special introductory paragraph!
Weezer
Pinkerton
Weezer
Maladroit
Make Believe
Weezer
Weezer has been pegged as a "nerd pop"
band, but the problem with that classification is that this isn't NERD MUSIC, DAMMIT.
This is power pop. Sounds like Cheap Trick - same happy Beatlesy riffs, loud guitars,
songs about girls and pretty, often harmonized vocals. There's no nerdy keyboards like
The Cars or geeky angular rhythms like Devo or dorky vocals like They Might Be Giants.
This just sounds like normal guys in their 20's playing loud, heavy power pop! NEW
CLASSIFICATION, PLEASE! Also, these guys have gotten tons of amazing press, but I'm
still unclear on why that is so. To me, this is (ahem) BASIC POWER POP. Nothing
special.
Some catchy chord sequences here and there, and lots of pretty harmony vocals, but
nothing that isn't derivative of a billion other bands. So what's the big deal? Has
Matt
Reyes just been writing for a bunch of different magazines under a bunch of different
fake
names?
Ahhhh Weezer. One of my favorite Jeffersons
characters. I always used to love it when George would come home from his successful
Laundromat and shout "Weezer! Fix me some Whitey Stew! And no goddamn zebras!
Aaaaaah HATES ZEBRAS! You muthafucka.cock..sucka!" So imagine my supplies
when I learned that Weezer had come out of retirement to become a bunch of young white
guys playing really heavy power pop. First of all, am I crazy or is it impossible to
listen to
"The World Has Turned" without singing the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? The
music
isn't the same or anything - it's just the way he sings it. Drives me up the food chain.
But
let's talk about the album. Very warm fuzzy yet HEAVY guitar tones. Friendly vocals
from
nice neighborly young adults. Sugary Beatles/Cheap Trick-style chord progressions but
played much less interestingly than either of those bands - mostly just simplistic barre
chords and maybe a couple of notes on top. All midtempo - no Exploited-style hardcore
or Cannibal Corpse-style death metal on here, for some reason. One letdown for me
personally is that the two big hits "Say It Ain't So" and "Buddy Holly" are fantastic
songs
that sound like The Beach Boys! But the rest of the album doesn't SOUND like The Damn
Beach Boys! Fuck! This is the kind of band that simply IS. There is absolutely no
reason to hate them; they're not oversaccharine, their heavy guitars are processed and
smoothed over enough to not be painful to anybody'e ears, the vocal melodies are
delightfully pleasant and memorable and the guys have good voices. Heck, even the
"stupid words" are occasionally witty (track 2! Hee hee! Ho Ho!). But if you're
looking for
something special or new, you're not going to find it in Weezer. They don't pretend to
be
innovators of anything. They're simply taking a well-worn genre and adding their
perfectly
good songs to its long history. There's too many familiar chord progressions on here to
keep me superexcited, but I always dig it while it's playing! Oh wait, that was a typo.
I
meant to say "I always rip digits off of passersby while it's playing (as a licensed
police
officer, it's legal for me to do that)."
But enough from me. Let's hear what some of our usual commentators have to say!
No no, I'm just asking to make sure. My eyes aren't that good.
Blue. I guess that describes it. The actual name is just boring old "Weezer", but since the color blue permates (is that a word?) throughout the artwork, I refer to it as simply "The Blue Album". But let us talk about the music. The album starts out with a nice acoustic guitar playing a nice arpeggio for a couple of nice seconds, but then a big (but still nice) eletric distorted guitar comes and crashes a couple of power chords while frontman Rivers Cuomo claims that his first name is in fact Jonas. The rest of the song (and album) follows suit. Nice and not so nice instruments run around in the background and Rivers sings great melodies about girls, and other stuff.
Great songs float throughout this album, notably "Undone - The Sweater Song", "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here", "Say It Ain't So", and "Surf Wax America". Other cool things include the "Fast Times" inspired talking at the beginning of "The Sweater Song". Actually, that entire song is pretty much awesome. Who knew that three chords could have so much power? Well, that guy who wrote "Louie, Louie", for one. And the Clash. And "The Sweater Song" actually has six chords, so I guess that statement was not a good one. But get the album anyway. The only major complaint I have is the too-nice production (courtesy of Ric Ocasek, that tall guy from the Cars). But that's okay, I guess.
Specifically "The World has turned and Left me here", "Holiday", and "In the Garage" are my favorites. The rest of the album, however, is all great. The only songs I don't like are "Buddy Holly", and "Only In Dreams" is a BIT too long for my taste.
Very consistant though, and an enjoyable listen. 9.
Did you notice how my comment started out normal, then got really really
fucked up, then had a point at the end? It's kinda like the Butters episode
of South Park. Except in that instance, it was Bennigan's, not Weezer. Not
Styx! TGI FUCKING FRIDAY!!!!!!
Mark, why don't girls like me?
Who you calling a psycho???!!
Anyway, peace and love, yadda yadda. I'm going to put The Yes Album on now.
Don't fucking come near here! Foreigners aren't welcome!
By the way, I think Weezer got the "dork rock" tag not because their music is particularly dorky, but because you can't put a picture of yourselves
looking like the most boring rock band ever over a blue background on the cover of your first album and have a song that references twelve sided die
and x-men characters and not get called a bunch of dorks. Oh, and the blue background thing isn't a ripoff of the feelies, but rather a crappy tape only
beach boys compilation they found in a truckstop. They didn't know about the feelies thing till after it came out and people started bringing it up.
Also, can the people writing the comments have so much to say about WEEZER?
At least the dorks who write those long diatribes about Radiohead are
talking about a band that something to say.
1.Joe the Lion - He appears in Bowie's excellent rendition of Fiddler on the Roof... or "Heroes". After telling people who they are he gets nailed to his car.........
2.Wicked Annabella - She's in the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society, she eats small children.
3.Rockey Racoon - Is he really THAT odd? He's on the Beatles' "White Album".... is he Mormon?
4.Willie the Pimp - A little pimp with his hair gassed back, he's in Zappa's absolutely BRILLIANT Hot Rats album, on the song named.... well, Willie the Pimp.
5.The weirdest of 'em all............. Frankie Z - On Tom Waits' Vaudville-circus outing. Swordfishtrombones, ......... I've only heard the song twice.......... but he kills his family or something (I, sadly do not have Swordfishtrombones). He also is the theme of one of Tom's most overlooked albums, the excellent vaudvillian; Franks (yeah, no apostrophe) Wild Years. He's goin' straight to the top.
Wa-heezer! What is this? I know people who swear by these guys (whatever THAT means). I mean, it's really a fine debut album.......... but one of the absolute greatest albums of all time? Not on your life! Mark Prindle is right, sadly, Cheap Trick do the same thing.... but are better. EVERY Billy Joel album......... ok except for his complete crap, is better than this album. I'm not saying it sucks COMPLETELY.......... I'd give it a 6, that's 3 out 'o' 5. I'd give An Innocent Man and The Nylon Curtain........... 4.25 stars each. I can't bloody wait to get There's A Riot Goin' On!
Great first song! Different feel - slightly tougher, more
clever guitar riff. Yeah! But it doesn't hold up and pretty soon it's the popular Men
At
Work LP Cargo for But it doesn't hold up and pretty soon its business as
usual for America's sweetest bunch of pop chart sensations since Tygers Of Pan Tang.
The second song completely sounds like a song that one of those damn Archers of Loaf
unknown local indie rock bands used to play back in the early 90s, but I can't remember
which one. And that "moh-ooo-wo-ooo-wo-ooo-wo-ooo-wo" thing he does at the end of the
first verse is so obnoxious I wanna grab Mr. Rivers "Phoenix" Cuomo by the shorthairs and
run him up and down the flagpole a few times to see what sticks. Knowing him, he'd just
keep coming back like a bad penny though. Let's stop the roughage and cut to the
chase. Although they've added a few more trinkets to their sound (track 7 features a
hilariously sleazy guitar line and funny flyrics too! A keeper! - another one, "Pink
Triangle" starts with a xylophone and has outrageously funny lyrics about accidentally
falling in love with a lesbian! THESE ARE GREAT SONGS!), but unfortunately there are
still
three or four songs (out of a scant TEN - enjoy this 32-minute RIPOFF) that are a little
bogged down in sappy old-style Green Day chord sequences. Come on - track 4? Are you
kidding me? Sure, I love the line "I'd might as well keep wackin'" or whatever (Rivers
is
pretty fuckin funny when he wants to be), but that guitar line is like - I mean little
kids
pick up a guitar and play that one. It's like a joke, it's so predictable. And that
acoustic
song at the end about how he cheated on the girl? I feel no sympathy- (A) Don't cheat on
people! (B) The music is boring! And track 6 - First of all, I know that this band has
heard
"Fire" by Bruce Springsteen. Secondly of all, I know that this band has heard "Santa
Monica" by Everclear. Third of all, the rest of the song is boring too, even though I
like it
and often refer to it as "the best song ever written." While we're on the subject of
lyrics, am I nutso crazy or is track 5 (goodsong, by the way - "I've Got Your Letter,
You've
Got My Song" - cute!) about how much he wants to have sex with an 18-year-old fan?
Sure, he resists, but did I hear a line in there about "I wonder how you touch yourself"?
Finally! A "The Knack" for the nineties! In re-reading this piece, I discovered the
joys of
the typo "flyrics." If possible, have this inserted into the next big Dictionary that
comes
out. Make the definition something like "Words to songs that flies sing on live
international TV." Ha ha! MAN, do I miss Sniglets!
Yeah! This is it, Weezer's best album (out of two). Kind of a concept album, in the way of Pet Sounds. (you know, all the songs are about girls) But anyway, what a great album. 10 songs that all kick my pants off, burn them, and then smack me on my bare bottom forty or fifty times. And the production rules too. It's very raw and lots of distortion, etc etc etc.......
You got your metal-like opener "Tired of Sex", you got your metal-like 2nd song, "Getchoo", you got your poppy song "No Other One", and then stuff really gets good. "Why Bother?", a punk rock (kinda-not really)pop song with funny lyrics. That's another cool thing about the Weez. In serious songs, that describe painful personal relationships, Rivers will throw in some funny adverbs or something to lessen the pain. "Across the Sea" is the 5th song, and a perfect pop song. It's very good, you should hear it. "The Good Life" kinda sounds like that Everclear song, but it's still pretty good. "El Scorcho" was the single from this album, and it's very catchy. I'm gonna listen to it right now. Then there's "Pink Triangle", which every music mag critic feels obligated to quote, but I'm not even gonna talk about it. Actually, I am, it's a cool song, but I'm not gonna quote it. "Falling for you" is a very super-awesome rockin' killer song song. Yeah. The last song supposedly sounds like Big Star, but I've never heard Big Star, so I wouldn't know. It's called "Butterfly". It's acoustic. Yeah, and Rivers's voice cracks! Right in the middle of the song! But it's such a pretty song. Did you know that in the "Ninja Turtles" movie, this one kid has a Sid Vicious shirt on? yup.
