Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

There may be less solo demos from those in the same style, though I think he was churning them out to dictaphone during Maladroit

They posted all that stuff to weezer.com for a while after they came back from Pinkerton. Pretty sure you could find it all on internet archive.

now EVERYBODY will get to laugh about anecdotes of Rivers Cuomo at Harvard

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/psych-creator-steve-franks-teaming-728679

I was trying to figure out why I never heard nor bought Alone III, but it seems like it was only ever availble with some big dumb memorabilia box version.

five ten fifteen twenty twenty-five thirty thirty-five forty

I was enjoying the new song "Cleopatra" much more than "Back to the Shack" until they got to the counting section. Yuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHFzH06HqU

i like "cleopatra" a lot!

new album rules ._.

You've heard the whole thing or just based on the songs they've released thus far?

heard the whole thing, full of surprises

Didn't love Cleopatra, HATED Back to the Shack, so there's a really bar on this one.

really *low bar

"back to the shack" is very much a nadir, rest of the record towers around it. i know "best since pinkerton" is kind of... meaningless with this band, but it's a very good record

I'm going to give this one a shot. I considered Hurley worthy of a purchase so maybe my personal bar isn't set that high. I still don't understand why that album isn't at least as well liked (by Weezer fans) as Maladroit or Make Believe.

Make Believe was the last one I listened to the whole way through. The red one and Hurley and Raditude (and whatever else may have come in the interim) I just kind of picked up on peripherally. Far be it from me to read into Rivers' motivation and the dynamic of the band at this stage, but I think we went down different paths.

"futurescope trilogy" is so prog

Absolutely brilliant album, undeniably the best since Green. Time will tell if it's best since Pinkerton or Scary Monsters.

How are the lyrics? Gotta admit my estimation of the Green/Maladroit period has dropped as the novelty of New Weezer has diminished

Compared to recent fare, they're pretty great. I read some for the song 'Da Vinci' which looked awful on paper ("I looked you up on ancestry.com".. "Stephen Hawking can't explain you"), but they're actually very endearing as part of the song. Back To The Shack is the only real clunker on the album. I truly hope they've not burned too many bridges with fans over the last 10 years, I think many turned off by the last few could be won over.

yeah some of the lyrics are pretty endearingly goofy instead of embarrassing this time around

hell i love "pork and beans" so with ric behind the deck i'll definitely give it a shot

that song reminded me it was guitars not rivers' neurotic journeys that got me into weezer in the first place

oh well then this record is for you

lot of shredding plus the guitar tones are gorgeous

Da Vinci is kind of Pork & Beans II, but muuuch better

and I liked Pork & Beans

lot of shredding plus the guitar tones are gorgeous

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, September 26, 2014 6:33 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ why I fell in love with the blue album, getting a little excited

oh yeah that's exactly right

xpost

I heard the clip for 'Go Away' with Bethany from Best Coast - out of context it sounded like standard recent naff Weezer fare, but turns out it's amazing in full. Just about cried when the bridge kicked in

don't mean to get your hopes up, it's not all rainbows of guitar, it's still a little calcified-sounding (which imo is essentially the problem they've had since the green album, maladroit sort of excepted)

but idk it's also great

well okay the other problem they've had since the green album is the amount of garbage they've put out

I have a friend he is an earthworm

Plenty of Blue Album style guitar that I'm enjoying. Tracks three through eight really have the magic and the rest of the tunes are okay. They were really close to a third classic record.

on first listen i am underwhelmed

not big fan of back to the shack but goddamn that song gets in my head

yeah i don't take it as a good sign that i can't remember any of the inoffensive songs as easily as offensive ones like that or raditude's "i'm your daddy"

also did hurley not have as much guitar or something? admittedly i can't actually remember if i listened to hurley but if you told me the new album was what hurley sounded like i'd believe you

still really enjoy this record, and it caused me to make a coherent playlist of uh "bad" weezer http://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/4J6PHHzS0CJ7oltUauerBy

one of the cool things about making that playlist was realizing that hurley is half good but in a way that no other weezer record is. "trainwrecks" and "run away" especially sound like a different band.

man you know if you would have told me in 1994 that the three most enduring bands of alt rock would be weezer, foo fighters, and green day

It had guitar, but no Blue Album tone, wild solos, or feedback as far as I can remember. It's not a bad record at all I think Raditude just scared most folks away from ever hearing it.

Oh, fuckin' no kidding. Add the Flaming Lips to that though.

xp

also i think i said this in the weezer pox thread but death to false metal contains what i've discovered is my favorite ever weezer song, "blowin' my stack," which is a make believe cast-off iirc

Also those guys that did that "I'm a Creep" song.

I'm liking the new album - not sure about the 3 part ending song - I was expecting a Beach Boys style California Trilogy.

The new album is whupping mules' behinds with belts

Love the new record. I was pretty accepting of the various post-green offerings. So, now that they're somewhat back to their old sound with great songs, it's easy to like. Da Vinci, Lonely Girl and the trilogy are the best parts. Generally nothing vomit worthy, like a vast majority of make believe and red. I personally enjoy Raditude and Hurley. Some of their best pop offerings come from those two albums. Sure they were silly, but Rivers always had good songs, even if the production was not what weezer nostalgists demanded. I prefer to see a band grow and evolve, instead of putting out the same album over and over. Obviously this formula world for AC/DC, but AC/DC is for meatheads, for the post part.

The new record is fucking fantastic, minor quibbles aside. My favorite part about this is that Rivers' embarrassing lyrics are back to being charmingly idiotic instead of just plain stupid. No matter what he will actually cop to, he's been trying to recapture the mid-90s magic since 2001, this is the first time he's actually done so.

So ... I am absolutely shocked at how much I love this new album.

Minor quibbles, yes. Some dumb lyrics, yes. I would probably cut "Da Vinci" if I could.

But it sounds like the Weezer I love again.

For the record: I draw my line *after* the green album, not before. And I rate the blue album over Pinkerton, the former being one of my desert island discs, probably.

Actually I take it back, relistening to "Da Vinci" and I don't want to cut it. Lyrics are terrible, but the crunch of the chorus is too good and redeems them.