Traffic and Weather
9 March 2010
5 Comments
4.0
Album Description
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 Ba… More >>
Before I came onto this site, I didn’t know anyone even cared about Fountains of Wayne. Because let’s be real, people: if you thought they WEREN’T anything more than a novelty band after “Stacy’s Mom” lost fire, you were just fooling yourself. And that album, Welcome Interstate Managers, didn’t sell very well either. Sadly, there really hasn’t been much growth between that album and their latest, Traffic and Weather.
The main problem here is that Adam Schlesinger and the rest of the band spend much of their time telling very uninteresting stories. Even despite good rhythms in songs like the title track and “The Hotel Majestic”, I couldn’t help but lose interest after listening to the lyrics. And as for “This Better Be Good”, well, it wasn’t.
Lame ideas continue with “Yolanda Hayes” (which talks about being in love with a girl from afar…at the DMV), as well as “Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim”. And things aren’t better when they DON’T try to tell tales, as evidenced by “Strapped for Cash” and the ridiculously corny “Planet of Weed”. In fact, the only songs I can get into are “Fire in the Canyon” and possibly “I-95″. If Fountains of Wayne want to make a better impression in the future, then they need to sharpen their storytelling skills.
Anthony Rupert
Rating: 3 / 5
The album is certainly tight and punchy, and yet the lyrics are terrifically lightweight. The two boys fronting Fountains of Wayne graduated from Williams College, among the most expensive in the world, and so their lyric smallness should be a concern. “Strapped for Cash” is fun Brill Building cleverness, but if they are the new Bernard Malamud as Robert Christgau wrote in his Rolling Stone, then I’m the King of England. Lastly, since they are privileged white boys to a T, where do they get off writing about an black DMV worker? “Who do you love, Yolanda Hayes?” She loves who she can while working for state employee wages in an economy where black people have one-tenth the wealth that white people do. Why didn’t Schlesinger title the song “Ellen Hayes” or anything else else less racially charged? I still appreciate the Steely Dan craftsmanship that goes into making driven, hook-heavy power pop, but how about a little Fountain of Wayne mea culpa for being so insufferably white?
Rating: 4 / 5
I admit, I got into fountains of wayne back when Stacy’s Mom came out a few years ago. I actually did not think it was that great a song, but I heard good things about the band. So when I bought Welcome Interstate Managers, not expecting much, I came out pleasantly surprised. It had many, many great songs on it. Pretty much all the songs were amazing. Since then I’ve been a big fan. I’ve bought their debut as well as Utopia Parkway. I liked both of those a lot as well. While Utopia Parkway was somewhat of a disappointment to me, it’s hardly one compared to this.
With Traffic and Weather, it feels like Fountains of Wayne lost their edge, or just started to run out of ideas. It starts out promising with the catchy and great songs “Someone to Love”, and “92 Subaru”, but after that there are many ups and downs. “Yolanda Hayes” is somewhat catchy, but just falls flat. “Traffic and Weather” is a good song, but it feels out of place on this record, even thought it’s the title of the cd. “Fire in the Canyon” just feels like an obligatory country song. “This Better Be Good” is by far my least favorite on the album. They just repeat the chorus over and over. It’s redundant and just not a good song at all.
“Revolving Dora” is just too short and basicaly feels like a filler song. “Michael and Heather” is imaginative, but the chorus sounds like something Third Eye Blind did a few years ago. “Strapped for Cash” is just cheesy. “I-95″ is actually a pretty good slow song, and I like it. “Hotel Majestic” is another filler type song, and “Planet of Weed” is my 2nd worst on the album. “New Routine” is a little better than the two filler songs, but still missing something. The last song “Seatbacks and Traytables” is one of my favorites on this cd. It actually closes it nicely.
Overall, this album just has too many short, filler like songs. They feel rushed and incomplete. I think that the guys just took too much time off and somehow forgot how to capture the fun and great songmaking they perfected with Interstate Managers. Traffic and Weather is not a bad album, but it’s definitely the least cohesive and satisfying Fountains of Wayne cd.
Rating: 3 / 5
This album is either 2 or 3 stars – I decided for 2. This is the first Fountains of Wayne album I have listened to, but I have heard a few of their singles from years ago. The songwriting on this album is real corny, and intentionally so. A lot of the instrumentation is just as corny too – overly catchy hooks and harmonies that grate with only a few listens. Oh, and the name dropping and brand-slinging is rampant and also becomes grating.
Sure, they don’t take themselves too seriously, but nearly every single song is obsessed with cars, trains, airplanes, and travel in some way. This obsession certainly is familiar to me – perhaps the songwriter is autistic? Or, to be fairer, maybe they were trying to create a theme album, however, I hear that this band is always obsessed with transportation. I don’t know; I must say that I can easily remember each song, which is a good sign, but many songs are not memorable in a good way. I hear other albums, like their self-titled, are better. I recommend listening to that first if, like me, this is the first FoW album you are about to hear.
Rating: 2 / 5
I must be one of the 14 FOW fans in France where they remain scandalously underrated and where they don’t even bother to sing aymore. I was very excited about this album and therefore was cruelly disappointed. This album ain’t rubbish but when you cherish an artist you have the right to expect from him/her more than your average decent album. This delivery is actually decent but nowhere as good as Welcome interstate managers or even Utopia parkway and Out of state plates, the B-sides and rarities collection. Actually it seems to be the real left-overs record. Not bad but not quite good. There are a few gems, especially ballads (the Eaglesque Fire in the canyon)but also synthetised C+ songs. There is even one song that they already wrote : the one about the frustrated-exploited waitress. On Welcome interstate…, its name was Halley’s waitress. On this one, i don’t know and the worst thing is that i lack the will to investigate. The Ranx Xerox syndrom : upsetting!
Rating: 3 / 5