Fountains of Wayne

I gotta say, when I heard "Stacy's Mom" for the first time, I thought, these are a bunch of Blink-182 wannabes, thinking they're way cooler than they are. Now, though, I admonish me from back then, especially since I'm a huge fan of musical farce (my favorite band of all times is They Might Be Giants, and I saw Harry and the Potters do a live show) and should have known better. "Stacy's Mom" is not the height of Fountain of Wayne's musical talent, but it's a damn catchy song, and the band was probably as surprised as anyone when it catapulted them into the mainstream.

"Traffic and Weather," FOW's latest release, is not the group's best release, but it's nothing to complain about. The main criticism people may have is that there's no standout track or one that screams "single," but I'm coming to realize that an album's very composition, not the tracks that make it up, is what makes it great. (Just ask a group like Sparklehorse.) "Traffic" is an album about journeys, about the search both physical and psychological, for something and for reasons you can't quite understand. I love albums with themes, mostly because I'm an English major and am inherently attracted to poetry and hidden meanings and especially trying to figure out someone's attitude through the appearance of his art. These songs seem to say, "Life's about travel, and something traveling sucks and is really boring and frustrating. But you gotta get from one place to another, and you should enjoy the trip if you can." And of course, as per usual, we get the song about a girl with a two-syllable name -- in this case, "Revolving Dora," about a DMV worker. As far the actual sound, I could throw out words like "catchy" and "infectious" and "pop rock" and "lyrics," but, come on, it's Fountains of Wayne. I can't imagine they could write a bad song.