Premature Evaluation: Weezer - The Red Album
Red leaked in fits and starts and birthed "Pork And Beans"'s beloved YouTube-centric video before we'd heard the album from start to finish. Though we had most of it. If you add it up -- three plus four and carry the aforementioned single -- that's eight new Weezer songs. That left two small gaps, right at the end of the record: "Automatic" and "The Angel And The One." So, are those two any kind of tipping point? Or has the point already been made? Oh, before that, we should mention that we also have the somewhat bland cover of the Band's "The Weight" as the sing-a-long UK "bonus." Americans, you aren't missing much.
Even though we basically knew Red before we had it all on our iTunes, it does feel like a new listen with the final gaps plugged. It opens with "Troublemaker" and moves into "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)" and "Pork And Beans," which is quite an introduction. Sequence becomes important on Red because as much shit as folks have given Red (us included) it does include some serious jams ... none of which you'll find in the last quarter of the program.
It's cute to see Cuomo spreading the wealth -- the countrified and un-Weezer-like "Thought I Knew" (maybe that justifies Rivers's cowboy hat, though Brian Bells sings), the Scott Shriner-sung "Cold Dark World" -- but it's Rivers songs that are usually the idiosyncratic best. For example, one of the previously non-leaked tracks, "Automatic," sung by Pat Wilson, is generic '90s alterna-schlock. Snore. It's followed, though, by the dreamy "The Angel And The One," which finds Rivers in full-on power-ballad mode. All seven minutes of it. It's Rivers in his Mineral moment. And it's great in all its dramatic clamor.
No, Red doesn't reach the band's previous heights ("Heart Songs," "Everybody Get Dangerous," why oh why). But it most definitely is a step up from Make Believe. And maybe it's the "Pork And Beans" goodwill talking here, but we will take what we can get.
Speaking of ... curious to know if a blender could mix together Red with an actual can of pork and beans? Wonder no longer.
Good to know.
Red is out 6/3 on Geffen.
Posted at 5:31 PM by stereogum in Premature Evaluation, Video
Tags: Weezer
Whatever Rivers does is amazing. Don't you guys know that?
Score = -3
James, that head wound must be worse than we thought. If you can't admit that Make Believe, (not to mention his collaborations with Crazytown, Mark Ronson and Cold) were horrendous, we need to take you back to the doctor.
Score = 6
I think heart songs is one of the best songs Coumo has ever written. I've been a fan since 98. Pinkerton grabbed me. I was blown away by the blue album. The green album reminds me of the summer of 2000. Maladroit sucks. Make believe is good except for beverly hills. If weezer sucks so bad and if this is there third shitty album in row; why bother and critize them? Im sure there other credible bands out there that deserve the press. But no this album is gonna rock! Weezer is back in true form. They dont care what you think!
Score = -4
maladroit is severely underrated
make believe is a giant turd of an album
Score = 13
I agree with Brody, though seeing Spin's new Weezer cover made me wish we could let this band die before they do more irreparable damage to the good name they made off of their first two LPs.
Score = -6
Fuckin' A, brody. Fuckin' A.
Score = 0
Yeah, seriously... Why all the hate for "Heart Songs"? It's great! Especially the part where he starts singing about "Nevermind" and starting up Weezer.
Score = -1
I would call Scott Shriner's "Death Defyin'" shirt the greatest/worst ever, but Rivers' paunch just overshadows this scary pall over Shriner's continuation of the end-of-the-90s rap/nu-metal look.
Score = 3
Crappy Weezer, which is what the majority of this new CD is, is still better than 98% of music being released these days. GMWEL has some very nice spots, but it's overproduced which keeps it from ever having any cohesion. I appreciate the middle of the song though. The version of "Automatic" (LA Remix) that is floating around is about the worst song I've ever heard from them aside from Beverly Hills. But I disliked Beverly Hills for completely different reasons. Troublemaker, PNB, Heart Songs, Dreamin' are all OK but nothing special to get excited about. I like the acoustic version of Pig which is going on the deluxe somewhat as well. CDW I just heard for the first time... blah. I have 7 tracks. Still haven't heard 3 of the bonus songs, Everybody Get Dangerous, Thought I Knew & The Angel and The One. Reading the above article leaves me to think the last of those 3 will be the most enjoyable. Hopefully the CD version of Automatic isn't the song I heard. I'm holding out hope for a happy ending. But it's sort of getting ready for a blind date. The girl's from your home town where you were born and raised. But your friend keeps telling you she's a truck driver with a goiter problem.