More stuff: good artwork, and the reason Pinkerton doesn't get a 10, is that does it really deserve to be up there with Zen Arcade, White Album, etc? Maybe it does...... good record.
This album is where Weezer took their pop songs and
infused them with enough energy and sloppiness to make
them interesting. The leads don't exactly follow the
vocal melodies, unlike the majority of the songs on
Blue and Green, there's variation in the
singing style, and there's just a lot of fun contained
herein. In conclusion, I'd probably give this one a
9. Definitely the best Weezer money can buy.
Now we just have to hope that albums 4 and 5 (4's
coming soon, and they're working on 5 as of this
writing) are better than Green. I'm trying to
keep optimistic, hoping Green was either a
creative slump or a (successful) bid for renewed
popularity.
But the crazy, crazy thing was that the followup to The Blue Album was actually originally intended to be a concept album called songs from the black
hole. From what I've gotten to hear (which is pretty much what everyone but Rivers, the band, and "fifth member" Karl Koch has heard), it's an
interesting idea, but can you imagine how much worse that would have done commercially than Pinkerton? People couldn't deal with that wholesome
dorky guy who sang that buddy holly song singing about promiscuous sex, drugs, and general miserableness, let alone him dealing with all of these
themes in a rock opera with an apparently science fiction-like storyline involving robots and a mission to save the planet Nomis from falling into the sun.
So on to the actual music I guess. Still pretty much being an insecure college kid, I always go back to this album when I'm dealing with love woes or
whatever a less lame sounding term would be, but even when I'm not I always enjoy it because a lot of it's the most melodically inventive this here band
has ever gotten. Like how "Across The Sea" keeps building up and having all these little melodic bits you weren't expecting, or that sudden
unanticipated fast "how stupid is it..." bit in el scorcho. You'd never expect this band to, I dunno, go do an album where all the songs are like 5 seconds
long, follow the exact same formula, and all have guitar solos that are exactly the same as the verse melodies.
I'll agree that 3 of the songs Mr. Prindle named (or rather numbered, and thus made me have to go look at my cd to figure out what the hell songs he was
talking about) aren't too hot though. why bother does have funny lyrics but generic punk rock chords, butterfly isn't about cheating on a girl I don't think
but is awful boring unless it hits you in the right mood, and getchoo is downright annoying. Although despite being a crappy song, the latter actually
has it's place in a wacky joke on the listener, unless I'm imagining things. See, the cd starts off with these two sort of loud droney college rock-ish songs,
tired of sex and of course getchoo. Then there's kind of this build up of feedback, Rivers Cuomo letting out an almost David Lee Roth-ish "YOW!!!!", and
a loud drum intro, all of which make you anticipate another rocker, but instead you get "no other one", basically the loudest ballad known to man or
something. I don't think the good life sounds anything like santa monica though. santa monica goes "der nu, der ner der ner ner nu, wicky wicky, der ner
ner ner ner nu, wicky wicky, der ner ner ner NU!", while the good life is just sort of a steady "der ner ner ner NU, der ner ner ner NU".
in conclusion: FLYRICS!!!!!!!!
(in commenting on pinkerton, I realized my duty to defend weezer on the whole).
They already had an album called Weezer! They
couldn't come up with ANYTHING ELSE?!?!?! Are these guys heroin addicts or something?
If I were still the entire band Weezer, I would have been hilarious and called it
Julian Cope & Peter Gabriel: 2Gether And Live!. But time is short and lives
change. Remember that the next time you take a loved one for granted. Think about how
he or she could die at any time. Think about how that would make you feel. And do this
ALL THE TIME. Got it? Good. Now you know what it feels like to be world-lameass
record reviewer Mark Prickle! Now, on to the album - first of all, it's 29 minutes
long.
It took them FIVE YEARS to come up with 29 minutes of music. I can name three different
bands that have put out EPs that were 45 minutes. This is supposed to count as a full
album??? In 2001 (A Space Odyssey)???? I don't even think The Ramones ever made an
album this short! It's not like they're the damn Circle Jerks or something; they're just
a
stupid pop band. They couldn't come up with 15 more minutes of generic chord
sequences after FIVE YEARS??? I could've written most of these songs in five MINUTES!
And believe you me, that's not a statement about my incredible, unparallelled songwriting
talent that will never be touched because it's perfect - it's a statement about how
predictable the songs are. Not about how fucking incredible everything I've ever done
is.
Especially "Owner Of A Grocery Cart (Much Better Than The Owner Of A Stale Pop-
Tart)." You know what song rules? "A Mother Mother Fuck" by David Peel. My wife
brought home some Berry Berry Kix and now I can't stop singing `A Mother Mother Fuck!"
The song only has FOUR WORDS! And two of them are the SAME WORD! FOR GOD'S
SAKE HAVE PITY ON MY SOUL AND THROW GALLONS AND GALLONS OF POWDERED
COCAINE AT ME UNTIL THE SONG GOES AWAY!!! AWAY!!!!!! Also lazy is a lot of the
songwriting on here. The first two tracks (out of 10) sound like the worst of Screeching
Weasel SLOWED DOWN. Laughably old chord sequences that would love to be The
Ramones but have NO EDGE AT ALL. And la-la-la vocal melodies, of course. It picks up
after that, thank God, with the hit single "Hash Pipe," which I enjoy the hell out of
because
it's the only song they've ever done that doesn't sound like Weezer! It's a heavy metal
song! With falsetto vocals! THIS is the kind of stylistic diversity that could make me
really
like the band. But if you're just going to play simple straight fuzzy chorded Beatles
tributes, the weaker ones are always going to stand out as weak. Especially in
comparison to awesome songs like track 4 and track 6 (LOVE that one! It's faster than
the
others and has great John/Paul harmonies). This is Paul McCartney songwriting all
the way. Aside from "Hash Pipe," every tune on here sounds like a fruity post-Beatles
pop
song that just happens to be played with really loud distorted guitars. I don't mean to
sound so critical. It's perfectly pleasant music, and the guy still has a great voice.
It's
just not anything that I personally would choose to listen to when there's so much more
diverse, powerful, smart and interesting music out there to choose from. Like Melissa
Etheridge and Electric Light Orchestra Part Two.
I don't like it neither. I waited a couple of weeks to
actually write the review, `cause I thought some big
revelations might hit me. They didn't. This is Weezer's
dumbest, simplest music ever. Oh, but isn't all
their music dumb and simple, you say? Not like this.
Remember Prindle's review of Nevermind, where
he said that every single song is predictable, and if a
song has a guitar solo the solo will follow the vocal
melody exactly? That's this album, but The Green Album
(officially called Weezer, just like the first
one) is certainly not loaded with classic tunes like that
naked baby record is.
Rivers Cuomo said that he wanted to write less personal,
more universal lyrics on this album. But he
should have taken Intro to Creative Writing, where he
would have learned that by being more specific, we
become more universal. Ever think, how's come the
lyrics on Pinkerton hit so much harder than this one
(or The Blue Album-those lyrics were dumb, but they
were funny too, and definitely not generic)?
Rivers, you used to write personal, honest words;
now it's trite generic blather like "gimme some love,
gimme some love, gimme some I want you to know."
Rivers, give us some love, or rather some better
lyrics!
Also missing from The Green Album (ever notice how the
three albums are Blue, Pink, and Green?), is
bassist Matt Sharp's falsetto harmonies. I've read that
new bass player Mikey Welsh (formerly of Blake
Babies-I think.) takes up the castrato parts on the old
tunes, but none of these new tunes have that
Beach Boys vocal feel of yore. In addition, I never
noticed until now that Matt always laid down some
tuneful bass lines, not following the guitar chords
exactly like Mr. Welsh seems to love to do so much.
Also missing: humanity and emotion. God, this album
is more un-human than that new Radiohead record
(a masterpiece, in my opinion-better than Kid A.
But we're talking about Weezah rite naah). This Green
Album, it's robotic. It's catchy and singable, but
in a formulaic now-we'll-write-a-catchy-tune feel.
Emotion leaks through the cracks in about 2.1 songs.
Like I said, most tunes have gee-tar solos that
follow the vocal melody exactly, and it's boring.
Many tunes have parallel harmony on the singing
throughout the whole tune. Harmony can be very
exciting, but not when it's used so predictably and
boringly (is that a word?). The production keeps
the "wall of guitar" thing going on, but it just doesn't work
on pretty pop like Weezer. On The Blue Album,
Weezer pounded their songs with joy and excitement,
and on Pinkerton, Rivers exorcised the demons of
his soul and rocked like a muthafuh while he was at it.
On this one, the whole band seems to lack energy.
They pound the tunes into the floor. This one was
produced by Ric Ocasek, just like Blue, and it's just
too clean and sterile for its own good.
Maybe I'm being too harsh. I really like some of the
tunes. "Island In The Sun" is the obvious good song
here, but "Photograph" and "Knock-down Drag-out" are both
catchy and fun as hell, despite the
inhumanity. The first single "Hash Pipe" features a
faux-heavy guitar riff and a cool descending melody
thing, and might be about a transvestite prostitute.
Funny how MTV can't have the word "hash" on the air,
but it shows videos targeted towards preschoolers
that are loaded with ass-shaking and sexual
innuendoes. "Don't Let Go," "Simple Pages," and
"Glorious Day" all have super-crappy lyrics, but also have
parts that are really neat, like the chorus of "Simple
Pages," or the beginning riff of "Glorious Day." It's also
like 28 minutes long, which is nice when the songs
range from "pretty good" to "quite mediocre."
The songs are not terrible, just not up to standards of Blue
and Pink. There are parts in every song,
excluding "Crab," that rank up there with their best tunes.
But none of the songs are really put together in
a way that makes them good songs. I hear some Big Star
in a lot of these songs, especially the quite
great closer "O Girlfriend." I feel disappointed though.
Almost betrayed; here's this band that almost saved
my life, is certainly responsible for my first kiss,
and generally kept me happy and well-adjusted; here's a
band who made two records I've listened to probably
about 5000 times apiece; now they come out with
this? God. You know, I'm now giving both Pinkerton
and The Blue Album nine stars, and you can pick
which one gets a ten. This one gets a six.
