A few years ago Fountains Of Wayne looked ready to explode with the hit record Stacy’s Mom from Welcome Interstate Mangers. Collingswood and Schlesinger are no doubt the current “face” of modern power pop to most people who don’t follow the genre, and this album was it’s most anticipated. Using late 60s and 70s styled musical harmonies with typical perfection and guitars, Traffic and Weather continues the tradition. What is lost here is some of the dead-on sense of satire that was so prevelant in earlier efforts. “Yolanda Hayes” and “Michael and Heather At The Baggage Claim” comes the closest to this slice of life lyrical genius. If you are looking for a song that’s better than “Red Dragon Tattoo” or “Fire Island” you have come with expectations too high. That said, the production and songs are all flawless. This time around they even show evidence of being influenced by 70s AOR groups like the Eagles (on “’92 Subaru” and “Fire In The Canyon”) and America (on “Michael And Heather At The Baggage Claim” and “I-95”). The good news here is the influences again help and don’t hurt the songs in any way. “I-95” is one of my favorite ballads here and “Stapped For Cash” is a great single with cool horns that is my favorite song on th album. Another fave is the tune “Traffic And Weather” in which one TV anchor turns to the other and proposes (“We belong together like traffic and weather”) which would sound good in a Target commercial. And maybe that is the problem here. Although this will please power pop fans, it is not a breakout release — and maybe it just feels like the group has started to run out of ideas. That said, even filler tunes like “Revolving Dora” are much better than almost anything other contemporary pop groups churn out. You can get this release almost anywhere.
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