Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
instrumental rock, anyone?, December 30, 2005
I'll give this 3 1/2 stars.
Musically, Weezer re-scraped all of the ingrediants used a decade ago in "Blue Album" and proved they still had the ability to some quality rock candy. W/ songs like "perfect sit," "Other way," and "Damage in your heart," Weezer are up to their usual good stuff. Then there are a few experimentations-"this is such a pity," which could be from a cure session, and bevely hills-listen to the guitar part, then listen to the likes on def leopard's "pour some sugar on me," and you'll notice a stunning similarity.
The album is downgraded, however, by something that cannot go unnoticed-the lyrics! Listen to this, "you're my best friend, and I love you, yes I love you, yes I doooooooooooooooooooooooo." Can you say 1910 fruit gum company? I didn't know that weezer was funny. And gawd, just listen to the lyrics of "hold me-" Fuel wrote better lyrics to a song than that on their tour bus on the way to a show (hemmorage). I sounds like they recorded the music, realized an hour before that they forgot lyrics, and then jotted something down. This is a good album but the lyrics are crap, especially put up against something like "the redhead said to shred the cello and I'm jello baby (el scorcho)."
So, overall, great music, lousy lyrics. I guess after four solid efforts this was bound to happen. They're not Oasis.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weezer makes come-back, uncertain of what they want..., July 10, 2005
Weezer's music has never really been about much of anything besides being brilliantly staged power-pop ("Pinkerton" aside). They've prided the majority of their career and catelogue on being outstanding and somewhat ordinary at the same time, which can be a hard thing to do be it on purpose or by accident. But that's the great thing about Weezer: the songs don't always have to have a deep meaning or some higher calling to be enjoyed. In fact, that's the main reason they are so good and what made their debut album very pleasing to the ear.
However, the lack of album coherence can also be a hinderence; a small one, albeit, but a hinderence nonetheless. The best examples of this are the Green Album and "Maladroit." While they are both gems of power-pop records, they aren't really about anything and two albums of that back-to-back consecutive years is a bit much of nothing. I think the Green album had its place after the heart-renching "Pinkerton," but "Maladroit" seems more suited for a later release after Rivers gets another break-up/self-loathing album out of his system.
This is where "Make Believe" comes in. The album takes Weezer's album "concept" of being neither-here-nor-there to new heights...with stunning results - in a bad way. Opener "Beverly Hills" suggests another Blue Album with its novelty lyrics and crunchy/catchy guitar. The next three songs, on the other hand, suggest that the album is a second-rate "Pinkerton"-redux with lyrics like "This is such a pity/We should give all our love to each other/Not this hate that destroys us/This is such a pity". This is a pity indeed.
Later tracks like "Pardon Me" and "Other Way" offer nothing new with their blandness, and, as a result, raise the album's blandness as a whole that much more. Conversely, "Freak Me Out" is a fascinating take on arachnophobia and is a nice 3 minutes of solid pop.
"We Are All On Drugs" is an interesting mid-album cut, and argueably one of the only stand-out tracks. Here, Weezer go back to having fun with a song both musically and lyrically: Cuomo sings "When your out with your friends/In your new Mercedes Benz and you're/On drugs" behind a typical Weezer pop-hard rock riffage and a new-wave synth line courtesy of Rick Rubin.
Speaking of which, Rick was an interesting choice for this album, I must say. RIck has produced everything from rap to metal to country so he's perfectly qualified to help Weezer accomplish their goal(s). As stated, the problem with hiring a guy like Rick is that he forces the artist to reach a new level sonically (and sometimes lyrically) that that artist has never pursued. With this album, however, if Weezer had the goal in mind to make a solid, coherent album from start to finish they hired the wrong producer because this album feels the complete antithesis. Don't hastily blame Mr. Rubin, though. Look at the material he had to work with; considering, I think he did a damn fine job tweeking their sound by adding synth lines and bringing every instrument to life. As good a job as he did, his effort is wasted on this collected mess of songs.
Perhaps too much was expected of Cuomo and Company after a three year absence and then having rumors circulate that Rick Rubin was behind the soundboard. Or, maybe Weezer just needed another year or two to spend working on material and just using the five-year gap as a vehicle for the come-back album. Or, just maybe the boys in Weezer needed to lock themselves away with Rick in a haunted house....or, perhaps, take a vow of celibacy.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a weezer we can be content with, May 16, 2005
For a bit of a background about the meaning of this album:
I first met weezer sometime after pinkerton came out, during a time when weezer was thought to be no more. Their first two albums quickly became my favorite (and still are). To clarify, i am a pinkerton-weezer fan.
so, naturally, i was overjoyed when i heard weezer had suddenly come back to give us the green album. I bought it and was disappointed in less than 30 minutes. (that's it? were's the rest?). yeah, there were a few catchy tunes, but it wasn't the weezer we all knew and loved. Then maladroit came out, and i thought, finally! we'll get the real weezer back! but sadly no, it wasn't.
For those who are not aware, the green album brought about a segregation between weezer fans. Some fans (the "green" fans) love the pop-tunes of the green album, maybe they liked a few songs from the blue album once they found them later, but they all agreed that pinkerton somehow sucked. Then there was the "blue" fans who loved the old weezer and thought pinkerton was the greatest album ever. Even though most were happy that weezer was back, they were disappointed that weezer wan't weezer and had become nothing more than shallow pop music.
As for album #5, i think this album has the power to unite the fans so that we can all listen to a single weezer CD together. it's all 4 CDs roled into one. Actually, I think this album is a bit of an apology to pinkerton fans, who he knows were disappointed with the last two albums (or maybe i'm just happy thinking that it is). Tracks like "Pardon Me" and "The Other Way" are what give me that feeling.
This is the weezer hopefully everyone can be content with. Don't buy it and expect pinkerton. it isn't pinkerton, that was the past, it seems Cuomo somehow got hurt from it and we'll probably never get that side of him again. However this is not the lazy, shallow crap of the last two albums either. Weezer is moving forward, it's changing, and it's changing for the better.
For an actual review of the CD (for the CD in itself):
The musical quality varys from simple 3-chord songs to sweet guitar rifs. The song's lyrics alternate from fun, finger-snapping, meaningless crap, to the nice depressing emo-ish sap we all crave. From happy moods to depressing tunes, private songs to party-worthy tracks, overall, it leaves you satisfied. Not completely happy and not worthy of 5 stars, but it's good enough to listen to and give you a good feeling.
Some of the songs -notably "Beverly Hills" and "This is such a pity" -are simple catchy songs which will most likely get some air-time. The lyrics are a bit cleche and nothing that we haven't heard before, but they're tollerable and good to listen to while driving with your friends. However, some of the songs -such as "Freak Me Out", "Hold Me", and "Peace" -are the kind that become your own. You keep them to yourself, listening to them alone with your bedroom door locked. But to prevent the album from feeling melancholy, the two types of songs alternate nearly every track.
Overall, perhaps it could have been better (simply by deleting a few of the stupid ones), but it's pretty darn good as it is. Buy it if you're a long time fan, buy it if this is the first cd you've ever heard of weezer. You're bound to like the majority of it. As a fun bonus, the CD booklet (yes, we actually get one this time!) has some nice artwork, i think it's very fitting.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by Weezer 
