Search - Weezer :: Raditude

Weezer evolves, unfortunately, some fans don't

J | Seattle, WA | 11/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Weezer is back with a solid album. They are pushing forward with their style instead of staying in the past. The red album felt more of a experiment to find where they fit, with Raditude, I believe they have found where they want to be.



I'm tired of all the reviews on how the old Weezer (Blue album and Pinkerton) were better. A lot of these reviewers are kids that grew up in the 90s with Weezer's music who all seem to believe that they should just go back to their old style. I call this the nostalgia factor. Listening to the blue album and Pinkerton isn't just a great music experience, it also brings back memories of your childhood and what you felt at that time. Everyone gets older and it's always a great feeling to go back and re-experience something from your youth but most bands don't want to play the same songs over and over.



The only issue I have with this album is that you must get the deluxe edition. The standard edition feels incomplete with only 10 tracks, the extra songs in the deluxe edition really fit with the album.



The songs I would recommend from this album:



"(If You're Wonder If I Want You To) I Want You To"

"Can't Stop Partying"

"Tripping Down the Freeway"

"Let it All Hang Out" (closes thing to weezer's older style)

"I Don't Want to Let You Go"

"The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World"

"Turn Me Round"

"Kid/Poker Face" (GREAT cover)

"I Woke Up in Love This Morning" (Another awesome cover, only with the Japanese edition)"

RADitude

Alex | Hartford, CT | 11/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an album which is going to elicit strong reactions. I can already see Pitchfork's 0.0 rating being written as we speak, the Weezer "fans" getting ready to bash Cuomo with their vinyl Pinkerton records, and a new camp of teenagers blasting "Can't Stop Partying" while hipsters cringe and throw up their arms in disgust. Yes, this album is going to create a hurricane, maybe even more so than Make Believe, and probably in proportion to how much it is a better album. The rather volatile reactions we've seen coming from the "educated" music crowd towards Weezer is nothing new, but it only gets stronger with time, especially since Weezer have two classic alternative records as their backbone and have changed their agenda to writing rock that sounds like pop, or is it pop that sounds like rock? (What's the difference anyway?) Rivers Cuomo might be the most intelligent rock star in history at throwing off his fans. With every album he travels further and further away from what they want, and yet never seems to lose track of what he wants, and he's got all them little biotches wrapped around his big troublemaker finger. This time they're really gonna be angry. Cuomo just wrote a damn good pop record and that's gonna hurt real bad.

As far away from this album is from the giant emo blister that was Pinkerton, Raditude is really nothing but the synthesis of Rivers Cuomo's greatest powers and ambitions, to create a record that flows from song to song with great hooks, where every song is a winner, fiercely intelligent, that builds upon the contemporary influences while parodying them and ultimately making better music of them. The Green Album might have been a perfect pop record too, but it was almost a little too timeless for Cuomo's ironic goals. Raditude fits right in with these times, it speaks for the very decade of the 2000's and is a perfect ending to that emo-pop which will shortly die and be replaced by the newest fashion. A product of its times, and that is what pop music is ultimately. Has Cuomo finally cracked the code?

This is everything that Make Believe wanted to be, and everything that Red needed to be...faceless generic ironic pop delivered and written 100%. What more do we want of Rivers Cuomo? Really? I can't wait to see how this is gonna play out. The rain of haters has already begun; Nothing I or Erlewine will say is going to stop that. But then the teenage kids are going to start listening to "I'm Your Daddy" (the Buddy Holly of the new generation?) and "I Don't Want to Let You Go" (Cuomo's answer to "Stay Together for the Kids") and we're going to have a rehashed Enema of the State for the critics to beat down. And wait til they discover "Can't Stop Partying". Then we're really gonna be in trouble. Wait til these kids find out that it has the replay value of Rihanna's "Umbrella", or Usher's "Love in this Club" and is just as stupid and brilliant, just as hooky, and then the white boys who don't understand R&B or Timbaland are gonna be scratching their heads and saying, "Wait a second, is this a song we're supposed to like?" The answer is, yes. Rivers Cuomo understands his pop music. Better than you do. At the end of this beautiful episode, Rivers Cuomo leaves us with our mouths open, with disgust, or if we understand music, with blissful happiness, and we are forced to ask ourselves what the value of pop music is in the first place. If we know the answer to that question like Rivers knows it, Raditude is a great album, and we will be listening to it for a long long time..."

