Fountains of Wayne - Out-of-State Plates

Out-of-State Plates is the byproduct of nearly a decade of Fountains of Wayne's stellar power-pop pursuits. The 28 performances (two other tracks are brief, snarky radio excerpts) culled together on this double-disc anthology may represent demos and previously unreleased leftovers from the band's three albums, but their consistent quality belies any notion of the extraneous. Also spotlighted are two new performances: the rollicking rush "Maureen" and the infectious, pop-souful "The Girl I Can't Forget." An eclectic slate of covers ranges from wistful takes on Jackson Browne's "These Days" and ELO's "Can't Get It Out of My Head" to a spry, countrified version of Gene Pitney's "Today's Teardrops" and their delicious, barely tongue-in-cheek cult-fave version of Britney Spears's "...Baby One More Time." Another delight is "California Sex Lawyer," while the mirthful "I Want an Alien for Christmas" and "The Man in the Santa Suit" offer up some welcome holiday cheer. The package also includes a track-by-track commentary by band mainstays Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger. --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

Complation?!?

If you are a real fan of Fountain's of Wayne this is a must have - but it should not be thought of as outtakes record, these songs are very well written pop songs about real life. Enjoy!! February 24, 2008

Mixed bag for the Fountains fan

If you're a fan, you'll probably like this disk set. Like most "previously unreleased" compilations it has some gems, some dogs and some oddities. If you are looking for your first disk from these guys, try Welcome Intersate Managers or Utopia Parkway. April 2, 2007

not as good as Welcome Interstate Managers...

Did not find much interesting or, frankly, good on this albumn - unlike other Fountains of Wayne efforts in the past. Kind of a let down... January 10, 2007

For a bunch of leftovers, these are really good!

After three studio albums, FoW decided to put out this double CD collection of B-sides, live tracks, and demo's. This delightful collection of "leftovers" continues the band's talent for writing catchy, melodic power-pop. Truth be told, they could've marketed the entire collection as another studio album if they wanted to. But I think they wanted to put out this collection just to appease us fans until their next album comes out (sometime next year), which I'm very glad they did! In the meantime, I'll just have to settle to listening these songs over and over again! :)

Stand out tracks:

Maureen
California Sex Lawyer
Janice's Party
I Know You Well
I'll Do The Driving
The Girl I Can't Forget
Kid Gloves
I Want An Alien For Christmas
The Man In The Santa Suit
Imperia

If you're into power pop, you should check out this other band by the name of Material Issue (R.I.P., Jim Ellison - God rest his soul...). December 3, 2006

out of state plates

The remakes they do from other artists are great. They take a fluff song from Brittiny Spears and turn it into a work of art and take a great classic from ELO and do an excellent remake. A lot of their other tunes are very good. Theres a few lame tunes but on a two CD set you have to expect it. Great Christmas song included. November 5, 2006

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