Rivers
Cuomo - vocals, guitar
Patrick
Wilson - drums, backing vocals
Brian
Bell - guitar, backing vocals
Scott
Shriner - bass, backing vocals
Three years removed from their 5th studio album Weezer is back
with another colorful adventure. Another self-titled album also known as the Red Album was released in June of 2008. The ten
track album, which has been labeled as an ‘experimental’ album, includes a lot of new ideas and new sounds to
Weezer. After hitting it huge with the first album Blue and then slipping into
the background album after album since then, Red seems to be trying to bring this
band back to the Blue days. Red begins
with the track “Troublemaker.” The shortest installment on the album is a very catchy tune that could find its
way on MTV much like “Beverly Hills” did. It’s full of quirky lines that sometimes don’t fit,
but it very clever all the same. The next track “The Greatest…” begins with crowd noise and adds in different
variations of a Shaker Hymn. It is very odd as it goes through all the different types of music. It is worth at least one
listen. The first single “Pork and Beans” spins off 3rd on the track listing. With lyrics like “I'll
eat my candy with the pork and beans/Excuse my manners if I make a scene” it’s just strange, strangely fun. “Heart
Songs” is one that you have to focus on the lyrics as it possibility refers to when they came together the first time,
saying “Back in 1991, I wasn’t having any fun until my roommate said come on and put a brand new record one. Had
a baby on it, it was naked one it.” Try to guess who they were referring to in that little bit. Ending the first half
of the records is “Everybody Get Dangerous.” The track reminds me of Red Hot Chili Peppers track vocally. It’s
one of the best on the album. It does have weird lyrics like many of Weezer’s songs, but its super fun and should be
a great live tune, if not a single in the future. “Dreamin’” was a surprisingly good track in the beginning
with an upbeat, country-type feel to it until middle part way through it and it goes south quick. “Thought I Knew” throws in a drum machine into the mix as “Automatic” lets Pat do
some of the singing in it and it doesn’t sound half bad. The album wraps up with “The Angel and the One.”
It is a soft slow track that gets the listener to hold up the light or cell phone and sway back and forth. Overall the album
is a rollercoaster ride. It starts off strong and then dips only to come back and finish in the middle. There are spots off
the younger years strength and then of the blenders that all bands have once and a while. There are a few tracks that can
make there way into a quirky part of a movie or MTV and others will die after the first listening.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
My favorite tracks:
Troublemaker,
Everyone Get Dangerous
Track List:
1.
Troublemaker
2.
The Greatest Man That Ever Lived
3.
Pork and Beans
4.
Heart Songs
5.
Everybody Get Dangerous
6.
Dreamin’
7.
Thought I Knew
8.
Cold Dark World
9.
Automatic
10. The
Angel and the One
Website (s): www.weezer.com