Eight years on from reaching theTop20 singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic with Stacy’s Mom, New York’s Fountains Of Wayne now find themselves operating under relatively reduced circumstances.
Dropped by the majors after 2007’s Traffic And Weather failed to spawn any further hits, they’re now securing indie deals in different territories, but the purity of their power pop mission remains the same.
Fountains folk still face adversity in everyday life, be it the hapless bar owners in the joke-filled strummer Richie And Ruben or the put-upon disillusioned father of the McCartney-like Action Hero.
More commonly experienced affairs of the faltering heart turn up in the chiming lovers intervention Hate To See You Like This and the summer fling reminiscences of A Dip In The Ocean, chief writers Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood littering their songs with fully formed characters we all recognise.
