- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Entertainment WeeklyEssential listening, especially for those who only know "Stacy's Mom." [15 Jul 2005, p.73]
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All of the bands calling cards are present—they’re just scribbled down on the back of a phone bill, rather than printed out professionally then laminated.
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[The] consistent quality belies any notion of the extraneous.
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BlenderThe songs change, but the sensibility remains the same, more or less: plaintive to mopey, clever to smartass, and back again. [Jul 2005, p.118]
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Establishes both how hard it is to turn out material worthy of Utopia Parkway and Welcome Interstate Managers and how often Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger come close.
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Songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood's fecund melodic gifts make even odds-and-sods piffle such as "I Want an Alien for Christmas" worth hearing more than once.
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UncutMany of FoW's reserves outclass others' first team. [Aug 2005, p.115]
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Q MagazineThere's... plenty for the merely curious to enjoy. [Aug 2005, p.142]
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Barring a few notable exceptions, these are the songs that either weren’t good enough or didn’t fit into any of the New Jersey-based group’s proper releases.
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Out-of-State Plates is a ragged collection of hits and misses that will satisfy FOW completists, while being of intermittent interest to recent converts or general power pop fans.
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A mixed bag of pure-pop lyricism and throwaway covers.
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We know in their perfect pop moments, Fountains of Wayne can be inspiring, but Out-of-State Plates proves that in imperfection, they can wear even the most admiring fans out.
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If Out-of-State Plates is about as revelatory as your typical garage sale, it's not because these are necessarily bad songs (except for their lamentable cover of "...Baby One More Time")-- it's just that most of them seem somehow defective, one element overpower-popping the others.
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Some of it is pretty good.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 7
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Mixed: 0 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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MickOAug 18, 2005
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JoelEJul 26, 2005
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GazcomsatJul 12, 2005