Score = -3
You seriously think that a mediocre Weezer record is better then 98 percent of music today? You definetly need to get into better music dude.
Score = 6
will it blend? that is the question. and that's ALL that matters.
Score = 1
I can't believe you're going to review Weezer before The Hold Steady album. I've been checking back all day today waiting for the big Hold Steady review.
Score = -2
what is that image?
Score = 0
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I can't wait!!!!!!
Score = -2
was weezer ever good? when did people start deciding which weezer albums were bad? isn't this a waste of time?
Score = 1
I dunno, when I found out Rivers was club footed, I felt oddly threatened. Is it because I want my rock stars to be perfect? Is that how I feel about Big, after he was mean to Charlotte and Samantha?
Score = 2
Hmmm..
Did the blade snap off in the blender?
Score = 0
being a former weezer fanatic i still hold a little fondness for them, however in my opinion since maladroit they have been progressivly turning away from what made them independant to other 90's rock acts and becoming, dare i say it, slightly more mainstream.
Score = 1
being a former weezer fanatic i still hold a little fondness for them, however in my opinion since maladroit they have been progressivly turning away from what made them independant to other 90's rock acts and becoming, dare i say it, slightly more mainstream.
Score = 1
Why all the hate for "Heart Songs"? Um, the chorus is "These are my heart songs". Is that not enough? It sounds like a Chili Peppers ballad mixed with Jason Mraz's lyrics. It's AWFUL, arguably the worst song I've heard all year. The verse about Nirvana sounds he actually wrote it in Junior High. The man went to Harvard, for Pete's sake.
Score = 5
Hey Lucas, speaking of Harvard did you hear his reference to Widener Library in Dreamin'? Those first three songs could've been amazing with some lyrical tweaking and the removal of the steroidic production.
Score = 1
If in reviewing this album you are using Pork & Beans as a strong point, that is all I need to know. That song was uninteresting poop a la everything else they have released over the past 3 albums, so no need for me to pay attention here. The lyrics on the songs I heard were so bad I couldn't look past them. I think I wrote better stuff in my junior year of High School.
Score = -2
Weezer is the best pop band in the world.
Score = -5
Does anyone really need any more Weezer records than the first two albums (Blue and Pinkerton)?
The answer to that question is "No". Green was an exciting letdown because it marked the return of the band from a long hiatus. Maladroit is "the suck". Make Believe was worse.
Give me the days of Surf Wax America, In The Garage, and El Scorcho any day of the week.
- Love,
The aging scen kid in the corner
Score = 4
I will always love Weezer. I know its cliche, but Pinkerton really is my favorite album of all time.
Here's an idea Rivers......on your next door please play Pinkerton in full. The tour would sellout in seconds cause all your dorky fans that grew up in the 90s are still in love with it. Give your fans what they want!
Score = 2
I will always love Weezer. I know its cliche, but Pinkerton really is my favorite album of all time.
Here's an idea Rivers......on your next tuor please play Pinkerton in full. The tour would sellout in seconds cause all your dorky fans that grew up in the 90s are still in love with it. Give your fans what they want!
Score = 1
Weezer continues its 10+ year streak of turning out unabashedly commercial pop rock while its fans continue to let it slide on the success of the band's first 2 albums. Give it up folks, the dream is over.
Score = 2
And their first two albums weren't commericial pop rock?
the reason weezer has so many fans is that they're the best at what they do. They make the best pop rock on the planet. And if riding in a car on a beautiful day with the windows down while blaring Pork & Beans doesn't put a smile on your face, there is not hope for you. Weezer is the greatest!
Score = -1
maladroit is underrated
Score = 1
Weezer is overrated.
Score = 2
surprised by the hate for 'heart songs'. i love it.
it's rivers at his least ironic, and anyone who's loved music knows how much of what you've loved can be an embarssment and awkward, but it's wildly personal and sentimental. i think that's why the lyrics are so straight-up on it. it's about trying to capture the rawness of that feeling you get when you hear a song you loved so much when you were younger.