As if this review wasn't long enough: Rumor
has it that Weezer has been recording more
demos and playing more new tunes live. Maybe
a fourth record within the year? Let's hope it's
better. In the meantime, find some of those
B-sides. "You Gave Your Love To Me Softly" is one
of their best-ever songs; "Susanne," "Jamie,"
"Sweet Adeline (My Evaline)," "The Christmas
Song," and "Christmas Celebration" are all great
too. They also did "Velouria" for some Pixies
tribute album, but it's not all that exciting.
Kind of like The Green Album.
But the larger implication is that we should forget about Pinkerton, the "black sheep"
(notice it is black in color!) of Weezer albums. And this goes far beyond the sleeve
design---the album's sound and feel seem like nothing more than Rivers Cuomo's self-conscious
reaction to every record critic in the free world having told him that his extremely
personal Pinkerton was just a big stinky piece of shit. That reaction? "Well, then, let's
just make the first album again!"
Ric Ocasek is back at the wheel, burying nearly every track in the same signature
over-massed eighth-note guitar chords that rendered much of "The Blue Album" a whole lot less
catchy than it could have been. Gone is the glorious garage-band feel of the
self-produced Pinkerton, with its Albini-esque drum production and flavorful guitars.
In fact, gone is just about every subtle nuance that, in my mind, pushed Pinkerton's
songwriting above that of the debut album. All those cool interweaving lead guitar lines?
Changes in dynamics? Speed-ups and slow-downs? Forget it, bub. It's just big muddy hunks
of guitar chords with melodies that are only "catchy" by virtue of the fact that ANYBODY
can write a decently catchy melody/harmony combo over these ever-so-pedestrian
1-4-5-and-some-minor-chords progressions. Only "Hash Pipe," with its pissy falsetto verse melody,
reminds us of how Weezer used to actually make us ENJOY listening to the same chords we've
heard a million times before.
My conclusion: if you liked the first album better than Pinkerton, this album will just
make you want to listen to the first album again. It will also make you realize what a
cool departure Pinkerton was from what is evidently "the Weezer sound." And if, like me,
you liked Pinkerton more, you'll only be more angry about the classic bait-and-switch
Rolling Stone pulled on poor oversensitive Rivers---give Weezer a glowing cover story for
the debut, then turn a deathly cold shoulder to the commendable effort that clearly went
into Pinkerton. Bastards! I guess they were just too excited about Electronica, the
Next Big Thing.
But then, perhaps I was silly to rush right out and spend 18 bucks on this 10-song,
28-minute CD in the first place.
This album is touted as a return to The Blue Album but I would hardly
call it that. That record was brilliant, inspired, and dynamic. Yes, the
media has since declared it sugary sweet pop music for geeks, but the truth
is that the album is a startling burst of power pop, tinged with an element
of extreme sarcasim, garage rock experimentalism, and soul. This record
hardly comes close, and it's sad. Rick Ocasek has managed to squeeze all of
the life out of this record. There are no soft, acoustic introductions or
climactic build-ups to be found. There are no sudden bursts of feedback
mid-song to be found and the lyrics are the kind of empty sugary sludge
parodied in earlier tracks like "Buddy Holly". It sounds empty, soulless.
Rolling Stone. MTV even, although whether or not they will take them back
is up to the gods to decide...
Having said all of this, the album is still somewhat enjoyable. "Hash Pipe"
has an interesting melody (kicking off with a Beatles reference), "Knock
Down Drag Out" is catchy and fun despite it's simplicity, and "Photograph"
could very well have fit on "The Blue Album" with the best of 'em. It's
easily the best track on here. But elsewhere very little inspiration is
found (except maybe "Island in the Sun"), and sometimes the songs are
dismally bad ("Glorious Day"). It's not a waste of money but from Weezer we
all expected much more. For instance, during the Winter 2001 tour they
opened with an amazing song before breaking into "My Name Is Jonas", but
sadly it is not even here! Maybe Rivers is saving up the good stuff for
later? Who knows? Hopefully, this will sell plenty of copies and Rivers
will get the guts to come out with another Pinkerton. Until then, keep on
spinning those other two discs of beauty....
Just kidding. I am a man, but for some reason I don't despise all the
female artists out there in creation. Although I don't like Kim Gordon.
Thank fucking God she didn't go solo. Great band she's in, tho'.
Unfortunately, this IS my favorite Weezer album. Not that I think they're
that great of a band, but they beat the ever-loving snot out of Good
Charlotte any day of the week.
Decent pop-punk album. Better than Dookie. I give it a 9.
But only ten songs? After five years? ERAGH!
I've never been terribly impressed by these charlatans, and now I'm downright irritated by them. I love the idea of using really loud heavy distorted guitars to play catchy melodic pop -- but Weezer aren't any good at writing catchy melodic pop! Plus the lyrics, long considered Rivers Cuomo's strong suit, sound like they were written by a 10-year-old ("I've seen this game before/My love walks right to your door/There ain't no hope for me no more"? "Get yourself a wife/Get yourself a job/You're living a dream/Don't you be a slob"? This is what critics call the "moon/June/soon" type of hackneyed garbage songwriting. Luckily I'm not a critic so I can just say they sound like they were written by a 10-year-old). Every song on here is either a '70s Mountain-style hard rock riff or a power pop melody so boring, generic and OLD that I have to ask -- If you have nothing at all to contribute to the world of music, why not just retire?
Judging from the fact that I got this on ebay for one dollar about six months after it came out, I'll have to guess I'm not the only one who feels this way. If you want good loud guitar power pop, buy the first four Cheap Trick albums. They're fantastic. Heck, you might even like the first Weezer album, with the honestly great poper pow tunes "Buddy Holly" and "Say It Ain't So" on it! But this one is really pretty bad. Hence the name "Maladroit," which, when translated into English from its original language through hours of intensive codecracking, means "INEPT." When you have to actively SEARCH for a riff you haven't already heard in 10-15 other power pop songs by other bands, you're looking at creative bankruptcy.
And when you're working for FAO Schwarz's parent company, you're looking at financial bankruptcy! Ha ha ha! Fuck You, Toy Bastards!
(later)
Every once in a while, a band I've been following for a long time puts out a new album and I have a kneejerk positive reaction, only to come to my senses later on and realize it is in fact a piece of shit. It happened with Mink Car by They Might Be Giants, and now it happened with this album. Well ok, I was exaggerating, neither of those are entirely pieces of shit, but they sure as hell ain't no 8's either.
See, this one almost sounded like it was better than the last album to me at first because it doesn't particularly have bland predictable arrangements and isn't produced so that every ounce of energy is drained out of the performances. But I somehow failed to notice that Rivers "Ribachu" Cuomo didn't come up with very many good melodies at all this time out. It's not all bad though, "Dope Nose" and "Keep Fishin" are fun pop songs, if sort of derivative of past singles, "Burndt Jamb" has a neat hippy-jazz groove, "Slave" and "Death And Destruction" are pretty good ballads, even though the former starts out like it's a freaking Creed song or something and the latter was better when it was an instrumental, and finally, for an obvious T-Rex ripoff, "Take Control" still rocks out with it's cock out. The rest of the album, however, is passable to utter crap.
I'm honestly kind of worried about this whole "tiny 30 minute album every year" thing Rivers seems to be pushing the band into as of late. In theory it sounds good, after all, there was a 5 year wait for the last tiny under-30-minute album, but I think the band needs more time than that to seperate wheat from chaffe or what have you. Rivers does seem to write new songs every 5 seconds now, but either it's become a quantity over quality thing and he only pulls out a good one every once in a while, or he's just really bad at picking which ones go on his albums. After all, Maladroit was self-produced, so I guess there was no one around to say "um, this sounds exactly like that 'locomotion' song" or whatever. It's rumored that Rick Rubin will produce the next one, hopefully he'll get some quality control up in there.
I just realized that since I wrote my original comments before the review was even up, there's probably going to be a "a year later" thing above this one, and therefor it's going to look like I'm making a second comment on one of the most recent Prindle reviews a year in the future. Which of course is true. It's 2004 right now! They found a cure for cancer, and I'm listening to this album with my mind! Everyone wears the same exact metallic outfit everywhere and the world is ruled over by gigantic metal insects! It's crazy!
I found out they even had a second album, Pinkerton, which I couldn't
stand the first itme I heard, but the more I listened to it, the more it
blew me away. I couldn't stop listening to it for months. It was the first
album I had owned that had any edge to it at all (I had been listening to
stuff like Offspring at the time...) It opened the doors for me to get into
stuff you don't hear on the radio. It always held a big place in my heart
because of that. I wouldn't stop obsessing over them, trying to get people
into them. Then the green album came out...basking in the reflected glory
of their first 2 albums, I listened to it, and automatically thought 'it's
weezer, it kicks ass' and to be honest, it was fairly catchy. Then after
the first 2-3 months, it just started sickening me. It had no feeling, no
depth, no emotion at all to it. It was just mindless pop garbage. The band
tried making everyone think they were going back to their roots, which
would've been fine cause the blue album was great. It was pop, but it had a
certain smartness and feeling to it. The green album lacks any sort of soul
the blue album had. The band did their best to ignore the fact that
Pinkerton even existed. At shows they played Tired of Sex...and that was
it. 7-8 songs from Blue, 7-8 songs from Green...1 from Pinkerton. They
would sell autographed cd's...of the blue and green albums. I can't even
stand the band anymore. I have no respect left for Rivers and his crew.
Maladroit, I listened to twice. Keep fishin...catchy, but that's all.
Muppets = fun too, but again, it's 1 song out of a full album. All they
want now is to sell records. This is probably one of the most cliche lines
when talking about bands, but it used to be about the music, and now it's
not, and for that I am terribly disappointed. There's very select few bands
that I ever got emotionally attached to...in fact weezer's the only one I
can think of, their music was there for me in a really tough time, and they
let me down, and they let me down HARD. I refuse to wear my weezer hoodie
anymore simply because I'd get stopped on the street 'Hey! I love Keep
Fishin and Hash Pipe! All 3 of their albums were great! And what's great
is they never change, so it's always gonna be good!' and I just want to
strangle them for being so fucking ignorant. I can't even think about the
band anymore without being disgusted.
On a sidenote, I'm surprised no one has mentioned how weezer was HEAVILY
influenced by Pixies, and even has almost the same riffs and basslines on a
lot of their songs. They change them enough so that you can't notice unless
you take them apart, but cut of Frank's vocals, the lead guitar and various
noises from a Pixies song, and you're left with about 75% of your average
weezer song, especially if you're taking the songs from Trompe le Monde.
