Watching somebody you love destroy him or herself is an especially difficult thing to witness.
It's even more difficult when it happens to be four people who are inextricably linked with some of the most formative years of your life.
Weezer, what are you doing?
I love Weezer. I don't want to qualify that by saying I love Weezer's first two albums a whole lot, and their subsequent output less so, but I'm tempted to. Weezer, or The Blue Album, and Pinkerton are solidly in my top ten albums of all-time (#s 2 and 8, respectively). The Green Album, Maladroit, and Make Believe are noticeably behind the curve Weezer set with those first two Golden Treasures. Don't get me wrong, I don't loathe these last three releases, it's just that they aren't perfect, like the first two.
Now, don't think that the warped expectations I have for this band have not crossed my mind. I get that what I expect from them, they couldn't possibly deliver. However, that doesn't really matter much to me at this point.
Their new album is coming out in a couple of months (June 17th, to be exact), and I promise you I'll buy it. But I'm bracing for disappointment. I feel much like I have with Kentucky in the NCAA tournament these past few years: Sure, there's a chance they could make a run and pull of something great, but I'm not exactly brimming with confidence.
Their first single from the yet-again-eponymous Red Album is called - shudder - "Pork and Beans." This is easily the worst name for a song in the history of popular music, and I am including rap in this, so "Move, Bitch" and "Chicken and Beer" and "Barry Bonds" were all considered. Even worse, the song (or, more accurately, the 30 second clip I heard from Amazon.com) doesn't sound bad. I would listen to this song and the record it came from. Rivers is still happy, which means his lyrics have lost all of the confessional bite that made those first two records so great, but it still sounds alright. This is what Weezer has been doing musically for the past eight years, taking one step forward just to take two back.
I wish I could stop them. There may have been a time when I thought I would never see the day I didn't pine for the next Weezer album. But I fear that time has come.
Take a listen for yourself HERE.
5 comments:
Okay, so I have yet to listen to the new single. For some reason, I am waiting and I don't know why.
I will say that, obviously, I agree with most everything you've said in this post...except you forgot one thing:
A new album means that Weezer will tour and I will actually get a chance to see them live (which I never actually go to do). This is important, and if for no other reason than a chance to see that giant W do its thing as it perilously hovers above, you should be excited about a new Weezer record. I am excited about a new Weezer record (and I WILL be disappointed).
Love,
Jonas
You're not very good at this whole "blogging" thing, are you?
Time for a new post, Corman.
But you DIDN'T buy it! Your prophecy was wrong.
ummm, i noticed you wrote this in April 08. I think you're wrong. Case in point: The Greatest Man That Ever Lived.
Fast forward to present- i saw Weezer recently in NY. Hey, Weezer has been a big part of my "formative" years as well. And I gotta say, although i was expecting to be disappointed, I wasn't They rocked! Still do, always will.
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