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since the 90's weezer exploded with undone the sweater song then the super cool buddy holly the blue album is a winner then they toured then got to do a second record in 1995 but in 1996 singer rivers cuomo had problem he had writer's block he went home after japan falling in love with a japanese girl he created pinkerton the album is complete flop! a massive bomb he is blamed for the debacle then the took a 5 year rest until 2000 when they regroup then in 2001 they made the green album a superfast 28 minute ep like album that is a winner then they come back with maladroit
weezer rules
weezer rules in all aspects should be straight 10s brotha
(Pat D.'s review)
Surprised that I like such a blatantly POP album? So was I. Matter of fact before writing this review, I wondered if I was becoming a trendy little shit. And that's exactly what this album is. A first rate pop collection. Weezer are a throwback to 60's surfboard pop, but dammit, they write some REALLY catchy and fun tunes. Some of you may remember the two radio singles "Buddy Holly" (probably the least interesting song on here) and "Say it Ain't So" (one of the better tracks). Hey, you all might even remember the dumb as hell-but-still-hilarious Happy Days video that the former track had in constant rotation on MTV in the year 1994.
My point here is this: There may be a great many of you who will hate this album because it is nothing but radio rotation compositions. Not one damn song on here remotely approaches unaccessibilty. And yeah, I feel like a sellout owning a copy, but at least I don't own any of those R&B trendy albums that unfortunately are taking over the world. You will also never see a Weezer bumper sticker on my car. But damn, songs like "My Name Is Jonas", "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here", "Holiday", and "In The Garage" are so hummable! This CD isn't perfect; it might get a little dull after a while to some people. But I still listen to it regularly. Give it a spin.
An undoubtedly catchy good time, Weezer's debut combines surf pop melodies and harmonies with alternative rock of the 90s for a pleasant, if overly derivative and sometimes corny, listen. It's a consistent set of good-time tunes, with the highlights being the most obvious summertime song here, the top-notch melodically awesome tune "Surf Wax America", the silly but hilarious and fun as hell novelty number "Undone - The Sweater Song", the retro rock hit "Buddy Holly", the nicely harmonized "Holiday" and the nostalgic look back at the teenage years "In The Garage". The rest of the album is also enjoyable, with the only real weak spot being the way overlong closing ballad "Only In Dreams", which kind of drifts away from me. The other songs include "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here", an infectious minor pop gem, the opener "My Name Is Jonas", which effectively switches from acoustic to electric guitars in the verses and boasts a catchy as hell chorus, and the other lesser numbers "Say It Ain't So" and "No One Else".
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(reviewed by Kevin Baker)
WHAT HAPPENED, RIVERS??? You used to write amusing lyrics about sweaters and half-Japanese girls, and now we get WHAT??? "Gimme some love, gimme some love, gimme some I want you to know???" This is proof that a Harvard education means precisely jack in the grand scheme of things. Here's hoping Rivers gets his wit back from those Ivy League jerkoffs! OK, so I think you've probably gathered that my principal gripe is with how friggin' banal a lot of these songs are compared to ditties on Weezer's other self-titled album (which I love and will get around to reviewing eventually). The catchy-as-Orrin Hatch's washcloth hooks are still plentiful, but the magic's gone. No more silly, happy surf-pop harmonies. No more charmingly dorky songs about being in the garage or girls looking like Mary Tyler Moore. Nope...Rivers Cuomo apparently figured after the disaster that was Pinkerton's album sales that the precise 180 of Pinkerton would be a smash popalbum.
And he was right; this bad boy HAS pushed some high-quality plastic cd jewelcases. Heck, most of my friends about have the Weezer logo tattooed across their butts out of love and adulation. I'm not that bad off----and I'll say their 1st two albums make this mammajamma look pathetic. However, by modern popalternapunkyrock standards, this is far from bad. This is prinicipally because the hooks haven't left---Rivers is too nice a guy to do that. Actually, I doubt that, but at the very least he's got an ear for a catchy melody. For example, the one going with Island In The Sun. OK, that one COULD have been a minor number on the Blue Album, which definitely makes it the best one on here. The escapist "let's go to Aruba together, baby" style lyrics are a little trite, but still are far from being the worst offenders here. Also worth listening to----Hash Pipe!!! You probably heard it on the radio, which is fine since it's a decent enough song----and it definitely has the most interesting lyrics on the whole thing. Plus, it's heavier than everything else. Nifty. Whooo.
