Weezer: Weezer (Red Album) (2008)

Honestly, I like Weezer’s new album, dubbed The Red Album, more than I should.

But, most of the album is uncompromisingly bland. From the generic riffs of “Everybody Get Dangerous” and “Dreamin’” to the embarrassingly silly tough man voice on “Cold Dark World,” Rivers, Brian, Pat and Scott sound as if they are trying to make the worst album of all time. I honestly laughed the first time I listened to “Heart Songs,” Cuomo’s name-dropping ode to all that inspired him.

And yet, I cannot help myself; I keep listening to The Red Album. The lead single “Pork And Beans” eventually won me over with the hilarious music video and forcefully catchy riff. And for all of the inane lyrics and forced universalities that Cuomo has been shoving on us since The Green Album, “Troublemaker” offers one line that rings as true as anything on Pinkerton, “And I will learn by studying the lessons in my dreams.” Hell even “Heart Songs” started to get to me after awhile. Damn that melody.

However, the biggest praise I can give Cuomo and the boys here is for the song “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn).” Nearing six minutes long and over ten bazillion different style changes within that six minutes, Weezer finally fulfills the grandiosity that was first promised on “Undone (The Sweater Song).” It is so utterly ridiculous and the rap breakdown near the end is actually funny with Cuomo preaching,

“Somebody said all the worlds is stage,
And each of us is a player.
That’s what I’ve been tryin to tell you.
In Act 1 I was struggling to survive.
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.
So I’ll be up here in a rage,
’Til they bring the curtain down on the stage.”

So bad, it’s good. I don’t know if Cuomo is taking a piss out of all us or if he is actually being serious. My intuition says the latter, but I guess it really doesn’t matter at this point.

I guess I should apologize, but hell, Weezer’s Red Album is something I find myself enjoying more and more with each listen and I guess that really speaks for itself more than anything else.

Video for "Pork And Beans"


Mp3:
Weezer-“The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)”

Link:
Weezer.com