Welcome Interstate Managers

1	Mexican Wine 3:22
2	Bright Future in Sales 3:06
3	Stacy's Mom 3:17
4	Hackensack 3:00
5	No Better Place 4:06
6	Valley Winter Song 3:34
7	All Kinds of Time 4:21
8	Little Red Light 3:34
9	Hey Julie 2:36
10	Halley's Waitress 3:35
11	Hung Up on You 3:58
12	Fire Island 2:56
13	Peace and Love 3:26
14	Bought for a Song 4:01
15	Supercollider 5:05
16	Yours and Mine 1:02

Barnes & Noble

Who says there's no room left for irony in pop music? This long-running Jersey combo -- which keeps one foot in classic power-pop and the other in guilty-pleasure FM rock -- comes out with all wits a-blazin' on this long-delayed third disc. Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are able to do more things with a hook than a roomful of Martha Stewarts, as borne out by the sly intergenerational lust-fest "Stacy's Mom" and the Steve Miller–styled slacker workout "Bright Future in Sales." Like, say, Squeeze's Difford and Tilbrook, Collingwood and Schlesinger manage to retrofit seemingly simple songs with several levels of concept. Take, for example, the spry "Halley's Waitress," which veers from lovelorn to simply coffee-deprived in the blink of an eye. The band depart from their usual all-pop, all-the-time agenda here and there, with varying degrees of success: The country-tinged "Hung Up on You" and the fizzy psychedelia of "Supercollider" both work magic with the synapses, but a brace of limpid ballads leave a bit to be desired. Still, the unabashedly pro-fun -- and occasionally profound -- tenor of Welcome Interstate Managers points to a bright future indeed. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Fans waiting for Fountains of Wayne to finally quit goofing around and release a sonically experimental, brooding collection of "serious music" are just going to have to keep waiting. Luckily, the number of their listeners hoping for anything besides another infectious batch of sunny singalong numbers from Adam Schlesinger, Chris Collingwood, and company is probably about the same as the number of people waiting for the White Stripes to record a smooth jazz record. On the mind-numbingly charming Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne do what they do best. And while they reinforce their reputation as the reigning deities of uptempo, big-guitar pop/rock with feel-good anthems like "Mexican Wine," "Bright Future in Sales," "Stacy's Mom," and "Little Red Light," they also continue their proud tradition of mellow yet equally tongue-in-cheek tunes. While their debut album had "Sick Day" and "You Curse at Girls," and Utopia Parkway featured "Prom Theme" and "The Senator's Daughter," Welcome Interstate Managers introduces "Fire Island," a plea to be left home alone when the parents go on vacation, and "All Kinds of Time," perhaps the best (and first) musical interpretation of a slow-motion football replay ever recorded. But the bouncing acoustic guitars of "Hey Julie" are definitely the high point. This time, the one flaw may simply be that the group doesn't know when to say when. Their two previous releases closed with lazy ballads, and this time they build to a perfect finale with "Fire Island." Unfortunately, they follow it with four more songs that add little to the quality of the album. Still, CD players were made with skip buttons for a reason, and too much material is usually preferable to too little. Even without the last four tracks, Welcome Interstate Managers had more than enough pitch-perfect melodies and smile-inducing lyrics to make it a defining album for the summer of 2003. And if that's not your thing, well, maybe some winter they'll finally put out that somber record you've been waiting for. ~ Mark Vanderhoff, All Music Guide

Spin Magazine

The lyrics explore suburban everyguyism... but the choruses... explode like fireworks over a church picnic. (A) Andy Greenwald

Blender

A nearly flawless collection of hummable overtures, Welcome Interstate Managers is part John Cheever and part John Hughes. Rob Tannenbaum