History has demonstrated that bands with a novelty song -- and nothing else -- on their hit list run the risk of becoming Nada Surf. | "Or worse," worries Chris Collingwood, lead singer of Fountains of Wayne, who scored a minor hit with 1997's carefree "Radiation Vibe." "There are some songs that are funny in a clever kind of way, and there are some things that, once you hear them once or twice, you never want to hear them again. We were trying to avoid that."

Fountains of Wayne's sophomore effort, the melodic Utopia Parkway, already stands as one of the year's finest pop efforts -- despite Collingwood and lead guitarist Adam Schlesinger's numerous references to its "texture" and "depth," neither of which it really has. It's a more than worthy follow-up to the duo's self-titled debut, which demonstrated that the Fountains could have led the revolution (had there actually been one) in geek rock, carrying bayonets alongside Harvey Danger and Sloan.

Written and recorded in five days, Fountains of Wayne, like its successor, overflowed with dryly observed character sketches and Beatles-edged power pop. "Adam and I had been writing together for ten years, and all of a sudden we were like, 'let's put this weird project out,' and on that level it works," Collingwood says of the band's debut. "Some of [the first record] I do regret. There aren't many capable bands that have joke songs. On the new record we don't have any songs that are, like, dumb jokes. There are a couple that are funny, but still."

One of Parkway's finer moments, "Red Dragon Tattoo," on which a faint-hearted guy submits to a tattoo to impress a girl, contains the soon-to-be immortal lyric "Will you stop pretending I've never been born/Now that I look a little like that guy in Korn?", which was inspired by the band's near run-in with Korn during a festival in Germany two summers ago. (During a rainstorm, Fountains of Wayne were forced to surrender their trailer to the almighty Korn, so FOW's roadie opened all of Korn's expensive imported beer in retaliation, an incident both Collingwood and Schlesinger recount with great pride.) They know they run the risk of payback from the angst-friendly Korn on this summer's radio festival circuit. They do not, however, fear retribution, figuring Korn is all words and zero action.

"We're not scared of Korn," promises Collingwood. "I mean, come on." Between European stints, radio festivals and a presumably lengthy American tour, the band (now rounded out by Jody Porter and former Posies drummer Brian Young) simply hopes that they have made a record they won't get sick of. "The psychology of making a second record is different," says Schlesinger, who also plays part time in New York post-pop outfit Ivy. "This time, you know what you're doing. You realize that whatever songs you [include on the album] you're gonna wind up playing for at least a year, so you have to try to ignore the sense that it's more important than it is. We just wanted to do something that we liked."

ALLISON STEWART(April 2, 1999)