Many of us in life are often offered the opportunity to submit a story idea to a top British magazine of the day. I thought, "Say, wouldn't it be funny if I were to interview today's top celebrities over the telephone, but make them like PRANK interviews?" So I came up with a whole bunch of ideas in the middle of the night, excitedly emailed them off to the editor, and he called me five minutes later to tell me that the ideas were "the worst pieces of shit (he'd) ever had the misfortune of reading in his life" and to demand that I pay him $5000 "for a lifetime supply of air freshener to get the rancid, urine-like stench of these rotten, maggot-infested ideas out of my office." As such, I'm going to share them with YOU, the reader! That way, you'll finally have the opportunity to experience what it's really like to be a British magazine editor.
- You set me up to interview an artist who has recorded many albums, and
whose work I am very familiar with. Just an example, let's say Angus
Young
of AC/DC. And in my mind (and in my introduction to the interview for
YOU,
but not known to the artist), my goal is to ask the artist about EVERY
SINGLE SONG he has ever recorded, in chronological order. In tedious
detail. But I won't actually SAY this to the interviewee, see. So for
Angus, I would spend 15 minutes asking different questions about the first
song on their first Australian album, which was "Baby Please Don't Go"
("why did you start your first album with a cover?" "did you play a lot
of
covers in your early days?" "Did you always play it like a fast punk
song,
or did you originally play it as a normal blues number but it just
gradually
developed into its final form?" "that guitar thing you play at the
beginning of the second half - is that the same thing as eddie van halen's
'hammer-on' technique?" "Had you heard another guitarist using that style
before, or did you come up with that yourself?" "How about that part
where
Bon says something, and you follow it up by mimicking his voice with your
guitar? Did you guys practice that a lot to get it perfect, or do you
actually know your way around a guitar that well that you could imitate
his
voice no matter what he did with it?) -- after 15 minutes of this, I would
say, "Okay, let's move on to the next song" and pull the same bullshit
again. I'd just like to see how long I could get away with this before
the
artist goes, "Excuse me -- are you planning on asking me about every
single
song I've ever done?"
- You set me up with somebody with a long history of several different
bands
who is currently supporting a new project, and I instead focus entirely on
one of his more obscure projects. For example, you set me up with Paul
Rodgers, who just issued a CD fronting Queen, and I spend the
entire interview asking him questions about The Firm's "Mean Business"
album
from 1986.
- This would work for anybody. I ask a few normal questions and then say,
"So this new album is on Columbia?" (artist: yeah, yeah) I continue,
"How
did you get on Columbia?" (he answers) Me: "Hmm. I actually record
music
myself here at home. Do you think - could I send you a demo and have you
play it for them? My stuff is sort of a cross between Frank Zappa and
hardcore punk rock and -- here, hang on - let me play you a little" and
then
play some of my own music, and just keep asking questions related to me
--
"Would they want to send somebody to see me play live? I don't really
ever
play live shows" "Do you think I should grow my hair out? It used to be
long, but I've had it short for a while." "They won't make me change the
lyrics or anything, will they?" and just see how long I can get away with
it.
--- The "Hilarious Whoopee Cushion Prankster" Interviewer. This would run like a normal interview, except that during one of the interviewee's answers (probably, say, 3rd answer), I squeeze a whoopie cushion right into the phone. When he stops and questions me, I'll remain completely composed and say I didn't hear anything. We'll continue and I'll do it again. I'll maintain my innocence and confusion - I don't hear anything, is it a bad connection, should I try calling back etc. Then I'll ask another question, and during the next answer, I'll squeeze just tiny little bits - pbll! pbll! pbll! - that he may or may not even notice. Then after he's finished and it's time for a new question, I'll say, "Hang on one second" and blow air into the whoopee cushion (filling it back up) directly into the phone, so he can't help but hear. I will then continue to deny that it's me, and see where it goes, how mad he gets, and whether he just hangs up.
In print this would look like:
"Yeah, so when we started doing Sgt. Pepper, I said, "Say, I have a mustache -
(*BRAAAAAAAPPPPPPP!!!!*)
"... Excuse me?"
and so on. You can bill it drily as the "Hilarious Whoopee Cushion Prankster Interview" and there will be no element of humor in my manner or dialog. Just the dumb noise over and over.
--- The "UK" interviewer - This would take advantage of the fact that you are a British publication. It would have to be with an American artist/performer. You would tell him to expect a call from your freelance interviewer Adrian Harrington from London. I would then call from my home in NYC, using a ludicrous fake British accent. I would then fill the interview with antiquated British slang, moronic questions that no true Britainer would ask, and references to British pop culture figures from today and yesteryear that the American interviewee couldn't possibly know. I think your audience would get a kick out of this! You wouldn't have to say anywhere that I'm not actually British, yet the interview would look like this in print:
"Cheerio, mate! Cor blimey, innit? Lissen 'ere, mate.... This new record o' yours - it's wot - get in the queue and Bob's your uncle, innit?"
"Ha! Yeah, I guess so."
"It's like eh... Robin Askwith wif 'ees bum out, innit?"
"Umm..."
"'Ello 'ello 'ello! Check this, roy'? See, over here, I have a Prime Minister, me. But over there, you have - eh, what-you-call - a President! Cor blimey, innit? Sort of a... M5 agragarian eh... Fookin' Maggie, right?"
"I guess so?"
--- The interviewer and his wife - This has happened on a small scale during a couple of my real interviews, so I think it would be funny to take it to its logical extreme. This would be planned out beforehand with my wife, who would be sitting on the couch while I sat at the computer desk and did the call. I'd start the interview off really excitedly telling the performer how much I like him, and him saying thanks and all that. Then my wife would say (and he'd only barely hear this in the background) "Tell him I said I love 'Fancy Day' (or whatever - some song by the guy)" Then I would say to the perfo -- well look, let me put this in print for you, so it will make more sense.
"Man, it's great to finally have a chance to speak to you! I'm a big, big fan!"
"Well thanks! It's no problem."
(my wife) "Tell him that 'Stairway to Heaven' kicks ass!"
"My wife told me to tell you that 'Stairway to Heaven' kicks ass!"
"Oh! Yeah, that was a good one."
(to my wife) "He said 'Yeah, that was a good one!"
(my wife) "Tell him I love his singing voice in that one!"
"She told me to tell you that she loves your singing voice in that one."
"Oh! Well, tell her thanks. Heh heh!"
(to my wife) "He says thanks!"
(my wife) "Tell him you're welcome!"
"She said to tell you you're welcome!"
"Well gee, would SHE rather do the interview?"
(to my wife) "He said, 'Would SHE rather do the interview?'"
(my wife) "Ha! Tell him no thanks! I'm reading!"
"She said to tell you 'No thanks, she's reading!"
(etc etc etc)
--- The "Computer Guy" interviewer -- This jerk (me) has all his interview questions in a Word file on his computer, but can't get the file to open. I see it progressing as follows:
Me: "Hi, thanks for taking the time to talk to me!"
Him: "No problem!"
"So what have you been up to today?"
"Oh, not much. Just doing some interviews."
"Some interviews? Any good ones?"
"Nah, just your basic ones."
"Mmm."
(pause)
Him: "So..."
Me: "Hang on, I'm just waiting for the -- I've got my questions in a Word document. I'm waiting for it to open."
"Ah. Okay."
"Just one sec."
(pause)
Me: "Damn. Dammit! It froze. Hang on, I have to restart. I'm sorry about this."
"No problem! No problem."
(pause)
Me: "So... how's the weather there?"
"Not bad, not bad. Little rainy."
"Ah."
(pause)
Me: "Okay, it's starting up. One sec."
"Okay."
(pause)
Me: "So... are you gonna see this new Cronenberg movie?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"Okay, it's back up. Here we go. Oh, actually let me check my email real quick."
"Huh?"
"Oh great, Dave finally wrote" (reading to myself) "hey mark, can you come over and da da da - da da da at 11 pm on -" Eleven? I can't make it at 11:00!"
"What's that?"
"One sec." (at this point, I begin to very loudly and obviously type a response email to 'Dave'). (reading to myself quietly and angrily as I type) "it's ridiculous of you to think I'm going to get off work at 5:30 and than hang around until 11 just to get a couple of stupid tapes from you. If you had (etc etc)"
"Can we get to the interview now? I'm kind of in a hurry."
"One sec. (reading, finishing the note) - will talk to you tomorrow. There we go. Okay, let me open up these questions."
(pause)
"Fuck! It froze again!"
(and from here, ANYTHING could happen!)
Those were my ideas. Isn't it crazy that this British editor wasn't running around telling everybody in rave form how much he liked them? Instead, he called my local police department and told them I was a heroin salesman. Why did he do that?! I wasted a whole evening injecting my entire stash into my balls while the police searched every nook, cranny, crook and nanny in my apartment. But you know what they say about the British: "You get what you pay for!"
On that note, let's turn to a different topic: that of the failure of Weezer to follow up their promising first two albums with anything of substance at all. First of all, I'll freely admit as an honest man that la-de-da power pop isn't one of my preferred forms of music. From the selection I've heard (Matthew Sweet, Weezer, others with 'wee' in their names) (and panties), power pop seems to too seldom deviate from simple chord sequences that I've heard a literal ass-trillion times before. With any form of music, obviously there are going to be some bands who do it better than others - for example, if it's safe to call Cheap Trick a 'power pop' band, their first five albums are terrific! - but the once wildly-overappreciated Weezer just seem to be getting blander and more predictable with each release.
Hey! You know what I just remembered? A few weeks ago when I was in Academy Music on 18th St., home of the least interesting conversations you will ever hear in your life, one of the employees was whistling "Buddy Holly"! Man, I wanted to punch that guy. Luckily for both of us, I"m a coward.
But there's no "Buddy Holly" on this album. There's not even a "Say It Aint So" on here. There IS a hilarious 80s-sounding chug-chug-chug Billy Idol-style rocker about being on drugs, as well as a very pretty ballad built upon guitar harmonics and a melancholy, evocative piano song from the point of view of a soulless jerk. Unfortunately, Make Believe is not a three-song cassingle, so the dint of the rest of the remainder of the CD is filled with obvious quiet-to-loud sing-songy dumbfuckery. Here's a bit of advice for today's musical groups: if the chord sequences of the first two songs on your new album are "tonic-subdominant-dominant" and "tonic-dominant-subdominant-dominant," BREAK UP. Christ, what is the point of even BUYING a guitar if you're not going to do ANYTHING AT ALL with it!? There are six fucking strings there! Imagine all the weird chords, chord combinations, and multi-note riffs you could come up with if you put even the slightest bit of effort into it. Jesus, I've written more interesting guitar lines with the first five frets shoved up my ass!
