The Fountains of Wayne return to the sunny side of the moon this year, with an album filled to the brim with their trade mark quirky sadness.

I first fell in love with FOW when I heard 'Sink To The Bottom' many years ago, and I couldn’t get the song, with all its kooky energy, out of my head for days. Since then whenever I see a disco ball, a sunset over a beach or think about my school prom, the Fountains of Wayne are there, sitting next to me playing a soundtrack to my rose tinted memories. Now with the release of their third album, FOW are stamping their pop tunes all over my heart again.

'Welcome Interstate Managers' comprises all that we know and love about the band. Each song is three minutes in the life of ordinary people, so the whole album works pretty much like the movie ‘Slacker’ - a meandering wander through moments of people’s lives, from the mundane to the extraordinary. Every theme tune has almost a different era, from a bad 80’s movie (think ‘Mannequin’) back to '70s soft porn chic, complete with tiger print rugs and a hairy back (that could just be me). Sometimes there are undertones of lift muzak, but strangely in a good way.

There’s nothing new, refreshing or ground breaking about 'Welcome Interstate Managers', and as the tempo drops slightly towards the end, it could have been rapped up on a neat high much earlier on than song 15, but who cares? NOT ME. I want as much sun soaked depression and oddity as I can squeeze out of my CD player.

Go buy it. Go dance around your bed room like a loon, cos no one can see you anyways. Go fall in love with the Fountains of Wayne, cos you know you want to.