Sounds like the start of a porn novel.
― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Heh heh heh. See, here's my question, a very honest one -- is the methodology at fault when it comes to such song creation, or is it just simply a matter of what the end results are regardless of said songs' creation, no matter who the creator? I'd argue it was the latter situation.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Josh, Saturday, 1 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
As I said above, I don't think you should like the songs just because of his goofy ass way of making them. I do think it gives us something interesting to think about. Most of the songs on the last two albums sound to me like faulty copies of the kind of ideal modern rock pop song that Weezer, Green Day, Nirvana, et al were putting out in the nineties. Flawed, because in most of them something's not quite right. I don't know what it would be like to hear one of these on the radio, and think it was from an anonymous band. I think the new Weezer songs actually have less of a personal touch than even some of the very formulaic or conventional songs that might come from those anonymous bands who just happen to hit on the right ingredients that one time. It's very hard for me to tell, though, between not having heard the songs anonymously, and having them come from Weezer, who I expect at least some personal touch from.
I haven't said anything about why a personal touch is so great, etc etc, but I don't feel like it right now. Part of my theory had something to do about how getting rid of himself and building songs out of idealized parts stolen from other songs was a very canny thing to do to get back on the radio, and that the reason Weezer can do that so well is that he's a really talented songwriter (yes, he used his cut-it-open-and-take-it-apart method, but he knew what to do with the parts.
― Josh, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I knew there was something missing.
― clive, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Sounds about right, or at least I can't think of any other immediate rephrasing that would change that meaning. My reaction to Cuomo's approach isn't to say, "Ah, he's doing that, therefore it must be good by default" so much as it is, "I'm perversely impressed he's trying something so ridiculously obsessive -- hey, if he's happy, I guess." My thought is, it doesn't matter if he's done some ultimate meta- analysis of said songs in ways that would put most math-rock types to shame or just woke up and strummed out something. Both methods can produce worthy results and are not in and of themselves a problematic way of doing things (along with many other methods), because they're just that, approaches, and we could say that about any band or songwriter or whatever. I just want something to listen to that I enjoy!
Weezer trip up for me on that front since they are anonymous to me all around -- they've always struck me as a terribly bland band, doggedly competent but not in any way remarkable, rather like the Strokes. There's not much for me to outright hate ("Buddy Holly" is the big exception, though -- bah), but there's zilch for me to love, and even the Strokes have "Last Night." That Pinkerton seems to have become a The Queen is Dead or Louder Than Bombs for a new American generation in terms of sheer obsession combined with its influence on a slew of newer bands is interesting to me because I certainly would not have expected that when it came out, to be sure. So I can see why you and many other fans were awaiting the green album and then this one with huge anticipation, and you're sounding like every Star Wars fan who hated The Phantom Menace when it came out, getting barking mad with what happened and accusing a valued creator of giving into too much technology and cold-hearted construction for the sake of sales. ;-)
Flawed, because in most of them something's not quite right.
But what is that that isn't right? You mention a 'personal touch,' but how would you define it? This isn't so much a question about why a personal touch is great per se, you already acknowledged that part of your explanation, but what that personal touch exactly is, for Weezer if not for a universal approach.
I think part of the reason it upsets me is connected to what's wrong with the results of his system. I don't think it has to result in the elimination of all the personal stuff. I think Cuomo has used it as a way to turn out songs that come close in a sense to the kind he can write when he lets himself in. Maybe it's all connected to how well Pinketron did, and he's just worried about using songwriting as an outlet for personal expression - he doesn't want to do that and be rejected again, and he doesn't want to do that and hurt his listeners (the broader group of them) by possibly giving them another bitter record. Or maybe he has other reasons for wanting to shut himself off from his songs. (From what I've read it seems like he's fucked up enough to have those other reasons in spades.) Either way, his system lets him make songs that sound in all other respects a lot like his old songs, and I think it does so because it basically gives him a way of applying his songwriting talent divorced from its 'natural' setting, i.e. the one where he would be possibly expressing his feelings, revealing himself, etc.
I wish you had picked a record not by the Smiths so I might have known something about it! As is I can't say anything about your comparison.
I'll try not to put it off so long that I don't answer you, but I have to think more before I explain this personal touch crap. It's complicated!
― Sean, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Shot Gun Tony, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― andrea, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
"too pop"lol
― and the ugly girls, too (Tape Store), Saturday, 11 July 2009 19:15 (fourteen years ago) link
"Keep Fishin'" ia awez
― and the ugly girls, too (Tape Store), Saturday, 11 July 2009 19:32 (fourteen years ago) link
only 6 more years and we'll have the red Weezer album.
― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, June 2, 2002 12:00 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark
ooooweeeeoooo
― da croupier, Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:11 (fourteen years ago) link
holy shit the release date was June 3! Off by a DAY
― da croupier, Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:14 (fourteen years ago) link
WAU
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:28 (fourteen years ago) link
6/2/02 never forget
― balearific, Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:48 (fourteen years ago) link
― and the ugly girls, too (Tape Store), Saturday, July 11, 2009 12:32 PM Bookmark
^
― cank sunny ade (The Reverend), Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:59 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm predicting yellow self-titled June 3, 2014.
― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 11 July 2009 21:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Looking at their past performance I would have said June 2015, but what the hell.
― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 11 July 2009 21:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Shoulda stuck with 2015.
― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 29 August 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
this album is secretly a minor classic. especially slob.
― the dickering of salm on race (Treeship), Friday, 29 August 2014 20:32 (nine years ago) link
CHEESESMELLS SO GOODON A BURNTPIECE OF LAMBFAGOF THE YEARWHO COULD BEATUP YOUR MAN
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Monday, 28 August 2017 09:53 (six years ago) link
Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).Personally I think the armadillos who carry cheese sandwiches wrote the album and got Cuomo to add his name to it through Chinese brick torture (a lot like water torture but more effective - and quicker - although potentially more lethal).
― Neanderthal, Monday, 28 August 2017 10:09 (six years ago) link
Oh my god, that was a sexual album
― albvivertine, Monday, 28 August 2017 10:50 (six years ago) link
WAITING FORLITTLE CLUESTO APPEARTHAT I DRANKSOME OF GRANDADDY'S BEER
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Monday, 28 August 2017 13:38 (six years ago) link
WHEN YOU'RE ON YOUR OWNYOU CAN SEE
THINGS
― PaulTMA, Monday, 28 August 2017 16:00 (six years ago) link