Fountains of Wayne - Out-of-State Plates

Genre rock Publisher Virgin Records External Links Official Website Virgin Records

New Jersey's Fountains of Wayne always seem to alternate between toiling away in obscurity, and releasing catchy pop singles that get stuck in the collective heads of mainstream listeners. The band flirted with one-hit-wonder status with their fun song "Radiation Vibe" in 1996, then promptly disappeared. They made a stunning comeback with the brilliant 1999 album Utopia Parkway, but it didn't sell nearly as well as their first record, and they were promptly dumped by their record label. Then, in 2003, from out-of-freaking-nowhere, came the incessantly contagious single "Stacy's Mom"; in fact, it had been so long since "Radiation Vibe" was a hit, that people were ignorantly declaring "Stacy's Mom" would be the band's only famous song. The fact is, although these guys take their own sweet time recording new albums, the music has always been consistently good, hit singles or not.

Led by the formidable songwriting duo of Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood, it seems Fountains of Wayne should never have a shortage of first-rate material, and it turns out that's indeed the case, as the band has released Out-of-State Plates, a sprawling, two-disc collection of B-sides, live tracks, outtakes, and covers, as well as two new songs. As expected, an odds-and-sods collection like this is a mixed bag, and while fans of the band will be quick to embrace this compilation, those more familiar with "Stacy's Mom" will probably lose patience amidst the mish-mash of wide-ranging tunes.

Still, nobody does powerpop as well as Fountains of Wayne do, and the hits far outweigh the misses on this collection. The tender "Places" and the raucous "Elevator Up" sound good enough to stand alongside the band's album tracks, while the live performance of "She's Got a Problem" holds up very well. The covers are all excellent, the highlights being the sweet acoustic performance of Jackson Browne's "These Days", the live version of ELO's "Can't Get it Out of My Head", the airy Burt Bacharach tune "Trains and Boats and Planes, and their infamous, overtly sincere cover of Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time", which was a minor internet phenomenon in 1999.

There are the odd throwaway tracks, such as the weak "California Sex Lawyer" and the corny holiday trio of "I Want an Alien For Christmas", "The Man in the Santa Suit", and "Chanukah Under the Stairs", but such novelty goofiness is forgivable, especially compared to the high quality of the new material. "The Girl I Can't Forget" is the kind of sprightly pop gem Schlesinger and Collingwood can pull off in their sleep, sounding as effortless as it is pleasant. "Maureen", meanwhile, is a song that deserves to be a mainstream hit, Collingwood telling a humorous tale about a sexually aggressive girl who talks way too much, his vocals underscored by zips of synthesizers, and loads of backing vocal gimmicks ("Uh uh-uh uh").

If there would be one complaint, it's that Out-of-State Plates does not include their lovely cover of The Kinks' "Better Things", which was so movingly performed on Late Night With Conan O'Brien in the wake of 9-11. Aside from that, though, this is an above average Contractual Obligation Album that not only gives the fans a bit of a treat before the real follow-up to "Stacy's Mom" comes out, but hammers home, yet again, how much better rock music is when Fountains of Wayne are around to lighten the mood.