Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers – Belated 15th Anniversary Poll

…have already moderator request forum'd a thread title fix, ffs.

This is strongly front-loaded -- I barely remember side two, but the first three are all among the greatest tracks FoW ever recorded.

The answer here for me is "Mexican Wine." Boy do I love "Bright Future in Sales," -- and it has some of the craziest, most pyrotechnic lyrical work these guys ever produced, but there's a whiff of condescension to the main character that I don't love, and the music is to some extent just a pastiche "let's make it sound 70s and heavy/groovy" -- Stacy's Mom has the same problem but with the Cars.

But "Mexican Wine." This is purely them. And there are so many tiny perfections in this track -- the swagger of those last guitar chords that finish it off! And the way the story of the song doesn't really make sense but it makes sense. Much like "Radiation Vibe," and I think "Mexican Wine" is really the only song in their later catalog that you can think of as a successor to that one.

Now ask me to choose between "Radiation Vibe" and "Barbara H." and "Joe Rey" and "Sink To The Bottom" and "Leave The Biker" and then I just turn into a little puddle of ambivalence.

When I was 14 and listening to this I inevitably skipped "Halley's Waitress" and "Hung Up On You" but now I think they're both delightful

This is a hard one. Voted for Valley Winter Song, one of their finest tunes.

But I could have easily chosen any of the first ten songs...

When it came out this one was my soundtrack while making chicken pot pies nearly every damn night at my old apartment

the last four songs are pretty bad

have we ever done a thread about songs where each verse is about a different character a la "Mexican Wine" or "Ironic" or "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"?

I haven't listened to this since it was new--I remember liking it a lot less than their previous album, and "Stacy's Mom" annoyed me--but "Hey Julie" is the one I remember most fondly.

"Fire Island" is to me the most beguiling tune they ever done…"all Kinds of time" is also remarkable…I think Collingwood and Schlesinger don't get along any more…

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

man, one of the all-time "first 2/3rds perfect, final third forgettable" albums right here

dunno how to choose between Mexican Wine, Stacy, Hackensack, Valley Winter Song and Hey Julie

Stacy's Mom is an absolutely killer pop song. ppl who don't like it are on the wrong side of history.

No Better Place, easy

Hackensack, i think

I dint even remember several of these (lil red light?), but fuck, so so solid. Still thinking valley winter song for dumbass sentimental foolish-feeling reasons.

damn, Hey Julie vs Mexican Wine vs Hackensack vs Valley Winter Song for me. I wanna listen to this now.

I think eephus convinced me to vote Mexican Wine. The key change and background vocals on the final verse seal the deal

Was it on ILX that someone pointed out that s/t = high school, Utopia = college and WIM = real life / first job? Because that's otm

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Hey, my pick won! A few more voters and Little Red Light would’ve picked up a vote probably. Maybe none of the rest.

Main takeaway for me was that Supercolider is pretty cool. The rest of the album still rules...

Yeah, and it got no votes.

For a long time, this was supercollider for me, but these days it's all Hackensack.

I also love the lyrical concept for Hailey's Waitress, even if it's not one of the best songs on the album.

"All Kinds of Time" wuz robbed!

I USED TO FLY FOR UNITED AIRLINES
THEN I GOT FIRED FOR READING HIGH TIMES
LICENSE EXPIRED IN ALMOST NO TIME
NOW I'M RETIRED AND I THINK THAT'S FINE