traffic and weather | Every Moment Has A Song

Fountains of Wayne: Traffic and Weather (2007)

For a band that only recorded 5 official studio albums and one collection of rarities, Fountains of Wayne certainly made an impact among the power pop and geek rock crowd, who know the quality of the songs Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger produced.

Only trouble is, concise, clever, wryly observational lyrics and harmony-layered earworms aren’t prized by the masses like angst-filled bellowing, flirtsy dance pop or beer-soaked, cliched-for-your-safety country fare.

It’s a central tenet of my appreciation of FOW that “Stacy’s Mom” was not exactly the strongest brand ambassador for the band. With this and other posts (see links below) we hope to remedy that a little.

The specificity of detail in a FOW lyric is arresting. When fledgling songwriters are told to avoid tired, cliched phrases, they should be made to listen to the work of Schlesinger and Collingwood, whose lyrics are the opposite of cliche.

It’s a trait they share with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, who also continues to write great original melodies in an era when they have all the apparent appeal of a barbershop quartet or Bach minuet.

FOW’s eye for resonant lyrical detail pulled you into the story songs. Perhaps then it wasn’t surprising that Schlesinger made his mark on the theater stage as well: he co-wrote the songs for the stage adaptation of the film Cry Baby (which debuted the year of this album’s release) and other musicals as well.

The narrative lyric was a band strength.

To this listener’s ears, Fountains of Wayne were (Adam Schlesinger succumbed to COVID in April of 2020) the best of the latter day purveyors of power pop, the pop rock sound that descended from the Raspberries, Badfinger, etc.

But like the best pitchers, FOW weren’t working with just one pitch. The change up–their ability to turn in a heart-tugging ballad such as “I-95”–set them apart from lesser one-trick artists.

Collingwood and Schlesinger didn’t feel constrained to match lyrics to the mood of the music, either. Sometimes downer lyrics graced an ebullient arrangement a la ABBA.

Conversely songs like “Halley’s Waitress” (from 2003’s Welcome Interstate Managers) are musically somber with a witty lyric.

These juxtapositions give their songs dimension. It’s as if they found and revealed the joy amid life’s struggle, and the poignancy in a light-hearted situation. Cause life is like that.

Listen to: “Someone to Love”