Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Utopia Parkway continues the grand Fountains of Wayne tradition of the kind of geeky-boy pop that makes any girl smile. Especially this girl. Adam Schlesinger, along with cohort Chris Collingwood, writes great pop songs. He's also the man behind the song "That Thing You Do," and Ivy. Any project his name graces is guaranteed to be catchy in that three-chord way.

Song titles like "Go, Hippie," "The Valley of Malls," and "The Senator's Daughter" only partially begin to explain the pop music brilliance of Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood. Consider lyrics like "I heard she used to be married/She listens to Puff Daddy" from "Denise" and "Oh yeah we're going to the laser show" from "Laser Show" and you just might understand. Anyone who can effectively work Puff Daddy into a song is all right by me. And any band who can write a song about going to the laser show that that makes laser shows sound like fun again is geeky-boy pop brilliance at its best.

- annie holub