The lyrics are a 'mixed bag' too, as they say in the Peanut Manufacturers' Association. Aside from a few unfortunate cliches ("You are/Taller than a mountain/Deeper than the sea"; "But now I feel the shame/There's no one else to blame"; "When everything is wrong/I'll come talk to you/You make things all right/When I'm feeling blue"), Rivers does a decent enough job of describing loneliness, love and failing relationships, but his words are stripped down to the point where you can't tell whether he's seriously laying his feelings on the line in an honest, straightforward manner or just being lazy as shit (ex. "I hope you believe me/Cause I speak sincerely/And I mean it when I tell you/That I need you"). Either way, I quite enjoy this line: "One more tear/Falling down your face/Doesn't mean that much/To the world."
So that's that. Another unthrilling new Weezer album with generic chord sequences, uncompelling vocal melodies and sluggish tempos. Maybe they should call in some outside songwriters or something, because Rivers still has a very beautiful singing voice. He could be The Turtles of our generation!
Well, not my generation. I'm 400 years old. But SOMEBODY'S!!!!!
dont know how i didnt read that til now, but jesus, was it funny.
i sent it to wife, who read it responded, "he kills me. love this kind of writing."
me too.
congrats on being one of the funniest writers. period. still.
Man, am I fond of my velvet glove. It's so comfortable! I could wear
it day or night, it feels so soft and comfy against my hand. In fact, I
feel so strongly about my velvet glove that what I'd really like to do
is write a song about it. Unfortunately, I can't think of a rhyme for
"velvet glove." I tried "strife" but you really have to pronounce the
words weird to make it sound like they're rhyming. So I guess I'll go
on ramblin' and dreamin', just hoping that some day I'll think of a
rhyme for "velvet glove."
Rumor has it that somebody in Sydney, Australia 'tagged' a quote from my
Joy Division page onto a building. If you are that person, keep it up!
If not, get with the program! The M. Prindle Tag Program,
that is! Below please find some newly-crafted Mark Prindle quotes that
would make a perfect addition to any city building:
"This building is filled with rats and nose hair" - M. Prindle
"Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti? More like "Olufela SHIT
SHIT SHIT-SHIT, if you ask me!" - M. Prindle
"Don't blame me -- I voted to fuck your wife!" - M. Prindle
"Hi, I'm Steve Johnson" - M. Prindle
"Take two pills and call me in the morning, after I've fucked your wife!"
- Dr. M. Prindle
But enough of this wasted Internet space, wasting all our precious
limited Internet resources. Our real raisin d'etre for being here today
is to discuss the unsurprisingly lousy new Weezer album.
Has Weezer always sounded like Everclear? This album sounds just like
Everclear, all full of obvious pop-grunge choruses, way-too-loud
midtempo drumming, slick radio-friendly production... even the
vocals sound like Everclear! Not all the vocals, mind you
(particularly as tracks 7, 8 and 9 are sung by the other band members),
but Rivers Cuomo sure has an Art Alexakadilakakakakakis thing going on -
and not to anybody's supplement! (Art Alexakis sounds like an
asshole)
Incidentally, what's up with Weezer's "Flying W" logo? Do they honestly
think they're fit to lick the almighty bald spot of David Lee Roth And
His Van Halen? If so, somebody smack those fuckers; they stink.
First things first -- I love this album cover. It looks like somebody's
parody of a Weezer album cover, with the band dressed up as these
ridiculous characters: guitarist Brian Bell as bearded, long-haired
'70s pimp; drummer Pat Wilson as nerdy sweater-wearing academic; Rivers
as Paul Simon-esque mustachioed cowboy wimp; and bassist Scott Shriner
as Johnny Knoxville white trash rocker. The reason it works so well is
that these four characters look like they'd never even be seen in the
same room together, let alone the same band! Let alone the same
shitty band! But enough of my opinions; nobody reads record
reviews for opinions. Here then are some facts:
FACT: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Theme),"
though boasting a few truly nauseating passages, is nevertheless one of
the most progressive and ambitious pop singles since "Good Vibrations."
With no awkward segues or audible breaks, the song travels from idiotic
hip-hop ("Soon I'll be playin' in your underwear"!?) TO thick heavy rock
TO strummy light rock TO a reverbed choir of beautiful vocals TO
falsetto singing over a piano TO a bouncy part TO standard Weezer
grunge-pop TO - oh! Will it never end? Again, not every segment is a
winner and some of the lyrics are just grotesque, but you must
hear this song -- if only to hear Weezer do something
interesting for once!
FACT: They saved the two most memorable and emotionally resonant songs
for the very end of the record. Until then, it's a depressingly
inconsistent mixture of catchy chord changes and vomitous hipster posing
- all mixed super-slick to fit between The Plain White T's and Sheryl
Crow in your local family restaurant's rotten playlist (particularly
"Thought I Knew," since they stole the verse hook from Ms. Crow's "Soak
Up The Sun" in the first place).
FACT: There are some incredibly gorgeous full-band multi-vocal harmonies
to be found herein. Not nearly enough though, considering it's one of
their key strengths as a band.
FACT: "Heart Songs" is the most embarrassing piece of musico-nostalgic
schlock I've heard since The Righteous Brothers' "Rock & Roll Heaven."
Go download it now. It includes lyrics like "Eddie Rabbitt sang about
how much he loved a rainy night/Abba, Devo, Benatar were there the day
John Lennon died." All sung completely straight-faced. As many
lackluster songs as this band has produced, none have ever been as
all-encompassingly putrid as this one.
FACT: Many of this record's lyrics seem not just self-referential but
downright smug about Weezer's importance to the world of music.
Perhaps these are intended as ironic, but they just come across as
loathsome. Here are examples from a few different songs:
"In Act 1, I was struggling to survive
"I picked up a guitar
"Got together with my bros
"Everyone likes to dance
Okay, now that last one I know to be ironic because it was
apparently Rivers' reaction to Geffen telling him that his originally
submitted CD didn't have enough potential hit singles on it. However,
I've included it here because it demonstrates Rivers' inability to admit
(or recognize?) that he is not "above" writing happy songs with
catchy choruses that sound designed for radio success; in fact, it's
all he fucking writes!!! Believe me, Geffen was not telling him
that these songs were too 'difficult' or 'clever' for radio success;
they were trying to be polite about the fact that they're too
SHITTY to be hits!
The most interesting result of Weezer sucking so badly now is that their
first two records (both good solid pop-rock records, but no great
shakes) are now being remembered as Untouchable Timeless Masterworks.
Trust me - they're not!
New paragraph. WHat I mean to say is that I have a headache, and that
I never intend to listen to Weezer's red album unless I go to a really
boring party attended by boring people who have it on because
apparently there's like no other power pop bands in modern music
except for Weezer (because they get played on TV and other bands do
NOT). However, I do have to say that half the lyrics you ridicule
above do seem pretty fricking funny. So what if they're not ironic?
Let's just pretend they are, and never drink more than three shots of
vodka in rapid succession again. Yeah, I'll admit, it does raise your
body temperature by about five degrees per shot. On the other hand,
it's eighty degrees outside.
The problem with everything I've heard by Weezer since then is that it
DOES follow a formula. The red album is another triumph of mediocrity;
the melody to "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" sounds so close to
"Pink Triangle" that one can't help but notice how good that song was
and how average this one is. Song after underwhelming song, the album
plays it safe--a disc without risk.
Rivers Cuomo knows better than to play it safe. He demonstrated this
on Pinkerton, which hinted at a direction that was comparatively
noncommercial and (sometimes embarrassingly) introspective. Even if
Cuomo's musical self-examination influenced hordes of intolerably
self-indulgent emo acts, it yielded far more substantive results than
the shamelessly bland pop to which Weezer has since resigned itself.
Rivers Cuomo is smart. He's a talented songwriter who is fully
capable, financially AND intellectually, of all kinds of studio
experimentation. So what's holding back his spirit of adventure? Matt
Sharp (Weezer's original bassist) was wise to depart before the band
jumped the shark so pitifully.
The Weezer phenomenon is interesting; does anyone remember in the late 90s when it was cool to like Weezer in the punk scene? For awhile it was about as cool for mainstream "alternative rock" fans to like Weezer as it was to like The Presidents of the United States of America or whoever. But to hipsters, Weezer then became cool in a convuluted sort of way; it was cool because they were this band that mainstream fans wouldn't go anywhere near anymore. It also didn't hurt that Weezer perfectly fit in with the ultra-wimpy contrived nerd emo image that was the big trend in the late 90s punk scene.
Those two Weezer albums were good, and the fact that mainstream people considered them to be officially uncool to like made them seem even more attractive to certain people who have knee-jerk reactions to the mainstream. During this period, it was cool that you could go to the used record store and get those two really good albums for $1 from the bottom-of-the-barrel-Hootie-bin. That's definitely how I got introduced to them. I had been into punk rock for a couple years and the internet wasn't omnipresent like it is now, so in order to get anything I was interested in hearing I had to either go through mailorder or somehow manage to find rare gems in the local music stores. I was always on the lookout for anything even remotely acceptable that was only a buck. Once I got on the internet around 97, I found out on alt.punk that it was a cliche to be a punk rocker who liked Weezer. People were constantly praising Weezer on the alt.punk message board, and I actually remember participating in a long "name your favorite Weezer" thread. If I had to guess, I'd say that phenomenon can be traced back to a certain point when lots of people across the country thought that $2 for the Weezer discography seemed like a pretty swell deal.
Lots of people flaunted their Weezer fandom back then. It was textbook ironic hipster bullshit. One thing I noticed is that ever since Weezer made a comeback, hipsters no longer praise Weezer. The mystique is gone. This whole new generation picked up on the idea that Weezer is supposedly cool to like, but they aren't aware that the original reason why it was ever cool for hipsters to like Weezer is because of just how inherently uncool the band was after their second album bombed.
Not only is this possibly the greatest Weezer album (time will tell), but it's easily the best album released at all in the past few years. I don't remember being this blown away by new music since the one-two punch of Green Day's "American Idiot" and Brian Wilson's "Smile" in September of 2004 – an interesting coincidence, since one can hear shades the former in "Troublemaker" (which sounds almost nothing like Everclear, thank you) and the latter in "Dreamin'". Yet, both sparkle with punchy originality.
