Sky Full Of Holes

Own way

Veterans of the American pop-rock scene, Fountains Of Wayne, could have easily extended their audience long ago, and improved their financial state as well, had they been more flexible regarding the song-writing approach. Still, the New York quartet has been making the same product out of the same ingredients and via the same recipe for fifteen year already. After all, there will always be an audience for them, and their records will always find buyers, albeit fewer buyers than records by more popular acts do. Since we touched the studio activity issue, it should be mentioned that these Americans are not great fans of writing new material and have been following a one-album-per-four-years schedule for quite a while. This, by the way, makes Fountains Of Wayne releases even more interesting and desired. Their fifth effort, Sky Full Of Holes, entered the market in the summer of 2011 and brought no surprises to either regular listeners or wise critics. All the features of the Fountains Of Wayne trademark style show through right off the start of the record, which is quite enough to call the album a success.

Stories of small people

The Sky Full Of Hopes title is borrowed from the lyrics of one of the album’s songs. Namely, it’s a track called Cemetery Guns, and the holes in the sky, presenting the record, were made by cannons that fired all as one into the blues height at a military funeral. Like always before, these American band supports songs with a considerable portion of irony and feels confident speaking about most serious problems. Some of these songs produce rather a tragic than a comic effect. Apart from the abovementioned Cemetery Guns, one of the standout examples here is Action Hero, a song about a man whose dreams turn into ashes after he receives bad news from a hospital. Sweet harmonies flowing in the background serve as hard, or maybe even cruel irony and illustrate a contrast between one man’s tragedy and the niceness of the surroundings. Stories of Sky Full Of Holes are often tragic, but their characters and music in many cases make you want to smile. Richie and Ruben from the eponymous track are two awkward salesmen whose failures leave only room for good laughter. Almost each song here is a story about a small person, which could be an attempt made by Fountains Of Wayne to follow the signs left by Springsteen himself.

Words are good and music is fine

Overwhelming usage of acoustic guitars and sounding far from thick practically force the listener to fix focus on the snuffling vocalist whose singing is particularly appealing when he performs inseparable and meaningless choruses. There are times when the band goes too far down the humor line and one can feel that all the musicians do is just fill the space with any word fitting. However, altogether, in the framing of Sky Full Of Holes, these episodes sound logical and integral. On the opposite pole, we have absolutely sincere and touching pieces, like Hate To See You Like This, and have nothing but sympathy for the characters drawn by the members of Fountains Of Wayne. Although they tried to insert some drama into their narration, the band remains most powerful when they play simple and fairly melodic songs that in the beginning capture you with their story and then make you listen on and on. The fifth album by Fountains Of Wayne is not going to bring the ensemble forward to a new level, but will certainly delight those who have been with them for many years.