Who Can You Trust With Your Love These Days?

Fountains of Wayne “Yolanda Hayes” – Some artists are so good at what they do that they can make tricky, labored craftwork seem easy, and others are merely just good enough that they can turn out strong material without actually trying very hard. Fountains of Wayne are erring on the side of the latter on their new album Traffic and Weather, and though it doesn’t make a song like “Yolanda Hayes” any less enjoyable, it’s hard for me not to dwell on how the band seems totally unwilling to challenge themselves or their fans. Like a lot of other acts in the power pop genre, they’ve got this all down to a scientific formula, to the point that the group’s primary songwriter Adam Schlesinger has built a lucrative career penning pop pastiches for Hollywood productions. He aims for comfort and familiarity and generally hits the mark, but now that Fountains of Wayne’s central gimmick — humorous yet sympathetic lyrics about the mundane details of suburban life — apparently comes as easily to them as the chord changes, the entire endeavor seems forced and insincere, as though they are just pumping out more product to keep the brand alive. In fairness, that description applies to a lot of different artists, and that sort of competence and strength of identity can yield pretty amazing work, but Fountains of Wayne’s stubborn refusal to alter their approach in any way is beginning to seem stale and unimaginative. “Yolanda Hayes” is a delightful little song that works on its own terms, and that goes for a lot of other songs on the new album, but there’s a nagging sense that it could be a lot better if only they’d deviated from their recipe a little bit. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)