| Utopia Parkway | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 6, 1999 | |||
| Studio | Stratosphere Sound, New York City | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:35 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Fountains of Wayne chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Utopia Parkway | ||||
| ||||
Utopia Parkway is the second studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released by Atlantic Records in April 1999.
The album was written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger with the intention of emulating albums with a strong thematic story inspired by its surroundings, such as Muswell Hillbillies by The Kinks and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. According to Schlesinger, "When we were teenagers, we liked listening to Kinks records because we'd never been to England, and we got a sense of what it was like to live there. We really wanted to make a record that felt whole. We intentionally didn't include a few good songs because once we started picking up on the thematic connections, we wanted to stick with it." Collingwood added, "It had to do with reaching a level of maturity where you realize your own life is worth singing about. We spent so much time glamourizing bands like the Kinks, but what they were singing about was just everyday suburbia in England. There's this realization that you don't have to sing about Kensington for it to be worthwhile." [1]
In terms of musical direction, the band opted to evoke songs and bands that had an ubiquitous nature when they were younger. According to Schlesinger, "Musically, the stuff on the record is like picking through all the songs that people our age weren't about to avoid growing up. It could be Loverboy, Steve Miller, the Cars, Journey. You don't even know if you like it or hate it; it just pops into your head. Sometimes when we're arranging a song we all remember something at the same time so we'll throw it in there. It's not even really conscious." [1]
Collingwood's songwriting contributions on this album - including "Troubled Times", "A Fine Day for a Parade" and "Amity Gardens" - tended to be more serious than Schlesinger's. According to Collingwood, "I think I was a little panicky after the first record as being perceived as a novelty band. So I was trying to move away from making jokes on this record. That's why my contributions are more dismal." [2]
This is also the first Fountains of Wayne album to feature guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, who joined the band after Collingwood and Schlesinger had finished recording the debut album almost entirely on their own. According to Collingwood, "The new album was definitely recorded more like a band. We had been touring with them for over a year after making the first record, and it felt like second nature when we made the new record and it sounded the way the band sounds. The progression from the first record to the second was so gradual that I didn't really notice until I went back and listened to the first album and realized it really didn't sound like a band." [2]
The album is named after a major street that connects the neighborhoods of Utopia and Beechhurst in the Queens borough of New York City, and its street sign is featured on the album cover. According to Schlesinger, "The name is so evocative. It ties in all these different places and characters because there's such a sense of longing about it." [1]
Dropped by Atlantic after sales failed to meet expectations, the band had a growing dispute with the company after it put no effort into promoting the album's single "Troubled Times". [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| Alternative Press | 4/5 [5] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A [6] |
| Melody Maker | [7] |
| MSN Music (Expert Witness) | A− [8] |
| NME | 5/10 [9] |
| Pitchfork | 5.1/10 [10] |
| Rolling Stone | [11] |
| Spin | 8/10 [12] |
| USA Today | [13] |
Utopia Parkway was named an "Album of the Week" by People Magazine in 1999 upon its release, [14] but received mixed reviews from music press with some claiming the album showed the band "lacked depth" [15] while others declared it a "masterpiece from the moment you first hear it". [16]
The album contains two fan favorite songs from the Fountains' live performances:[ citation needed ] "Red Dragon Tattoo," about a boy who gets a tattoo to impress a girl, and "Denise," a faux-grunge power-pop confection where the songwriters show their intentionally bad and comic writing with "She works at Liberty Travel/ She's got a heart made of gravel." "Troubled Times," originally written by Collingwood when he and Schlesinger were in a previous incarnation of Fountains of Wayne called Pinnwheel, is also a fan favorite.[ citation needed ]
"Red Dragon Tattoo" was featured prominently throughout the Stephen King mini-series Kingdom Hospital . The 2008 Dar Williams album Promised Land includes a cover of "Troubled Times".
All tracks are written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Utopia Parkway" | 3:09 |
| 2. | "Red Dragon Tattoo" | 3:32 |
| 3. | "Denise" | 2:32 |
| 4. | "Hat and Feet" | 3:03 |
| 5. | "The Valley of Malls" | 3:23 |
| 6. | "Troubled Times" | 3:39 |
| 7. | "Go, Hippie" | 3:58 |
| 8. | "A Fine Day For a Parade" | 4:13 |
| 9. | "Amity Gardens" | 3:11 |
| 10. | "Laser Show" | 2:24 |
| 11. | "Lost in Space" | 2:19 |
| 12. | "Prom Theme" | 3:09 |
| 13. | "It Must Be Summer" | 3:19 |
| 14. | "The Senator's Daughter" | 3:44 |
| Total length: | 45:35 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 15. | "I Know You Well" | 3:26 |
| Total length: | 49:01 | |
Fountains of Wayne was an American rock band that formed in New York City in 1995. The band included founding members Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter, and Brian Young. They released six albums from 1996 to 2011 before effectively disbanding in 2013. They are best known for the Grammy-nominated song "Stacy's Mom".