Why?

Jayson Berray | Portland, OR | 04/13/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Oh Weezer, where did we go wrong? Don't you remember when I used to have a sticker of your band name on my car in high school? I still want to like you, but you're making it really difficult for that to happen.



Weezer's musical career started out at a high point and has steadily declined ever since. With 2009's "Raditude" I really can't see how they can hit any lower a valley but I guess we can wait and see what happens with their next release. At this point I can't honestly say I even want there to be a next release. At least not based on this most recent album.



For whatever reason, throughout their career Weezer has chosen to release not one, not even two, but three self-titled albums--each simply called "Weezer" but differentiated by the dominating colors of their album covers--thus rendering "The Blue Album" (1994), "The Green Album" (2001), and "The Red Album (2008). I can understand and appreciate the intended humor behind such a thing. It seems like a fresh and innovative thing to do in today's music scene, especially given Weezer's "go against the grain" mentality that they exhibit. Well, that they used to exhibit.



Perhaps a better way to describe Weezer in their classic days would be "awkward geek music". That's what made them so great. Nowadays it can better be described as "awkward embarrassing music".



With their debut album as well as 1996's "Pinkerton" Weezer demonstrated a new fresh approach to music that to this day is continually inspiring nerds all over the world. The problem is that where Weezer has ended up is in a place of losing that alternative edge they once had. Now they seem more concerned with exploiting that geekdom as though it's some silly "Aw shucks" act. I've never seen more of a contradiction in terms of where a band started versus where they've ended up.



"The Blue Album" is widely considered to be one of the best albums of all time. Nerds everywhere (myself included) finally felt like they had a voice in popular music with that album and that vibe continues today on some levels. That vibe held true with the release of Weezer's follow-up "Pinkerton". Things got even more alternative and against-the-grain with that album and most hardcore Weezer fans cite that release as their favorite.



After "Pinkerton" Weezer fell out of the limelight for several years until they made their return with 2001's "Weezer (The Green Album)". Clocking in at a measly 28:20, I don't think I've ever seen a full-length album go by so quickly. But it definitely holds your interest as it is more of a venture into a mainstream pop/rock sound--which was pretty cool, I suppose. After this we got 2002's "Maladroit" which was more of a return to that alternative, rebellious feel. It was a little less accessible but still good in many aspects. Next, we got 2005's "Make Believe". Again, while still good in some aspects, this seems to be where Weezer began their rapid decline into the state they are currently in. Despite pairing themselves with Über-producer Rick Rubin, it seems as though the would-be geeks weren't exactly able to pull off the gold material they displayed on their first two releases. From here on out it pretty much goes from bad to worse. After "Make Believe" came 2008's "Weezer (The Red Album)" and while this release did have its redeeming qualities (the second track "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived") it still didn't represent the classic longevity of their early material.



This brings us up to date with their most recent effort--2009's "Raditude". The best way to describe this album is that it is just a complete embarrassment. From the songs, the title, all the way down to the album cover, it's just a big awkward mess. Things like nerdy white boys wearing track suits stopped being funny a while ago. Composing songs like "I'm Your Daddy", "I Can't Stop Partying", and "Trippin' Down the Freeway" just aren't funny or entertaining anymore--not that they really ever were. And having Lil Wayne guest rap on your album doesn't make things any better. I would try to go into the album's highlights but there really aren't any. I guess if I were forced to pick one it would be the song "Love Is the Answer". The eastern tinge is interesting at best.



Weezer are shooting themselves in the foot more and more with each new release they put out. They really seem to be having the exact opposite effect of everything they stood for in the 90s. I already tend to be pretty nostalgic when it comes to 90s music and albums like "Raditude" only fuel that fire. The only thing that listening to "Raditude" makes me want to do is go back and re-live classic Weezer so that I can pretend like their most recent stuff just doesn't exist. When I listen to "Raditude" I find myself longing for songs like "My Name Is Jonas", "Say It Ain't So", "In the Garage", or "El Scorcho". I guess the only good thing that may come from releasing "Raditue" is possibly boosting sales of their older albums.



Weezer, unless by some miracle of God you experience a complete and total overhaul of everything that you've become, then please just retire with what little dignity you have left. In the meantime, can I have my $9.99 back?

"