Adam Schlesinger has to be one of the most hardworking musicians of the 90s. Not only is he working as the bassist of the pop-rock band Ivy, frontman and lead singer of Fountains of Wayne, he also spends his spare time penning Oscar nominated songs for movies. Case in point: the title track to the Tom Hanks film, THAT THING YOU DO. Lately, he’s been scoring a few different TV shows, such as Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers and some other new show on ABC (not sure of the name). And with all that, he still is finding time to write new songs for the upcoming Fountains of Wayne album. He’s really one of the most talented and underrated men in the music business today. Here’s to you, Adam.

Anyway, onto the album. It’s not often that a band comes along that brings back what Pop music is all about—carefree and fun songs. And that’s exactly what Fountains of Wayne did with their 1996 debut album, Fountains of Wayne. They came out with something that was a complete breath of fresh air in the music industry. Combining 60s Surf Rock, Brit-Pop, and straight up Rock, they created this sound which is just amazing.

We start off with the album’s best song, “Radiation Vibe”. If I were to recommend one song to a FoW newcomer, I’d definitely recommend this song. It completely sums up everything Fountains of Wayne do perfectly—great hooks, great melodies and clever, sing along lyrics (the chorus in particular is brilliant, ‘baby, baby, baby/c’mon what’s wrong?/it’s a radiation vibe I’m groovin’ on’). After “Vibe”, we come to “Sink To The Bottom”, which probably is the second best song on here. Once again, the clever, sing along lyrics are prevalent: “I wanna sink to the bottom with you/I wanna sink to the bottom with you/the ocean is big and blue/I just wanna sink to the bottom with you”. Also add in very simple but GREAT sounding guitar riff and you have another awesome pop song.

Skip a few, and we come to “She’s Got A Problem”, what I could probably call a ballad, but it’s still insanely catchy. The last real highlight of the album is “Leave The Biker”, a funny, insanely clever song which has actually made me and my friends laugh out loud (“now his friend leaves over and says/’looks like we’ve got us a fag’/I wonder if that guy’s read one word/that wasn’t in a porno mag/and I wonder if he has ever cried/cause his kitten got ran over and died”). Adam’s dry vocal tone is very nice and unique, and is as much of an instrument as any guitar. The rest of the songs are almost exactly the same as the ones I’ve mentioned, which brings me to the one thing that brings this down from higher rankings. Almost all the songs sound pretty much the same. Granted, it’s not a MAJOR complaint from me, but some who like diversity might be turned off.

Still, this is one of the better albums to come along in recent years and I suggest any fan of REAL pop music to pick it up. You’ll love it. I guarantee.