James Yoshinobu Iha is an American rock musician. He is best known as the secondary guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the band's initial breakup in 2000 and rejoined in 2018.
"Stacy's Mom" is a song by American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It is the third track on their third studio album, Welcome Interstate Managers, and was released to radio as the album's first single on May 19, 2003, through S-Curve Records and Virgin Records. "Stacy's Mom" was written by bassist Adam Schlesinger and vocalist Chris Collingwood, both of whom produced the song alongside Mike Denneen. Its subject matter was inspired by a friend of Schlesinger's when he was young who was attracted to Schlesinger's grandmother. It is a power pop song with which the group hoped to emulate the sound of American rock band the Cars.
Alphaville is a German synth-pop band formed in Münster in 1982. They gained popularity in the 1980s. The group was founded by singers Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, and Frank Mertens. They achieved chart success with the singles "Forever Young", "Big in Japan", "Sounds Like a Melody", "The Jet Set", and "Dance with Me". Gold remains the only continuous member of Alphaville. They took their name from Jean-Luc Godard's film of the same name.
Welcome Interstate Managers is the third studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released by S-Curve Records on June 10, 2003. The album contains the power pop single "Stacy's Mom," which reached number 21 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's highest-charting hit in the United States.
Fountains of Wayne is the debut studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on TAG Recordings, Scratchie Records, and Atlantic Records in 1996.
Adam Lyons Schlesinger was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He was a founding member of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted Windows, and was a key songwriting contributor and producer for Brooklyn-based synth-pop duo Fever High. He also wrote songs for television and film, for which he won three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the ASCAP Pop Music Award, and was nominated for Academy, Tony, and Golden Globe Awards.
Brian Young is an American drummer and music producer. He is best known as the drummer of the New York–based, Grammy-nominated power pop band Fountains of Wayne and Seattle-based alternative rock band The Posies. From 2012 to 2021 Young was the drummer for the Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Jody Porter is an American musician. He was the lead guitarist of Grammy Award-nominated power pop band Fountains of Wayne. The band released four major label albums, including Welcome Interstate Managers on Virgin Records in 2003, an RIAA-certified Gold LP. The album spawned the hugely popular U.S. Top 40 hit and number 1 music video "Stacy's Mom".
I Killed the Prom Queen were an Australian metalcore band from Adelaide, formed in 2000. They were prominent in the Australian live music scene and toured the US, Japan and parts of Europe several times. They issued three studio albums: When Goodbye Means Forever... (2003), Music for the Recently Deceased (2006) and Beloved (2014). The latter two albums peaked at #27 and #6 on the ARIA Albums Chart respectively.
Out-of-State Plates is a double compilation album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on Virgin Records on June 28, 2005.
Chris Collingwood is an American singer, songwriter, and artist. He is best known as the former lead vocalist and founding member of the power pop band Fountains of Wayne.
Traffic and Weather is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on Virgin Records in April 2007.
Promised Land is the seventh album by Dar Williams released September 9, 2008 on Razor & Tie, the label that has released almost all of her albums. It was her first studio album in three years.
I Killed the Prom Queen / Parkway Drive or Split CD is a four-track split extended play released by Australian metalcore bands Parkway Drive and I Killed the Prom Queen in May 2003 on Final Prayer Records. The two tracks by Parkway Drive were later re-released as bonus tracks on the reissue version of their solo EP, Don't Close Your Eyes, in 2006. Split CD was Parkway Drive's first release, and I Killed the Prom Queen's second.
The discography of Fountains of Wayne contains five studio albums, one compilation album, 16 singles, one DVD, six music videos and seven other appearances.
Sky Full of Holes is the fifth and final studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on July 20, 2011, in Japan, on August 1, 2011, in Europe, and on August 2, 2011, in North America. It debuted at number 37 on the US Billboard 200, giving Fountains of Wayne their first Top 40 album on that chart, and debuted at number 16 on the UK independent chart.
"Radiation Vibe" is the debut single by Fountains of Wayne, from their eponymous debut album. It was released in 1996 on Atlantic Records.
"Survival Car" is the third single by Fountains of Wayne, from their eponymous debut album. It was released in 1997 and charted in the UK at No. 53 on July 26, 1997.
Good Times! is the twelfth studio album by American pop rock band the Monkees. Produced primarily by Adam Schlesinger, the album was recorded to commemorate the band's 50th anniversary. It is the first Monkees studio album since Justus (1996), marking the longest gap between releases to date, and the first since the death of Davy Jones. The album features surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, as well as a posthumous contribution from Jones.
