When today’s SOTD popped up as the random selection, I was certain I had featured it before. But it turns out I’ve given Fountains of Wayne’s 1999 album Utopia Parkway less attention than I thought.

I posted two songs from the album more than a decade ago, plus two more on Random Weekends over the years. But none of those was ‘Denise,’ the first Fountains of Wayne song I ever heard.

This song was included on a CD sampler inserted into a music magazine I bought back in ’99 and instantly caught my attention. In a great example of those old CD samplers working just as intended, I promptly bought the album.

Utopia Parkway is a brilliant pop record, right up there with Welcome Interstate Managers as FOW’s best work (I’ve written before that I give the slight edge to this one). Every track on the album is catchy and clever. Nobody has ever done power pop better.