Elsewhere, aside from Cake-like "Pork and Beans" and "Thought I Knew" which sounds like Tom Petty-meets-"Soak Up the Sun" (I'll give you that one, Prindle), very little on this album sounds like anything or anyone else, not even Weezer.
And that's not a bad thing. Granted, "Heart Songs" is way too schmaltzy for its own good, but if you want to hear "Pinkerton", listen to "Pinkerton". This album is for people who want to hear a band performing at the top of their game without resting on their laurels musically. Here's hoping that Weezer continues to grow, even while everyone else insists on staying the same.
You gave this a 7 and Quadrophenia a 6????? Who Are You gets a 6 and
this gets a 7??? The Who Sell Out gets a 7 and this gets a 7??? Tommy
gets a 9 and this gets a 7????? The Who Sell Out gets a 7 and this gets a
7?????
This band sucks. The only good bands are REM and Pearl Jam. If a band isn't REM or
Pearl Jam, I don't even know why they bother forming. Because they're just going to
suck. Everybody sucks. I suck.
I've never heard this band. Are they any good?
These guys used to kick ass but then they cut their hair and now they're pussies. They
should change their name to Weezternative.
These guys used to tear but then they sold out and became fags. They should change
their name to Alternaweezer.
8/10
Weezer Weezer Weezer. I feel guilty about liking this album so much. Its SO unabashedly POP that it makes me feel like a sellout for even listening to it. But damn, there are a lot of catchy tunes on here.
I'm like Pat D. when it comes to this album. I feel like I should hate it with all my Danzig/Metallica/Slayer/Anthrax attitudes, but damnit.....this album is so damn fun. "The World has turned and Left Me Here" is one of the best songs on the album and "Undone: The Sweater Song"...oh man..just really fun stuff. They're catchy songs and not in an annoying way. An absolute wonderful listen. Other bands mostly take some getting used to, but this is one of the few albums I've had that when you first hear it, you gotta love it, and I've had it since 1994. I still dig this album.10 out of 10 for me on this one.
This is interesting. First I heard these guys playing Buddy Holly (as many of us have) and when I got the album, expecting that to be the only decent song, I was blown away! "My Name is Jonas","The World Has Turned", "Undone" and "Say It Ain't So" all have "HIT SINGLE" written all over them. These guys really know what they're doing. I give it a 10. It's really happy, noisy pop that is consistently entertaining and fun as hell! Of course, it's not really better than the White Album or The Who Sell Out, but what the hell. Wonder what else these guys have up their sleeves...
The Best. It deserves a 10. All of the songs kick the shit out of other power-pop bands. And the production is brilliant in my opinion. The first time I heard "Buddy Holly" on the radio I walked straight to my local Nice Price Books and picked up a used copy. It's so poppy but it's got that grindy heavy guitar tone. When the two guitars kick in, I just have to crank it up full-blast. It's got the coolest vocal harmonies. Buy it if you haven't yet.
What a quality album, this band are definately not womp. Best track is
say it ain't so, but i agree, they're all good. Only disappointment was when
i found that the line "i've just made love to your sweet memory one
thousand times in my hand" was actually "in my head." Ah well, nevermind. An
8. And why didn't they put 'Jamie' on this album??
I have never considered myself a pop-punk fan (and
let's face it, that's what Weezer does best) but this
is one hell of an enjoyable album! I agree with the 8,
but even a 9 doesn't seem unreasonable. It's the
self-concious geekiness (didn't that Rivers Cuomo go
to Harvard?) that gives all those three chord numbers
a sense of vulnerability, which I dig!
man this album ruled. I love this band to death, especially considering how
much depressing stuff is around in the 90s (even though some of it is great).
"Say it Aint So" has not been touched since it came out.
Hey, this is some catchy stuff! It's one of the best albums of the 90's in
my opinion, actually. Everything is great. Forget about Buddy Holly and
the Sweater Song. Those are the weakest tracks. Every song should have
been a hit. Who cares if it's sugary? It beats half the other crap that
came out in the 90's. This is one you can leave in your car CD player for
weeks. I give it a 12/10.
I can't quite understand why everyone seems to adore this band so much. You take some Ramones riffs, slow them down, throw in lyrics that sound like Big
Star in middle school, rip off the Feelies' Crazy Rhythms album cover, and you've got the new pop sensations? Oh wait, it must have been the cutesy video.
Shouldn't work that way. Everyone told me how wonderful this record was, so I finally listened to it, and I liked maybe three cuts..."Buddy Holly" has some
crunchy riffing, "Surf Wax America" is kinda cool, and "Only In Dreams" is still impressive, like Television dumbed way down. The rest of it is just grating and
massively overrated. ("Undone - The Sweater Song" is a particular offender.) Take away their sweaters, their horn-rims, and their videos, and what have you
got? A lowly 4.
I really like this album. Not as much as the preceding one but its still great. I agree
it is a bit overrated still though, but i enjoy it a lot. I mostly like "Surf Wax
America", "In The Garage", "Buddy Holly" (this one used to be wayyy overplayed), and "Only In
Dreams" would be great if not for it being 8+ minutes long. Ohh, "Holiday" is nice,
especially the falsetto in the middle. Overall i give this a high 8.
Mark, I've been reading this site since about mid-'99, back in my jaded Styx
days. In that time, your love life has moved from girlfriend, to fiancee,
now wife. How did you do it? Find a mate, I mean? Maybe it's the music ya
listen to, eh? But that don't make sense - the girls should be flocking to
me because I listen to Styx! Yeah right. And then I woke up. Naked in a
gutter. In New Orleans next to a homeless guy. Who asked me if this reader
comment had a purpose. Which it doesn't, except for reminding me how shitty
my love life is. But at least there's one thing more shitty than my love
life. Weezer.
...
...
I have GOT to lay off the cough syrup.
ROTFLMAO
Ahh, The Blue Album. I'd give it a 7 or an 8,
depending on my mood. I don't listen to it often, but
when I do, I just shut my mind off and enjoy the
ridiculously catchy songs. Shouts go out to all the
usual songs, but unlike some people I very much enjoy
the long end to "Only in Dreams". It holds my
interest, anyway.
weezer is the frigging best band in the universe. every song off the blue
album kicked. 95% of the their other stuff also kicks. anyone who says they
dont like weezer is a fool. no one can dislike weezer. they get a 10+
only in dreams is a great album closer
I deliberately went for this one last because I knew it would be tough to comment on. Ok, actually I commented on all the other weezer albums in an
entirely arbitrary order and it just happened that way, but I do sorta feel like the thing has been with me too long for me to give a really objective review.
Much like your copy of that first bloodrock album, I've been listening to it for so long it could be crap and I wouldn't know it. Well not crap, nothing with
say it ain't so and only in dreams on it could be crap, but I dunno, at least a couple dots-that-I-just-recently-figured-out-are-supposed-to-be-records
lower than I think. There's definitely millions of more innovative records out there, but at this point in their career these guys really knew how to handle
their pop melodies. Which they still kind of do, but now they're simpler and more formulaic melodies. Everything on this album gets in my head at one
point or other, and now thanks to this review "the world has turned..." will stick in my head with the lyrics to smells like teen spirit. Also, that stuff like
the acapella sections of "holiday" and "surfwax america", little melodic touches like that, those are the kind of things that make this album.
Don't forget that almost every solo on this album is simply an instrumental
version of the verse. Listen to it: boring. Rivers should give the solo
work back to the other dude-at least the solo stuff on Pinkerton was
interesting at points. Oh wait, his ego wouldn't let him (just Corgan's
wouldn't let him edit).
Hell yeah, what a great debut album! Every song here's really catchy, how can you NOT like the guitar line on "undone", the middle part of "Surf wax America" and the awesome ending of "Only in dreams". I keep skipping "Buddy Holly" though, Its theyre most radio overplayed song ever. Im just tired of it, I mean the video was shipped with Window 95!!! How about that??? Bill Gates must be a fan. Hehe hence - Nerd Rock! But the album is just top notch, Rivers has a great voice too. There is a 2cd deluxe version of this albim out now - the second cd has b-sides! 9/10
some odd characters from popular (or not so popular) music!:
Jesus Christ, Mark, even a 7 outta 10 is too much.
9/10
I cannot speak for the lasting power of Weezer in a positive light; they fell under the "another band" category out of the starting gate. But Pinkerton is definitely a good, creative record; a really nice amalgam of punk, soft, and progressive rock sensibility. From the piano noodling and lone clarinet that open "Across The Sea" to the closing chord of "Butterfly", the album is homogeneously entertaining. The "tribute" tracks that are one through four are those numbers that prevent the album from attaining even the lower tiers of excellence. But a good radio-ready modern rock album is a rare breed and, for the sake of ambition, this is a release that's very easy to recommend. In ten years this album will be a citizen of cut-out bins but, while power-pop is still marginally acceptable, this is one of only a handful of interesting records burning up the shoe-gazer's shelves.
(Referring to Glenn Lester's comment)
Wow, man. Gotta disagree with ya. Though I treat Weezer's first CD as if it were my nation's flag, the second one was somewhat of a disappointment. Yeah, it got a little play time with one halfway decent song on the radio, but for the most part, I think whatever produced that first album must have gone the way of Mcdonald's soft ice cream. Sorry-just couldn't let that one go.
I changed my mind. after some intense listening, i have decided that the 1st Weezer album is in fact far superior to the second. So, if you're reading this, pretend that i gave Weezer 9 stars, and Pinkerton 8. Because, song for song, the first album kicks the 2nd's butt. the 2nd, in retrospect, seems pretty uneven and a few songs are kind of half-baked. Like "No Other One", and "Getchoo". But the last four are still awesome. I guess, at the time, i really liked Pinkerton becuase of the lyrics and production... i don't know... see yuh......
In terms of depth, I have to agree with glenn's first ruling.
Pinkerton is so much better. I mean they aer still kind of misogynistic, but at
least Rivers's masochism on the second album kind of balances it out. I guess I
should confess I have listened to this album at least once every three
days for maybe the last three months. I've only recently gotten tired of
it... the second track on the first album makes me mad, and when he yells
"I'm ready let's do it baby" I want to smash something. But otherwise,
they're both good albums. The only way I'll forget them is if I forget my
adolescence.
Weezer is, without a doubt, the most overrated band of the last decade.
Hands down. No question. So there.
