Weezer has always been a mystery to me. I mean, ever since they got back together and changed their style. Which feels like forever but is actually around 2001 and 'The green album'. Look at Rivers Cumo. Look at him. Do you really think he is serious when he sings: "I wanna live a life like that / I wanna be just like a king / Take my picture by the pool / Cause I'm the next big thing! / Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be"? Me neither. But when it becomes recurrent, you start questioning their sense of humor. How far can the irony go? Their previous album's cover was kind of funny. But this one? And calling it 'Raditude'? Really?
Unfortunately, the confusion doesn't stop here. Weezer's new effort is the most "WTF?" album of the year. Who thought, when 'Pinkerton' came out, that 13 years later, we would witness Rivers Cuomo rapping with Lil' Wayne about partying with pretty girls? Yet, it's this kind of nightmare you're going to find on 'Raditude'. Half of the songs on the record don't even deserve to exist. 'Can't stop partying' is an awful Timbaland-esque song with barely any instrument, a terribly catchy dance chorus and the worst lyrics in rock history. Wait, it's not even rock anymore. I can't even quote them, you have to read them to understand. Just by their titles, you can tell the other tracks aren't better: 'I'm your daddy' (another a la Cobra Starship party song), 'The girl got hot' (a worse version of 'Beverly Hills') or 'In the mall' (nothing like The Clash's 'Lost in the supermarket', if you were wondering). 'Love is the answer' is Cuomo's hippy moment, a weird song in a terrible lack of actual lyrics with samples of Indian music and singing. But they're not even done yet. There's also a fair amount of cheesy stuff on 'Raditude', 'I don't want to let you go' maybe being Weezer's most cliche song ever. The rest is just okay. Not even good. '(If you're wondering if I want you to) I want you to' is the typical post-'Pinkerton' Weezer single (the chorus is quite enjoyable, though), 'Put me back together' is a generic alt-rock tune (the chorus was written by The All-American Rejects' Tyson Ritter) and the others either sound like 'The green album', 'Make believe' or 'The red album'. Except from 'Turn me round', strangely put as closer, that reminds old Green Day with its old-school vibe in the production and the guitars.
Weezer just made another bad album. Former fans will always ask themselves how in the world did this extremely talented band (it's quite hard but you can still hear how good they are from time to time, especially the drummer Pat Wilson) get to write stupid songs you could find in any American teenage movie soundtrack. And it's legitimate. But that also means they'll still be there everytime their ex-favorite band, which they were so proud of buying a t-shirt from ages ago (now sold on eBay), will release a new record, with the unconfessed hope that Rivers Cuomo and his bandmates decided to stop playing the fools and went back to write proper good music again. But for the moment, 'Raditude' is here to remind us that this band definitely doesn't give a fuck about anything.
2.5/5
Recommanded if you like:
Wheatus, A, Foo Fighters
Check also:
Rivers Cuomo, Harvey Danger, The Lemonheads
www.myspace.com/weezer
(Geffen, 2009)
Wheatus, A, Foo Fighters
Check also:
Rivers Cuomo, Harvey Danger, The Lemonheads
www.myspace.com/weezer
(Geffen, 2009)
Hey! Great review! I wrote one on alternativnews, tell me what you think of it if you have time to read it. I feel the same way, except I think there are some 3/4 really good songs on it. I miss the days when they were actually on awesome band (especially Pinkerton, which is easily in my top 10 records of all time!
ReplyDeleteI just read it, I see we agree on the Cobra Starship comparison haha. This band just makes me sad now. It doesn't fit them to play the rockstars.
ReplyDeleteA few of those songs you mentioned, like "Beverly Hills" and "Can't Stop Partying" are, Rivers has said, meant to parody the subject matter.
ReplyDelete"Can't Stop Partying" is a track, if I'm not mistaken, that Jermaine Dupri gave Rivers to be done in a serious manner. Now, what he is doing hanging out with Jermaine Dupri is a topic for another time, but Rivers did say that the only way he could sing that song was if he sang it as though he was sad, and exhausted with all of the partying. As though he was -addicted- to partying.
The problem is, all of the songs he creates now seem as though they are done like this. Under some absurd assumed identity.
It's like Rivers is parodying the industry and popular music by CREATING MORE OF IT. Is the joke on us?
Rivers admitted that after Pinkerton initially flopped he stopped writing introspectively. Was that TRULY when Weezer was broken? The Green Album was okay, so maybe not. But what is going on?
Rivers has had problems with intense shyness, particularly on stage. It seems he circumvented that issue by acting silly and playing a character. He seems to play this character during some TV interviews and during concerts (the ones where he does more than just stand in front of the mic, like he used to). Has this alter-ego taken over?
I just want to shout at the guy to snap out of it and act like himself again. Act like a rock band.
As you have written, the cheese is spread thick on this one. Weezer really made me cringe with some of this stuff.
"Make Believe" was alright, and The Red Album got even schmaltzier (the best tracks were B-sides, strangely). This "Ratitude" has to be the epitome of that schmaltzy, sold out direction. It can't get worse. Please, tell me it can't get worse!