Score = -3
I'm really digging "Dreamin'." Sounds the most classic Weezer to me. All in all, it's surprisingly not that bad.
Score = 1
please god tell me that you didn't just compare this piece of garbage to the eternal awesomeness that is mineral.
Score = 0
I want to love this album, but it just doesn't do it for me. If I was a fifteen year old girl then this album would be my anthem, however I'm 29 and it is anything but. I'm not asking Weezer to recreate the Blue Album or Pinkerton, but I would love some deeper subject matter then songs like "Everybody Get Dangerous."
Score = 0
listened to a leaked copy of red yesterday. this album is completely and totally wack (the bad kind of wack). seriously, this is really bad. kid rock bad. sugar ray bad. smash mouth bad. never listened to make believe, but i can't imagine it being as bad as this.
Score = 2
Heart songs is just a facebook profile set to music. It says nothing about the songs themselves, other than that Cuomo likes them. It has unforgivably bad rhymes like "joan baez" with "i never listened to much jazz," and back up vocals that are reminiscent of whiny little emo bitches. It tries ridiculously hard to be sincere but fails, partly because it mistakes sincerity for authenticity and sentimentality for substance.
And that's only part of the reason why it sucks.
Score = 2
man you guys are such skeptics.
i really don't think it's a bad album.
angel and the one and little parts within some songs; like in TGMTW @ 2:44-3:08; show that they know how to appeal to hardcore weezer fans, but that isn't the only thing they want to do. weezer put their years of knowledge in riff-writing into this album, which involved lots of pop experimentation, resulting into what you are hearing. if you ask me, it's ridiculous how well they can play multiple genres of pop as well as they can. i like it, and i def put this album in the top 3. well, probably the 3rd best.
i also wish cuomo would do more covers; he's deadly at covers.
Score = -1
angel and the one, along with 2:44-3:08 in TGMTW, show that weezer could produce an album that would appeal to the hardcore weezer and indie fanbase.
nevertheless, that would be mostly pretentious for weezer, because they want to achieve a different goal of fame (i think). so for this album, they gave some hardcore fan service, but for the most part brought together their pop experimentation efforts and put them into songs. for what it's worth, i have really enjoyed listening to this album.
i also wish that rivers would do more covers; he's deadly at them.
Score = -1
The Angel and the One , Troublemaker, Pork and Beans justify purchasing this album. You are all pretentious assholes who judged this album before it even dropped and you knew you wouldn't hear the WEEZER you wanted to hear. Good luck for bands like HEALTH, DODOS, and other indie crap that would love to have a song as good as Pork and Beans.
Score = 0
You know the first couple of songs are ok. That shaker hymn. The first song, whatever it's called. The pork and beans song. Yeah, cool.
At the end of the day, no Jackknife Lee production or Rick Rubin semi-producing the album can save this crock of shit. Just on first listen, I remember hearing Rivers singing something about how he wanted to go out on top - maybe that's just the tongue in cheek from the shaker song.
But Make Believe didn't sell to well...
Either way, it's shit. I should've gone with the gut and said no. But at least it was free... right?
Score = 0
As bad as this album is, and it's really bad...especially the lyrics... The Angel And The One is 1 of their greatest songs ever.
Score = 0
http://foreveringreen.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/album-review-weezer-red-album/
Score = -1
I acutally really like this album and think its their 3rd best. The first three songs kick ass. Troublemaker puts a huge smile on my face and thats all i can ask for.
Score = 0
As much as I hated "Heart Songs" on the first listen, I caught the throwback riff to "The World has Turned and Left Me Here" (where they sing "Do you believe what I sing now?") at the end of the song and immediately fell in love with it. While the style of the song is irritating, that riff at the end makes it worth the listen for us older Weezer fans.
Score = 0
You "defenitly" should work on you spelling in order to make the opinions you share on the internet more compelling. Who respects an opinionated idiot? Internet defecation, my friend. Plus, It's weezer we're talking about here... For them, I'd use spellcheck every day of life! Hey I'm curious if other people think "Hold Me" is a really good song. I do, even though Make believe is not considered to be well written. I also like that song with the harmonics and the lyrics: "man you really freak me out, Im so afraid of you..." etc etc
Score = 0
Where I could found this "Death Defyin'" T-shirt?
Score = 0