Favorable review of Welcome Interstate Managers in our local (I'm typing it
so typos are mine!):

Fountains Of Wayne
Welcome Interstate Managers
Grade: A
S-Curve/Virgin

    Fountains Of Wayne has delivered another masterpiece. If you're keeping
tally, that makes three - a trio of triumphs that started with 1996's
self-titled debut and continued with 1999's "Utopia Parkway." Odds are,
though, you haven't been keeping tally (my comment, 'Oh really now?' OK,
I'm sure with 98% of his readers, he's right); despite crafting some of the
era's finest pop-rock,Fountains Of Wayne has remained criminally
unheralded.

    On "Welcome Interstate Managers," the essential ingredients are intact:
smart, sardonic lyrics with enough self-deprecation to keep from veering
into smarmy territory.

    A sixth sense for time-tested rock arrangements, working off the
blueprint set by history's best power-pop bands.

    And most important, a series of delectable melodies, the kind that
stick instantly in your brain and dig in for keeps.

    The most successful material is the upbeat stuff - songs such as
"Mexican Wine" and "Stacy's Mom" - that radiate good-time vibes. "Bought
For A Song" could be a lost Cheap Trick track, and "Supercollider" is the
best Oasis song Noel Gallagher never wrote.

    Lead vocalist Chris Collingwood has made a songwriting career out of
amusing observations on young suburban life, and here he balances the teen
topics with droll takes on cubicle culture.

    In less able hands, the romanticization of white-collar life would fall
flat, but Fountains Of Wayne manages to poke gentle fun while lending
genuine emotion to its subjects - the office drones and computer salesmen
become real people, and even heroes.

    The album also finds the band dabbling in new sounds, like the winding
country plaint of "Hung Up On You," with steel guitar provided by the
masterful Robert Randolph.

- Knight Ridder / Tribune

Back to office droning,
-Jeff Brenneman

NP: Blondie - Parallel Lines (this has me wondering if I would still like
The Nerves which included, who? Peter Case, Paul Collins and the Blondie
dude, Jack something-or-other? ;-) Anyone willing to burn a CDr of The
Nerves' album?)

-Jeff