I don't really know why, but it took me years and years to simply plop
down the green for this little slice of plastic. And wee doggie! This is one
fine album! The first day I had it (which was yesterday), I listened to
it with caution, kind of hoping that it wouldn't really be as bad as I
thought it might. I mean the first album was just so perfect...could they
really do it again? Well, the answer is yes, but in a different way. This is
Weezer rawking out, kicking it in through some characteristically flawless pop
songs, but injecting them with even more of an edge than before. The
drums sound nice and live (sort of like The Pixies' "Surfer Rosa") and
everything is crisp, crunchy, and noisy. I personally really like "No Other One"
but I think by far and away the best moment on the album is "El Scorcho". At
long last....we get to hear Weezer play punk muzik!
Although no album will ever come close to the Blue album ( Rage
does kick ass though), Pinkerton rocks!!! It is October of 2000 and Weezer still sells out
every show immediately and I still listen to Pinkerton and Blue
everyday. Rivers' lyrics are amazing and go ridiculously well with the music. They really tried
new things with this album and it fuckin' rules. I loved when
they played Why Bother and El Scorcho here in L.A. not long ago and so did everyone else
proving that Pinkerton was a success even though everyone does
not recognize it...I guess it's our littel secret.
I really like this band, claimed to be the most influential alternative band
of the 90's by people who have never heard "Wave of Mutilation" by the Pixies
or "Cut your Hair" by Pavement. Yes, Weezer appeal more to that "emo" crowd
than their more surreal off beat influences...and i have to say, whenever i
go to a Weezer concert i hate about 95% of the people there. THey're all so
happy and annoying and they're always singing weezer songs in line and
cuddling with each other and wearing thick rimmed glasses to look like
Rivers...i want to throw them in a room with nothing but a few Joy Division
records and lock them in there. But it's not Rivers "trust me, my
stage presence is not an act, i'm really this earnest" Cuomo's fault so many
undesirables like his music (and who could blame them if Weezer is their
favorite band if the only other thing they listen to is
kiddie-dime-a-dozen-punk bands like the Get Up Kids), he's a really solid
songwriter who has the ability to write upwards of 10 awesome songs every 32
years. Okay, now that i've alienated all you sensitive emo-folk (who hate
being called that, wink) i can state that i like Pinkerton a bit better than
this one. Grittier...or maybe just because it sounds more like the Pixies, i
don't know. Weezer are awesome though, don't get me wrong..both albums get
8's methinks. But seriously...if you're going into Weezer withdrawl, try
buyin' up some pixies and pavement, you won't regret it...
I still can't say this album is better than the first one (there's some
sentimental attachment to it for me, actually), but this one is great too.
I was really hesitant to buy it. In fact, I didn't even hear it until last
summer. Boy, was I missing out! It's great that they did something new.
The raw sound is great. It's only a hair weaker than the first one. I give
it a 9/10.
I love this one! It sounds like Rivers is pulling a Kurt Cobain and trying to sound more
uncommercial here, but overall he just hits gold way more on this release. I love every
song on here, although i agree that some songs could of been released on the debut and it
wouldnt of sounded weird ("Why Bother"), but for the most part, theres more diversity. My
favorite song here is "Pink Triangle", and i love the xylophone and stuff in it! Plus the
lyrics are funny of course. I give this a 10.
Oh, how I love a good Sniglets reference. That
word is almost as funny as 'schmohawk', the insult
Jeff Goldblum utters at the beginning of "Transylvania
6-5000". Ah, Goldblum. As for "Pinkerton", it's no
"Crazy Rhythms", but what is, really? Prindle, why
don't you do a Feelies page? I know Bill Million,
y'know...he'd be very pleased (as would the companies,
if I can slip in an obscure Dead Kennedys reference).
weezer's pinkerton is about as good as blue and a lot better than that green
album.but what i wrote to say is that i happened to acquire a pre-release of
Maladroit, weezers fourth album to be released April 18th and it is MUCH
better than green. theres lots of stuff they havent done before on it and
some kind of bluesy stuff. peace
This is clearly Weezer's best album. Anyone who tells
you otherwise probably either has some sort of
emotional attachment to the first album that's
impairing their judgement, or they're
johnny-come-latelys who like The Green Album.
Or they just have different musical taste from me...
Whatever.
I think to fully appreciate this album, you have to have at some point been an insecure college kid who is almost constantly either falling in love with girls
they cannot possibly ever have, or falling in love with girls they can have but then screwing up and/or getting rejected eventually, because that's what
most of the album's about. I think it also gets better if you read a few interviews with Mr. Cuomo and find out most of this shit really happened when he
went back to school after making the blue album. See, after doing the first album, he decided to continue his education and go to Harvard and go in for a
medical procedure because he was born with one of his legs longer than the other. And after a few years of trying to be dilligent in his studies but being
kind of distracted by a tumultous lovelife and feeling like a freak of an old guy with a big old leg brace and walking cane (hence that stuff in the good
life), he finally just up and quit and made a rock album about the whole thing. And then no one bought it till after he grew to basically view it as a
tremendous failure and refuse to play any of the songs live, which he gradually stopped doing.
Sorry dude, but the Blue Album (note capitalization) and Pinkerton kick ass. These albums are really straightforward, but for some reason, I can't stop
listening to it. The mystery of Weezer is inescapable. I can't and probably won't stop listening to it. Even though they're more mainstream now, it's still
really fun music that's well done and awesome to listen to. REVIEW MALADROIT YOU LAZY BASTARD! AND GIVE PINKERTON AT LEAST AN
EIGHT.
My favourite weezer album. Like a fine wine - It gets better with age. I can understand why everyone hated it. Since the blue album was a fun high school record, this here is Rivers in Emotional mode. He broke up with his girlfriend or something. There is some humour, but most of the songs really have a dark tone. And it's Weezer at their best. The songs are so really well written - Double guitar line's, Mood/Tempo changes - the production is really raw. It certainly isnt radio friendly though. Thats why the critics hated it. But those stupid assholes had to listen to them and make that shitty green album. Why can't I listen to the first 10 seconds of "across the sea" without breaking out in tears! Oh and Tired of Sex is one of the BEST album openers ive ever heard. 10/10
i need someone's help. in the beginning of the weezer song- falling for you, the beginning of the song is from another song. what is it? Radiohead did not steal it, i think its from an old song. I swear i' heard it when i was watching The Life aquatic .
6/10
I am really disappointed---five years since Pinkerton and all we get is the first album
redux. This Weezer is clearly designed to mimic the first one, with its monochrome
color scheme, band cover photo, same title, same font, etc. If this is a joke, it's vaguely
amusing; other than Peter Gabriel, I don't know that anyone's ever tried this sort of
thing before.
Definitely a disappointment. Apparently, from Rivers's point of view: they
became a big success from The Blue Album, critics and hipsters were
naturally pinpointing them as one-hit wonders. Rivers thought about all of
this and poured out his soul into Pinkerton, which then became a huge
critical and commercial flop. So he locked himself in his room for years,
pride and artistic vision damaged, and avoiding everything until eventually
coming out to test the waters with new shows. Finding a dedicated following
that fully supported a comeback, he decided "not to make the same mistake
twice" and thus avoid his Pinkerton approach. Big mistake.
the green album is definitely the worst album they've done so far, but it's still pretty good, and at least
worthy of a 7 or so. It's a bit of a step back, hell, if one were to blindly listen to all 3 weezer albums
and guess their chronological order, you'd be more likely to guess that this was the first one, followed
by the blue album and then pinkerton. Sounds a bit like they wanted to do a "back to basics"
comeback album, only instead of trying to make it sound like blue, they just tried to make it sound like
the exact opposite of pinkerton. It's a bit too simple and occasionally generic-y, and with some of the
worst lyrics Rivers has penned, but more often than not, happy catchy pop melodies save the day. I
can still enjoy most of it and think "hey, this is a nice catchy melody" instead of "hey, this kinda sounds
like everclear or something" or "did he just say 'glorious children on my mind'? what the hell?". The
only thing here I actually hate on here is "crab". If a song's going to be this repetitive lyrically, it
shouldn't also be this dopey lyrically. To put it another way, if you have to write a song that has the line
"crab at the booty/ t'ain't gonna do no good" in it, don't have it repeated 3 times. So, to sum up,
definitely not the most creative thing they've ever done, and too damn short, but still a catchy
not-half-bad pop record. high points: "island in the sun", "o girlfiriend", and "photograph" (epitomizing
the "cheese, but really catchy cheese" aspect of the album). low point: "crab".
Hmmm. I hate to say it, but this is bland. Don't Let It Go? What a
generic opener. Of these ten songs, about five of them are fun, energetic,
and original. The rest, however, is just a copy of the same ol'
uninteresting junk I hear on the radio every day. I can understand the guys
wanting to stray away from the style of Pinkerton since it was a critical
and commercial flop, but man, they really could have done better than this.
I'm happy that the album is in the top five right now, and that they are
getting their popularity back, but it seems their new batch of fans are
liking them BECAUSE of their new watered-down style. My friend, who is a
huge Weezer fan and agrees with me on the CD, told me that this CD is
supposedly a way of getting their foot in the door commercially so they can
do another experimental album (a la Pinkerton). I hope so. This one only
gets a 6 from me though.
Hey I knew all of you were going to hate this. It's not a great album, for
sure. Rivers thought they could get popular with stuff like this and they
did. All the material is great though, not "Weezer great" or anything except
for Island in the Sun and Hash Pipe. But it's still very catchy stuff. I give
it a high 7, mainly because it's only 28 minutes long. But you are right
about those b-sides. All of those songs rule except for My Adeline (which is
just a joke). Rivers says they have over 100 songs written and should have a
new album out next year. They say some of it's more like Pinkerton, which
would be cool. They also discussed a new Bside album possibly which would
also expose a lot of those awesome songs. One more thing, if the green album
is only 28 minute songs why leave off I Do? It was only on the Japanese cd
and it's one of the best songs from the sessions? Who knows, fans just need
to get over that Rivers did not want to do Pinkerton part 2, he wanted to get
famous again, now heres a chance to start doing more creative stuff.
[groan] pinkerton represented a huge leap forward, production-wise,
lyrically, and musically. But NO, they gave into record label pressure and
released what may be perhaps one of the worst albums ever released in my
opinion. A 0 from me.
I was pretty disappointed about this album, Pinkerton and Blue were so much friggin better, Blue was
catchy as hell, and Pinkerton was just awesome, but this green one is just way below par. I bought it the
first day it came out and thought it was alright, but on closer inspection i realized that it kinda sucked. The
lyrics are pretty dull and boring, and the guitar is really simple - much more than the other two, which had
catchier riffs and such. Overall i'd agree and give it a 6
Yes we were all a little dissapointed with Green. But
this album wasn't for the die-hard, old-school Weezer
fans. Rivers knows he has what it takes to make people
love him and I think that's what this album was about.
