Wednesday, May 11, 2005

New Weezer album! Wooooooo!

Make Believe (Dig)Back in 1994, Weezer put out one of my favorite power pop albums of all time, "Weezer," (aka The Blue Album, since they pulled a Peter Gabriel and named their third album "Weezer" as well). Sure, the radio tried to call it different things, like alternative and emo (at least, they point to this album when emo's roots are hunted down). At its heart, it's good ol' fashion power pop, which describes the band at its best moments.

Their latest album, Make Believe, came out on Tuesday, and from what I've heard so far, it's in many ways a throwback to that first blue record. This time around, they got long time veteran producer Rick Rubin to help craft out there sound, and the result is good time pop with snarling guitars and-get this-sunny, almost positive lyrics, something not necessarily expected from frontman Rivers Cuomo, who almost became the nerdy version of Morrisey on Pinkerton. Plus, this album contains the most fun power pop song that will be released this year. It's a song called "We Are All On Drugs," and it is as catchy and addictive as a big ol' heaping spoon of smack.

(post written by almaniac)

6 comments:

  1. I got this album but haven't given it a listen yet (I've got too much new stuff!) I just checked out "We Are All On Drugs". Good song, but I'm not ready to agree it's the most fun of a year that's not yet half over. Already this year the competition from Ben Folds, Eels, Wheatus, Superchick, Self, and The Doves is stiff (and those are just naming the ones that I have). In fact, I can already think of specific songs from those artists that would get my vote for "most fun power pop song SO FAR this year". Hmm... I see a post in my near future.

    Let me know what you think of this album once you get more into it and I'll do the same. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the blue album, but generally haven't been enthusiastic about any of their output since then.

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  2. Too much new stuff. I think need to sell by kindey to get the money so I can go to town proper at Second Spin.

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  3. Funny that you have Maladroit ranked higher than The Green Album, Jon. I actually have your numbers reversed. Not as big of a discrepancy, though.

    After reading these posts, I've come to realize that Weezer really painted themselves into a corner with their debut. We all agree that The Blue Album is exceptional-personally, one of my favorite albums of the decade. Since then, with each new Weezer album, one of the first things out of our collective mouths is, "I wonder how it stacks up to The Blue Album?" Obviously, nothing else that they've put out has approached that album's greatness, so I think we have a tendency to dock it a little bit just based on that merit. Whether that makes us look at the rest of Weezer's catalogue with a bit of musical cynicism is up to your discrestion.

    I guess the reason that I liked "Make Believe" is that the lyrics are a little more positive. "Pinkerton" is so tough to get into because Cuomo's feelings are so raw and exposed throughout the disc, and that may come across as extreme whininess at first listen. The Green Album suffers from the moments of supreme lyrical wimpiness (example: "O Girlfriend"). Make Believe just sounds like the band was having fun again, even moreso than those kind of moments that Maladroit featured. If you know the band's history, you know that that's been an almost unachievable goal most of the time.

    I have no rankings to share with you, but I love "We're All on Drugs," and I think the reason I like it so much is because it is such great campy fun.

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  4. Right on, Brother Rich. You start to make the point that, if judged on its own and not compared to the catalog, "Make Believe" is strong. I can hang with you on that one except for those annoying songs where Cuomo's just whining. But, just for kicks, try listening to Pinkerton and Make Believe back-to-back. I feel like the combination of the emotional lyrics and aggressive music on Pinkerton works far better than the combination of emotional lyrics and Rubin-esque music on MB. But this is from a guy who's only just recently learned to appreciate P, so maybe I'm not being totally fair to MB. We'll see how it ages.

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  5. What's emo? On 2nd thought, don't bother replying . . . I did look this up online, and it doesn't sound like it's a very well defined category. I just had not heard of the word before.

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  6. If any of you are missing your hash pipe...I've got it.

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