Utopia Parkway – Fountains of Wayne (1999)
Half of the albums on this list of twenty represent my first exposure to the artists who recorded them.
I don’t think that’s a coincidence. So often when I discover someone new, the album that served as my introduction remains my favorite. In part, that’s because the album grabbed me for a reason, but I think it’s also something akin to the blinding blush of first love.
Utopia Parkway was my first taste of Fountains of Wayne and I still consider it their most focused and consistent album (though last year’s Sky Full of Holes is right up there).
I first heard the single ‘Denise’ on a compilation CD that came with a music magazine and knew I had to check them out. And today’s SOTD, ‘Red Dragon Tattoo,’ really sealed the deal. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the band’s clever wordplay, glistening pop guitar work and solid melody making.
Utopia Parkway is a low-key concept album about adolescence in the surrounding boroughs of New York City (the album title comes from a street in Queens). The songs track these suburban kids to shopping malls and planetarium laser shows, Coney Island and the high school prom. The record evokes a specific time, place and mindset as well as any I’ve heard.
The N train down to Coney Island
With the money I saved
Gonna get me engraved
Drink down a lot of Basil Hayden
Get kicked out when I can’t see straight and
What an island to be on
Under the neon
Red dragon Tattoo
Is just about on me
I got it for you
So now do you want me
With nothing to prove
Will you be my honey, oh yea
In you i confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you
I hear the man say “you want to see the others?”
A mermaid and a heart that says mother
But I don’t know from maritime
And I never did hard time
I brought a .38 Special CD collection
Some Bactine to prevent infection
And in case I get queasy
A photo of Easy Rider
Red dragon Tattoo
Is just about on me
I got it for you
So now do you want me?
With nothing to prove
Will you be my honey, oh yea
In you I confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you?
Will you stop pretending I’ve never been born?
Now I look a little more like that guy from Korn
If you came a little bit closer
You’d see it isn’t painted on
Red dragon Tattoo
Is just about on m
I got it for you
So now do you want me
With nothing to prove
Will you be my honey, oh yea
In you I confide
Red dragon tattoo
I’m fit to be dyed
Am I fit to have you?
Meet Me In Montauk 
Welcome Interstate Managers was my introduction to FOW, and it’s hard to imagine a better one. I seem to recall you once arguing that WIM had some weaker tracks, or went on too long. That may be true, but the strongest cuts are so good and have become so embedded as family favorites, that I can’t imagine any other album knocking it off its perch.
Today’s song is good, but it ain’t no “Stacy’s Mom” or “Hey Julie.”
I agree that’s a great album, and would likely show up on my top 20 of the 2000’s.
Love the sound of this band, though it has become a bit of a joke that I NEVER remember the band’s name. I’ll sing along with every lyric of a song I’m clearly loving and have heard and enjoyed dozens of times, only to have it end and me ask, “who performs this song again?” Not sure if I’m not connecting the dots between all the great songs they do, or that I just have a mental block on their actual name (which I’m actually not remembering as I write this… after having just read it moments ago!) Just looked…. Fountains of Wayne of course! What is that?! So odd. Anyway, love their sound.
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