Now, the rest aren't near as good...hey, have I griped about how frickin' SHORT this thing is? Like 28 minutes, man!!!! C'mon, I've made longer recordings than that. Admittedly, that was only because I left the tape recorder running after putting down an unplugged version of Maggie May on it, but still.....but you know what really stinks? YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY RETAIL FOR IT. Anyways, the other numbers aren't up on the same level as those two (conveniently back-to-back for your listening pleasure), but they're not bad. Banal, yes. Bad, no. My personal favorite of the rest is Glorious Day, which could be better named Glorious Hooks, becuase it's got 'em. Har har---I am the KING of WIT!!! I'll be featured at the Duluth Airport Lounge next Thursday with my comedy routine.
I also like Don't Let Go and Photograph, though BOTH of their lyrics blow. Sheesh, Rivers! Take a creative writing class for pete's sake! Based on Mike Wright's advice, I may join you---I already have the proctologist's visit planned. Worthy of mention is also Simple Pages, winning both the "My 5 year old guinea pig could write better than this" award and the award for inanely catchy. But that's the point of the whole album---it's not smart, but it's catchy. Like Orrin Hatch's washcloth. The hardest part is rating it. The hooky goodness is just unbelievable, but it's just so.....banal at moments. Still, it's at leats listenable always, so I'll say 7 and RIVERS, MALADROIT HAD BETTER BE A LITTLE WITTIER YOU IVY LEAGUE SOT!
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(reviewed by Kevin Baker)
Well, I'm back after a lengthier hiatus than I had planned. Sometimes things fall apart, and then after they fall apart you start your senior year of high school and suddenly become really busy with all sorts of stuff such as trying to get into a college and then pay for it. Behold, the joys of being an American 17 year old! I'm sure none of you are at all remotely curious about my love life, but nevertheless, it would be unstylistic of me to leave you totally in the cold. However, I'll save that for another day---I'm having one of my periodic bouts of strangely intense loneliness, and discussing my lovelife would not be a wise move on my part right now.
At any rate, Rivers Cuomo must've read my Green Album review, because he did in fact heed my warning to do better on the next go-round. Everyone's favorite Ivy Leaguer wrote an all-around better disco compacto de divertido y jubilado this time around. Plus, it's longer than TGA if nothing else. I will go ahead and ruin the surprise, though---it's not a ton more intelligent than its predecessor. Now, comparing anything to The Green Album when it comes to intelligence is akin to comparing a human to an amoeba in terms of sheer wit-power. Maladroit has its moments of cleverness, but it seems as if the good Mario Cuomo has turned in his speech-writing pen for the word processor of dippiness at moments. Oh well.
Of course, hooks aplenty find there home here. The moment a Weezer album loses the hooks is the moment I....the moment I....heck, I'm not sure what I'll start or stop doing then. The world will probably start rotating the other direction and throw us all of into Deep Space, "star"ring (ha!) Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse! Hahahaha, I slay myself. Or something like that. But seriously, you will be singing along to easily half the songs on here if you allow yourself to sing along to the music which I do which sometimes annoys other people in the car or house or wherever I am when I'm singing along to the music. Wow, that was a very unpunctuated sentence. Feel free to mail me a copy of this review marked up in red ink if you're an English teacher!!! My personal favorites on here happen to be Dope Nose (despite the stupid video), Keep Fishin' (which actually has a nifty video), Take Control (which unfortunately reminds me of my ex, Ashley), and Burndt Jamb (which just sounds nifty....wish it was longer). All of these have hooks out (and in) the wazoo, and believe it or not, the lyrics are at least not citizens of the Land of Banality (population---4,568,923 and growing). Everything on here is at least amusing, if not worth taking to the streets in violent protest demanding that Dubya distribute a copy of Maladroit to every good American boy and girl.
In summation (ooooooh, biiiiiiiig wooooooooord), Maladroit is by no means a new Blue Album, and it sure as thunder isn't like Pinkerton. But, it beats the stuffing out of the The Green Album (as if that's a big challenge). If you like Weezer or punk influenced power pop, you'll soon be calling yourself an American Gigolo and dancing all around your room to this one while wearing those leopard-spotted boxers you got for Christmas last year.
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