a largely satisfying collection of B-sides, cover versions, live tracks and new material spread over two discs. Of the new tracks, new single ‘Maureen’ is utterly irresistible, packing a wallop with crunching guitars and a hilarious story of emotional impotence while ‘The Girl I Can’t Forget’ succeeds in combining West Coast pop with the horn-induced stomp that informed the early Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Of the covers, Britney’s ‘…Baby One More Time’ is transformed into something more urgent, a tale of desire running rampant while Bacharach & David’s ‘Trains And Boats And Planes’ is simply gorgeous. Elsewhere, ‘California Sex Lawyer’ and ‘Janice’s Party’ find Fountains of Wayne back on the familiar territory of wry character study.
‘Out-of-State Plates’ doesn’t hold your attention the way their other albums do – some songs are B-sides for a good reason - but until they return with an all-new collection this stopgap will do just fine.
Fountains of Wayne ‘Out-of-State Plates’ (Virgin) is out now.
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