"Island in the sun" and "Hash Pipe" are far better
than any of the shit played on MTV or pop radio now
and people who have never heard of or forgoten about
Weezer are becoming fans. Sure it doesn't meet up to
the Weezer standards, but its not because of lack of
ability. You can call it selling out to pressure from
the record label but I'll call strategy. Whether or
not I agree with this strategy is immaterial. Until
the new album, wich will have to be awesome(and there
will be a new album-oh yes there will), I will
continue to rock out with Blue and get my bare-ass
spanked by Pinkerton(well put Glen). And let's not
forget those b-sides!
Yup, this ones mediocre. I like it a lot more then i should, though. Basically every song
is the same (all guitar solos follow the vocal melody, loads of distorted guitar,
verse/chorus/verse...whats this Nevermind 2?), except "Half Pipe", which is a heavy-falsetto
driven rocker, "Photograph", which is a silly early-Beatles/Beach Boys-esque pop song, and
"Island In The Sun" which could be on dang Beatles For Sale for all i care (which means
great!). The rest all have piles of distorted guitar with vocals that try to be catchy.
Could get pretty tedious with one listen. Ohh, and "O Girlfriend" is a nice emotional
ballad. Its nice. Ill be generous and give it a 7.
A 5 or a 6. Maybe, maybe a 7. Very disappointing. I
mean, critics bashed Pinkerton and few people
bought it, but did Rivers really have to go and make
the exact opposite of that record? Pinkerton
was great, and the critics and audience are only now
starting to come to that realization. This album's
like if they took the pop hooks from the first two,
changed them slightly so they're not absolute, total
rip-offs, and sapped all of the energy from them.
Maybe it's that Cars guy's fault...
you don' t like weezer, and you like METALLICA?????? that's enought to say right there
metallica is SOO gay. weezer is so great and have soo much more talent then those
crackbabies metallica or whatever gay melissa etheridge you like... weezer is awesome PERIOD. you
should go , go to a metallica concert and smoke crack and get trampled in a pit or
something cuz people who like gay bands shouldn't have any say.. how can you review this? you
probably like SLIPKNOT for crying outloud.
I just wanted to add this, because I feel like I'm the only one who picked up on it (unless this has been mentioned on the site): the main riff off "Hash Pipe" is also the main riff
of the Munsters theme song (very creative...). Anyone crying "sell out" should not feel guilty, especially considering the new album (Maladroit) is awful, and makes "the green
album" sound fantastic.
Assholes! Why abandon all the musical growth you present on Pinkerton, and replace it with THIS POPPY CRAP. Its the blue album WITHOUT THE CATCHYNESS!!! every song drags you to the next one, no tempo or mood changes at all... The new bass player sucks too. He plays every damn song EXACT the same notes as the guitar. I saw Weezer on the green album tour, and was not impressed too many Green album songs - NO PINKERTON SONGS AT ALL, and a lot of songs from Maladroit wich also sucks donkeydick. 3/10
what do you think weezer's song island in the sun has to do with? just wondering thanks..
Melissa Etheridge rules, you crazy male masculine men.
There were a lot of folks
who came to the conclusion that the green album was just to get them back selling more records so
intergeffen or whatever wouldn't whinge as much if they tried to do something different. Instead
Geffenscope whinged over them releasing demo versions of every single song from the record on their
official site, then later sending promos with 8 of the 13 songs in officially produced form to radio
stations (which naturally also got leaked online) with no record company permission whatsoever, but
that's another story. And while the finished product does have a degree of risk taking, don't expect
another Pinkerton or anything. There's still the occasional cheesy bubblegum influence leftover from
The Green Album, but better because 1) the melodies have more of the cheesy but catchy as hey
variety that worked well on the better green songs, and 2) the arrangements are much less generic.
You can tell this band has two guitarists again! and there's nothing at all suggesting that the rest of the
band left the studio for a few hours, in which Rivers took the time to finish half of the album backed up
by a bland pop-punk band who happened to be recording a few rooms over! The biggest
change (aside from breaking the pattern of having more than 10 songs and being shorter than the
previous one, although it kind of couldn't be without become an ep) is the prescence of a handful of
bonafide metal songs. Kind of like hashpipe, but more arena rock. sounds like Rivers actually dusted
off his old Kiss and Scorpions records he'd only occasionally reference in lyrics or solos, possibly
inspired by the addition of new bass player and scary looking (at least compared to the rest of the
band) ex-metal band member Scott Shriner. Even in the goofiest pop numbers, there's usually some
sort of shreddy double tracked butt-rockin' solo involved. Lyrics are still weak, but at least there's
more funny nonsense than cliches about love. For instance, the hit single "dope nose", not only makes
use of the phrase "bust rhymes real slow" in the chorus, but also discusses the topic of the aroma of
cheese on overdone meat and makes a self-depricating fag joke in the same verse. There were also
outtakes that also got released on the site with the lyrics "I pick up my donuts for free" and
"sandwiches time/ sandwiches time/ sandwiches on my mind". Rivers should write more songs when
he's really hungry. 8/10.
alright...this used to be my favorite band for about 2 years. I loved them
when the blue album came out, then forgot they existed until about 3 years
ago. Then I started listening to them again, and loved them more than ever.
Even WORSE than the green album.. "Island in the sun" AGAIN ON THIS CD??? That doesn't make sense. At least Bad Religion ReRecorded 20th Century Digital boy for their album Stranger than fiction. AND Bad Religion STILL MAKES FINE ALBUMS! I do like "Slob" though. It has emotion. Makes me think of Pinkerton... of better times... (what's that song doing between all this crap?) 2/10
What a loathsome piece of trash. I'm surprised you even gave it a 4. This
one gets a flat-out "what the fuck was Rivers thinking?" 1 from me. I mean,
he apparently scrapped a couple albums' worth of songs to arrive at this
chunk of shit? There is nothing even close to intelligent or creative on
here - just a bunch of whining and shitty guitar playing. Just throw
together a couple of powerchords, play 'em pathetically and weakly but with
tons of distortion, whine over it with I'm-so-angsty lyrics a first grader
could have written, and you have this waste of tape. "Beverly Hills" is one
of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life, topped off with an
unspeakably awful talkbox solo. You know it's bad when the one about drugs
rips off the old "When you're sliding into first and your pants are gonna
burst - diarrhea" schoolyard song for its music and uses an antidrug
statement lamer than those alarmist anti-pot ads clogging up the airwaves.
Not that I'm endorsing or condemning pot - it's just that those ads are
totally shortsighted. Like, is someone really going to be high on pot behind
the wheel? Anyway, back to Weezer's shitty album. This is a pile of stinking
garbage that was foisted upon the public with all the grace of a paralyzed
man attempting the tarantella, and it is utterly worthless.
Just wanted to let you know that your prank interviews cracked me up. Whichever British editor didn't like them is idiotic, because how often does a magazine feature literally make you laugh out loud, the way these did for me? Great job.
Academy is, without a doubt, the place on earth with the least interesting conversations ever divined - was just thinking this yesterday when I was there. Thanks for putting it in print!
The prank calls cracked me up for good. Thanks!!! Though, some of them would be
nice but impossible to do. I mean, I don't think Mark would prank-interview
Angus Young. But if mark becomes famous in the future, well, he could take a
dump on Ashton Kutcher or someting like that. Hey, that would be cool!
Excuse me, but this album that YOU are giving 4 dots, is Weezers best album
since Pinkerton!!! How can you rate this the same as the
piece of crap Maladroit!! These songs actually have emotion in them!!! How
can you not like the melodies of "Freak me out" and "The Damage in your
Heart", I haven't heard River write any songs like this since Pinkerton.
Did you ACTUALLY listen to the album, or didn't you bother after the
terrible Beverly hills. Yes Beverly hills is a 4. But the rest of the album
is a solid 9!!!! SO LISTEN TO IT AGAIN AND FIX THIS!!!
so why do ya wright all thatsee i love weezer and i loved his song BEVERLY HILLS
Your review of Make Believe by Weezer is perhaps the best record review I've ever read. I think Make Believe is a wretched album, the kind of album that makes one wish that the band had just broken up after their second album, since everything after that was mediocre and/or completely blew. On the other hand, this album being released caused you to write this brilliant review, so I guess that makes me glad they put the album out. It is possible that you still would have had the idea for the annoying interviews for the British publication without having to review Make Believe. However, Make Believe is such a terrible record that I imagine you came up with the interview idea as a way to block out the aural torture of Rivers Cuomo's third straight collection of boring songs.
hey Mark.
Nobody wanted my action dead or alive
Act 2, I hit the big time
And bodies be all up on my behind
And I can't help myself because I was born to shine
And if you don't like it, you can shove it
But you don't like it, you love it"
What does that signify?
I'm gonna play some heavy metal riffs
And you will die!"
In some rehearsal studios
Then we played our first rock show
And watched the fan base start to grow
Signed the deal that gave the dough
To make a record of our own
The song come on the radio
Now people go
'This is the song'"
To a happy song
With a catchy chorus and beat
So they can sing along
Timbaland knows the way
To reach the top of the charts
Maybe if I work with him
I can perfect the art"
By the way, I would like to apologize for praising Ms. Crow's C'mon
C'mon album to the nines. Sure, it's great that she produced the
whole album (except the singles) by herself, but it's no modern
classic. It's wonderful that she played two-thirds of the
instruments, but it's no Beck's Odelay. It's exceptional that she
wrote some decent mellow material for a change, but it's no Klaus
Schulze's Irrlicht. It's orgiasticlaly awesome tha blooey.
The first Weezer album was my favorite CD as a lad of 12. I bought
Pinkerton when it came out and, although I found the first half a
little sketchy, I was pleasantly caught off guard because Pinkerton
didn't follow the formula of the first album.
Man, I couldn't imagine anything less interesting to me than listening to this album. Rather than go through the trouble of illegally downloading it to hear for myself, I'm going to make a bold psychic prediction: this album will be fucking boring.
It bothered me at first but, now, I am absolutely pleased as punch that so few people actually understand and appreciate the new Weezer disc. While everyone else pines away for the so-called glory days of the first two albums, the rest of us are enjoying the band's new directions and ideas (Rivers no longer writing from the victim-of-love perspective, the other guys singing and writing, grandiose epic pieces, a ridiculous moustache).
Buy Weezer CDs cheap as all heck right here!