Weezer - Weezer Review

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 06.05.2008

Three years since Make Believe, Weezer returns with “The Red Album”, but will it be a brand new sound or a return to the Weezer of old?

My Story
Weezer is a hard band to love. It seems like the band finds a new way to jerk you around each year, rather it be through breakup rumors, taking forever between albums, or frontman Rivers Cuomo calling his fans little bitches while praising his rocking guitar skills on the band’s weakest album. However, like the abusive husbands they are, they always find a way of bringing you back each time you swear you’re leaving them.

Recently, though, the band has been making up for past unpredictability with a pair of great releases. It started out with frontman Rivers Cuomo’s demo album Alone, which left us all remembering how great Weezer is at their core. Luckily, a brand new album by the full band wasn’t far behind. But will this unprecedented third self-titled CD live up to the legacy of the previous two?

Their Story
Weezer was formed in 1992 in Los Angeles. Rivers Cuomo, Pat Wilson, Matt Sharp and Jason Cropper developed a good reputation on the LA club scene, which was already feeling the effects of Nirvana and the grunge explosion. The band recorded a demo around this time, which helped spread their name around in the industry.

By 1993, Weezer had been signed to Geffen Records and begun working on their self-titled debut (commonly referred to as “The Blue Album”) with former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek. Just before they signed, Brian Bell took Cropper’s place on guitar. Weezer, a breakthrough amalgamation of pop and arena rock that stood out starkly to rampant brooding alt-rock, hit shelves in May of 1994. The album proved to be a big success, reaching #4 on the Billboard charts thanks to the Top 10 Modern Rock hits “Buddy Holly” (which eventually went gold) and “Undone – The Sweater Song”. Those cuts, which yielded Spike Jonze-produced video clips, were also big on MTV. With all of that exposure, Weezer eventually went triple platinum, making the band stars in the process.

The success was lost on the band and especially Rivers, however. By the time “The Blue Album” charted its third single, Cuomo had put the band on hiatus in order to attend Harvard University. The remaining Weezer members began work on their own solo projects (most notably The Rentals, which included both Matt Sharp and Pat Wilson), and the group didn’t get back together until 1996. The band then recorded their second album, a collection of much darker cuts written by Cuomo. The louder and more brooding Pinkerton was released to strong reviews in late 1996. The reviews didn’t translate to sells, though, and it didn’t help that the band refused to promote the release via a music video. This was in part because Cuomo felt the clever “Blue Album” clips had given the band an unshakable image. Further complicating Pinkerton’s success was the fact that radio had become disinterested in Weezer’s brand of alterna-pop. So bad was the public backlash to Weezer, Pinkerton was named Rolling Stone’s worst album of 1996.

With their second album a flop, Weezer all but through in the towel. Rivers Cuomo retreated to Harvard once again, bassist Matt Sharp left the band to focus on the Rentals full time and the remaining members went back to their side projects – Bell’s Space Twins and Wilson’s Special Goodness. Nothing was heard from the Weezer camp for the next four years. Amazingly, despite a lack of promotion and amidst breakup rumors, Pinkerton slowly garnered a new life in the rising emo scene. In 2000, the remaining trio reconvened (with new bassist Mikey Welsh), taking a spot on the punk package Warped Tour. A new Ric Ocasek-produced self-titled effort (called “The Green Album” by fans) hit shelves in 2001, a poppy set of tunes that recalled the band’s debut. Weezer returned the band to Top 10 glory (it reached #7) and also to the radio with the #2 Modern Rock hit “Hash Pipe”.

Uncharacteristically, Weezer followed up quickly with 2002’s Maladroit. While the band’s fourth album was merely an amped up version of their previous one, sales were a bit softer. Maladroit did yield another Top 10 Modern Rock hit in “Dope Nose”, but sold only about half the amount that “Green” had, stalling out at a gold certification. Undeterred, the band regrouped for 2005’s Make Believe, which was produced by Rick Rubin. The raw set of pop-rock songs reached #2 on the Billboard charts, Weezer’s best chart performance to date. The set also produced the single “Beverly Hills”, which became the band’s first ever Top 10 hit on the main singles chart. “Beverly Hills” also scored the band their first gold single.

Following the release of Make Believe, break-up rumors once again followed the band. Those rumors weren’t denied by Cuomo, who refused to commit to a sixth Weezer record. The band was quiet throughout much of 2006 and 2007, but towards the end of last year, news leaked of the band returning to the studio.

Around Christmas of 2007, Rivers Cuomo released a compilation of demos spanning the band’s entire existence under the title Alone: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo. Then, in April of 2008, Weezer released their first new single from the upcoming self-titled set (already dubbed “The Red Album”), produced by the band with Rubin and Jackknife Lee. The track, “Pork & Beans”, became a #1 hit on the Modern Rock charts, where it remained for five weeks.

