Driving to the valley of POLLS: Fountains of Wayne's UTOPIA PARKWAY (An Adam Schlesinger memorial poll)

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Welcome Interstate Managers probably sold more, but their sophomore album--an attempt at a Gen-X Born to Run, basically--is arguably their finest.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Denise 6
Troubled Times 6
Red Dragon Tattoo 4
A Fine Day For a Parade 2
Hat and Feet 2
It Must Be Summer 1
Prom Theme 1
Amity Gardens 1
Utopia Parkway 1
The Senator's Daughter 1
Laser Show 0
Lost in Space 0
Go, Hippie 0
The Valley of Malls 0


Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Thursday, 2 April 2020 21:16 (four years ago) link

I'd argue that only a few of the songs here are less than great, but outside of Tommy Keene's discography, "Troubled Times" is about as beautiful as this brand of wistful guitar pop gets.

Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Thursday, 2 April 2020 21:19 (four years ago) link

i have a soft spot for laser show for describing something i have done and my train station for the venture. leaning to red dragon tattoo tho. stupid youthful over-exuberance exemplified well.

blather rinse repeat 2020 (Hunt3r), Thursday, 2 April 2020 21:35 (four years ago) link

It's all excellent up to and including Amity Gardens

PaulTMA, Thursday, 2 April 2020 21:37 (four years ago) link

troubled times should be a shut out

Spottie, Thursday, 2 April 2020 21:55 (four years ago) link

Listened to the first two albums again this evening and “Troubled Times” remains my favourite on ‘Utopia Parkway’, as it was when it came out (over 20 years ago...)

michaellambert, Thursday, 2 April 2020 23:12 (four years ago) link

Listened to the first two albums again this evening and “Troubled Times” remains my favourite on ‘Utopia Parkway’, as it was when it came out (over 20 years ago...)

michaellambert, Thursday, 2 April 2020 23:12 (four years ago) link

"TT" is a CC song, right

brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 3 April 2020 01:32 (four years ago) link

I like this album but prefer the one that followed and especially the debut

voted for "A Fine Day for a Parade". their ballads were pretty much uniformly excellent and weirdly gutting.

brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 01:48 (four years ago) link

tbh this band was a bit too sugary sweet for me, but “red dragon tattoo” made me chuckle

Mr. Snrub, Friday, 3 April 2020 01:59 (four years ago) link

It's all excellent up to and including Amity Gardens

― PaulTMA, Thursday, April 2, 2020 5:37

Then you'd be missing out on Prom Theme:

"Here we are at last
We're running out of gas
The air is getting thick
The girls are feeling sick
We'll pass out on the beach
Our keys just out of reach
And soon we'll say goodbye
Then we'll work until we die"

enochroot, Friday, 3 April 2020 03:56 (four years ago) link

Can somebody clarify who wrote what, cuz I'd feel like a dick voting for a Collingswood song.

enochroot, Friday, 3 April 2020 04:08 (four years ago) link

From the other FOW thread: Whatever happened to Fountains of Wayne? (c/d?)

Utopia Parkway Adam Schlesinger
Red Dragon Tattoo Chris Collingwood
Denise Adam Schlesinger
Hat and Feet Adam Schlesinger
The Valley of Malls Chris Collingwood
Troubled Times Chris Collingwood
Go, Hippie Chris Collingwood
A Fine Day for a Parade Chris Collingwood
Amity Gardens Chris Collingwood
Laser Show Adam Schlesinger
Lost in Space Adam Schlesinger
Prom Theme Adam Schlesinger
It Must be Summer Adam Schlesinger
The Senator's Daughter Adam Schlesinger

enochroot, Friday, 3 April 2020 04:18 (four years ago) link

Yeah Collingwood dominates this one, awkwardly for this memorial poll.

brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 04:32 (four years ago) link

Didn’t know how the songwriting duties broke down when I started the poll, but 8/14 tracks here are Adam’s, so this album is actually balanced in favor of his compositions.

Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Friday, 3 April 2020 04:51 (four years ago) link

Yeah, personally I was referring to quality, not quantity. :/

brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 04:52 (four years ago) link

But I'm down to poll at least the first three LPs and wasn't trying to dis the poll!

brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 04:55 (four years ago) link

No prob, didn’t take it that way.

As I said, I never knew the songwriting breakdown before, but now that I do...yeah, this was kinda Chris’s record.

Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Friday, 3 April 2020 05:01 (four years ago) link

I mean, I think the whole Collingwood stretch in the middle of the record is its strongest patch--oddly, with the exception of "Go Hippie," which might be my least favourite track on it.

Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Friday, 3 April 2020 05:24 (four years ago) link

tbh this band was a bit too sugary sweet for me

you may be missing the lemons

brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 3 April 2020 10:52 (four years ago) link

I was gonna say...

Here we are at last
We're running out of gas
The air is getting thick
The girls are feeling sick
We'll pass out on the beach
Our keys just out of reach
And soon we'll say goodbye
Then we'll work until we die

brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Friday, 3 April 2020 10:56 (four years ago) link

I still enjoy Prom Theme but find it much more ridiculous now than 21 years. The Senator's Daughter closes things off nicely, but that stretch after Amity is pretty filler-tastic. Lost In Space I always assumed was a reject from the film adaptation of that series

(The timing seems bad to make such a statement, but across the board it appears I generally prefer Collingwood's songs)

PaulTMA, Friday, 3 April 2020 12:14 (four years ago) link

I'm gonna throw a vote to the title song, which blew me away when I first heard it. I was a middle-school nerd who loved the debut and walked all the way to the mall to buy the cd from Sam Goody on release day. It was the best first song on an anticipated new record I had ever heard at that point.

Sentimental fave is "Troubled Times", natch, but Adam still has more of my fave songs: "Hat and Feet"/"Prom Theme"/"Senator's Daughter" (like "Everything's Ruined" earlier) share a low-key gauzy/vibey quality that he didn't really revisit very much later on

bunny slopes, Friday, 10 April 2020 05:51 (four years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 18 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link

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

System, Sunday, 19 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

Just now really needed to listen to this guy.

Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 February 2022 03:34 (two years ago) link

<3

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 February 2022 06:40 (two years ago) link

eleven months pass...

...and this album is perfect

j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Saturday, 28 January 2023 17:20 (one year ago) link


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