Album Review: Weezer - Weezer (Red Album)

Weezer, Weezer, Weezer...what are you doing? Hey...stop it! Okay? Just stop it.

I really don't know where to start with this one, the sixth album from the former 90's underground rock Gods, and the third to have a title only classifiable by the background color of it's album cover. Perhaps this is the first sign of Weezer's inability to create anything both original AND exciting throughout the album's tedious ten tracks.

I'll admit that the band definitely tries to cover some new ground here, often (even within a song) jumping from one genre to the next like a little kid playing hop scotch, appropriately led by Rivers Cuomo's innocuous vocals (see "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived"). But rather than a bold exploration of new sonic territory, it sounds more like he and the rest of the band are lost in a whirlwind of undeveloped ideas that they couldn't fully flesh out individually so instead they simply jammed them all together into one, mucky package.

As for the times when the band tries to adhere to their former success formula, they only come out stumbling. Opener "Troublemaker" is almost a carbon copy of their past hit "The Good Life" off 1997's Pinkerton, only this time accompanied by an array of laughable lyrics.

"I picked up a guitar, what does that signify?
I'm gonna play some heavy metal riffs,
And you will die."

I mean, come on! And this lyrical trend definitely continues throughout the album. It seems like Rivers' approach to his songwriting has become to adopt a 12-16 year-old POV thinking that it coincides with the innocent persona they've carried throughout their career. One of the things that gained them so much recognition in the first place was being the sweater-wearing (or destroying?) band of pseudo-nerds that could rock out and generate wildly catchy hooks (e.g. "Buddy Holly", "El Scorcho", "Don't Let Go"). Today, we are left with the Weezer that is trying to deviate from their past sound (which is often admirable for bands) but instead is faltering in almost every song they've generated over the past two LPs (the other being 2005's Make Believe, another nod to Rivers' new tendency to cling on to his youth).

There are really only a couple of listenable tracks on this album, and one of which should be cut at its midpoint. The first is the song "Dreaming", which finally by track six brings us back to the Weezer that we know and love with infectious hooks and a Rivers' lovable crooning, flooded by heavy guitar riffs and a solid percussive beat. However, while the old Weezer would have wrapped things up when necessary, the song hits it's halfway point about 2 1/2 minutes in when it starts to deviate into multiple, lulling vocals and sound effects of birds chirping. The second, actually best, pick of the litter is the closer "The Angel and the One" which, despite only having one melodic line that changes subtlely throughout, is actually a very emotionally powerful, escalating ballad (nearly reaching the heights of their classic first album closer "Only In Dreams").

All things considered, this album is a huge disappointment for me, and should be for all Weezer fans out there. It is very rare that I actually wish that one of my favorite bands of all time throw in the towel. However, with each successive album it seems that Weezer is only weakening their powerful formula more and more, as if continually diluting what was once a hard-hitting shot of rock that their first albums served to its listeners. Hopefully Cuomo either has a huge creative breakthrough in the near future or calls it quits for the band before they are simply serving us a room temperature pitcher of water.

Key Tracks:
Dreaming
The Angel and The One

Final Verdict: 2.7