The Album
On June 3, 2008, Geffen Records released Weezer, the sixth studio album by Weezer and the follow-up to 2005’s Make Believe. As the band’s third self-titled set, it is being referred to as “The Red Album”, thanks to its red cover art. The album is available on standard CD and as a deluxe edition. The deluxe edition includes the bonus tracks “Miss Sweeney”, “Pig”, “The Spider” and “King”. Retail and international bonus tracks include “It’s Easy” (iTunes), “I Can Love” (iTunes), “The Weight” (UK, JAP), “Life’s What You Make It” (UK, JAP), and “Meri Kuri” (JAP).



The Band: 9.0
Rivers Cuomo - guitar, vocals, drums
Patrick Wilson - drums, vocals, guitar
Brian Bell - guitar, vocals
Scott Shriner - bass, vocals, Korg R3 synthesizer

For any new Weezer album since 1996, the first question out of anyone’s mouth is “Does it sound like Pinkerton?” The answer has always been no. It still is. But “The Red Album” does manage to bring back some of that Pinkerton attitude, if not its raw confessionals.

Rivers Cuomo continues to be rock’s favorite quirky frontman, standing nervously on the fringe of everything without ever feeling comfortable getting in the mix. Too afraid to take off his shirt to dive in the pool, if you will. Of course, his songwriting benefits from this unique perspective here, as it always has. But it’s his delivery that gets the message across. "I'm a do the things that I want to do/I ain't got a thing to prove to you” says the new single, “Pork & Beans”. And he believes it.

As for the band’s sound, Weezer has drawn from a number of producers here, which makes things nicely varied. Rick Rubin, who helmed Make Believe, returns to co-produce half of the album with the band, including both he most dense and most rocking tracks. Jackknife Lee also produces the band for the first time here on a pair of cuts, including the playful lead single “Pork & Beans”. And finally, Weezer goes it alone on a handful of songs, much like their self-produced Pinkerton. Like Pinkerton, the trilogy of self-produced tracks are the album’s darkest.

In all, Weezer sounds like a combination of the band’s previous efforts, a logical step in the now 15-year evolution of Weezer. Rivers Cuomo seems to be letting up on the reins a bit, as the other three guys are given their chance to both write and sing here, a first for the band. But the best moments still come when the band lays down the hooky and slightly nerdy pop-rock that brought them to the dance. And those moments are plenty, as usual.

The Songs: 8.5
1. Troublemaker
2. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)
3. Pork And Beans
4. Heart Songs
5. Everybody Get Dangerous
6. Dreamin’
7. Thought I Knew
8. Cold Dark World
9. Automatic
10. The Angel And The One

“The Red Album” kicks off with “Troublemaker”, a song that would be a complete disaster in anyone else’s hands. With its ridiculous rhymes, simple beat and faux menacing lyrics, who could deliver this but Rivers Cuomo? “Put me in a special school/Cause I am such a fool…Who needs stupid books?/They are for petty crooks”. Ridiculous, right? But when we hit “You wanted arts & crafts/How’s this for art & crafts” and then a hilarious guitar rave-up (complete with vocal mimicking), you’re along for the ride. This is true for a few of Weezer’s tracks, including the hit single “Pork & Beans”, which no doubt took a few spins to grow on Weezer fans but is quickly becoming a favorite.

A theme of the first few tracks is “I don’t care what you think of me”. It’s overstated to the point that you begin to question its validity, but the layered “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” proves that its true. More a series of parts than a full song, “The Greatest Man” moves from ridiculous rapping (“You come like a dog whenever I call”) to sweet acoustic strumming to choral harmonies. It’s the most bizarre track in Weezer’s canon and the band definitely had balls to put it so close to the front of the album.

The heart and soul of the album comes with “Heart Songs”, a slow tribute to some of Rivers Cuomo’s favorite bands, from Gordon Lightfoot to Springsteen to Slayer Debbie Gibson to Nirvana, ending in the story of Weezer’s rise to rock stardom. “These are my heart songs/They never feel wrong/And when I wake/For goodness sake/These are the songs I keep singing”. It’s a simple statement of the way we all feel and the real reason people love Rivers Cuomo’s writing and Weezer: they love the music like we do.

The second half of the album contains the other members of Weezer stepping to the front. Brian Bell’s “Thought I Knew” is a great, sarcastic acoustic track that could easily be a big single, while Scott Shriner’s “Cold Dark World” is a tough track with a big drum beat. Pat Wilson’s “Automatic” is more typical Weezer fair, seguing into “The Angel And The One”, the album’s closer, which is as close to the plaintive honesty of Pinkerton that you’re getting here. But forget the other Weezer albums, as “Red” stands up and apart on its own.

The 411: Like the other two album’s bearing their name, Weezer’s new self-titled set (dubbed “The Red Album”) is its own affair. With three distinct producers and more input from the members of the band not named Rivers, “Red” is definitely the most varied set Weezer has ever put out. Look no further than “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived”, which just may be Rivers’ Brian Wilson moment in and of itself. There are plenty of silly songs (“Pork & Beans”, “Troublemaker”) and earnest songs (“Heart Songs”, “The Angel & The One”), which will keep fans very happy. At 41 minutes, it’s a long Weezer album (especially for just ten tracks), but it will still leave you wanting more.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]