Drops: A 'Sky Full' of Fountains of Wayne

For four albums, Fountains of Wayne -- led by the crafty Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood -- have built sharp, clever power-pop, smart, detailed, mostly suburban stories driven by polished hooks and catchy guitar riffs.

The new album, "Sky Full of Holes" (Yep Roc), ditches their trademark power-pop. This is powerless pop. Much of the rootsier, drifting music practically feels exhausted -- a change that's undoubtedly designed to match the more hopeless stories in these songs.

Instead of "Stacy's Mom," who not only had it going on but sparked the narrator to intense, upbeat feelings, we get the harried dad of "Action Hero," who can't find his keys and is so stressed out that his doctor worries about his health. "He's an action hero and he's racing against time," Schlesinger sings poignantly. "He's an action hero . . . in his mind."

The fact that it's one of the most upbeat-sounding songs on the album, alongside the also-

uptempo "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart," makes it all the more depressing.

Even when they try to gin up some enthusiasm, as they do in the pretty, acoustic "A Road Song," which tells of life on tour, they have to poke a hole in it, singing in sweet harmony, "It's a cliche, but, hey, that doesn't make it so wrong."

"Sky Full of Holes" is well built and effective at creating a mood of imminent collapse, but do we really need more of that feeling right now?

Fountains of Wayne

"Sky Full of Holes"

GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE Well-crafted worries and deflated dreams