OK, here's my case for the Green Album... See, I feel like the Green Album is very much like the first two. The melodies are more understated and not as "in-your-face," but they reveal themselves the more you listen to them. I always thought songs that do that tend to have more longevity anyway, there just seems to be more to them. Plus, at least half of the songs on the album have the Beach Boys vibe you're talking about in addition to the distorted guitars (Don't Let Go, Photograph, Crab, Knock-Down Drag-Out War, Smile, Simple Pages, Glorious Day). "O Girlfriend" is a mediocre song, but also follows a similar formula. The only two songs that really diverge from the first two albums in my opinion are Hash Pipe (which I don't like at all...Weezer should never do dark songs), and "Island in the Sun" which is brilliant and does have a few guitar explosions. Also, the lyrics never really verge on embarrassing like the last two albums and seemingly the new one.
Somebody was nice enough to upload this to Youtube: The Greatest Man That Ever Lived <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kwO1Hiv4bHY&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kwO1Hiv4bHY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> It reminds me of the Beatles Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End. Not comparing them to the Beatles, just that it has that same structure of being multiple songs combined into one. Everybody Get Dangerous <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SCJDTgxyvNQ&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SCJDTgxyvNQ&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Yes, it is very good. delightfully surprised. I have the advance copy, but I have pre-ordered my Deluxe Edition from Amazon. It has 4 extra songs, I believe.
Wow, I don't like this one at all. I see what they're trying to do here, but I just don't think they succeeded. Sounds like a cheap imitation of Bohemian Rhapsody. I don't like it at all. Just my opinion, of course. I like this one a lot better. Like that guitar riff. Sounds like it was made for GTA, which isn't a bad thing. So what is the actual release date for this album? BTW, I put the Green Album on my iPod over the weekend and I must admit that I didn't dislike it as much as I remembered I had. I kind of liked it, actually.
I enjoyed The Green Album. I also liked Make Believe. The only one I really didnt care for was Maladroit, honestly. Pinkerton is still my favorite though.
This is their best album since Pinkerton. I've only liked a handful of their recent stuff, but this brings back the Blue Album with a little bit of their last one as well. Lots of backup singing and distorted head shaking guitar like the Blue album, and the production of Make Believe.
I am convinced that Rivers Cuomo is giving America the middle finger just the same way Steven Spielberg has been intentionally putting out crap ever since Saving Private Ryan didn't win the Oscar for best picture (losing to SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE for Christ's sake). With Cuomo he tried his very best to make a great album in Pinkerton, and no one gave a crap and sales were low he just said "Screw this, I have name recognition, I'm going to go to Harvard and just make money offa all these saps." Hence, Green Album, Maladroit, and Make Believe (the latter two being subtle hints as to him not really trying at all). If you have any respect for the first two albums, this is the explanation you must give yourself because the albums after Pinkerton have been beyond bad. They've been an affront to humanity. Listen to the lyrics of Beverly Hills if you don't believe me that Cuomo is in on the fraud.
Interesting. I disagree with the Maladroit take though. Maladroit didn't try to make money. It was dark and weird. Songs like "Slob" and even the single "Hash Pipe" were not really mainstream type crap songs. The album was ok but not really great but not "Beverly Hills" gay or anything. Pinkerton was by far one of the best albums ever made. Make Believe is by far one of the worst. I really hope they do get away from poppy crap. Nothing gives me chills down my spine like Rivers screaming in "Tired of Sex".
After listening to Maladroit again this morning, I still don't understand the hate for it. My favorite Weezer album.
First of all, if you don't like Munich, I don't trust your taste in movies. As for your take on Rivers, it just doesn't jive with reality. He worked for years on trying to write songs for their third album, even falling into a period of depression. That is not somebody who is consciously deciding to just make crap music for the "saps". I'm sure he decided he didn't want to write anything as personal as Pinkerton, but that doesn't mean he hasn't written anything good since then. I guess you have a Pitchfork Media(these guys give favorable reviews to Fallout Boy btw) standard when it comes to Weezer, but your hyperbole in bashing the Green album and Maladroit is ridiculous. They're not great albums, but they aren't total ***** either. More importantly, they aren't the purely commercial cash grabs meant to dupe the "saps" out of their money you claim them to be. They've both got metacritic scores in the 70s.
1. Just because someone says something doesn't mean they're telling the truth. Cuomo is smart enough to know how to control his own image, hence the experiment of putting bad music out there intentionally to see who still likes it. 2. Green album is catchy yes, but let's walk through the lyrics of Simple Pages shall we??? Kick it on back, kick it on back, kick it on back to what you know Gimme some love, gimme some love, sugar on the hard rock radio When they play tunes, when they play tunes, when they play riffs of the hard rock beat Gimme some love, gimme some love sugar from the drop with the old school BEAT Can't you see Where to be this time Simple pages on my mind Gimme something I can believe, oh baby He's laughing at you. He's angry that all you want is the same regurgitated stuff. So he's giving you what you want. 3. Don't accuse others of having a bias when it's clear you have your own bias in favor of Weezer. Face it, as much as you would like to think you can separate Blue Album and Pinkerton from what they've made recently, you can't. I'm the same way with STP or Red Hot Chili Peppers. Part of it is, studies have shown that as people get older they tend to stop listening to music and become more and more attached to the stuff they were turned on to while they were maturing. This isn't universal of course; but nevertheless, old biases are hard to break and at this point in time you really should be trying to defend more relevant artists than Weezer. 4. I read Pitchfork sometimes although I never have read their reviews for Weezer because I frankly had stopped paying attention to Weezer by the time I discovered Pitchfork. I've stopped reading Pitchfork over the past year or so, just because their ratings are always one album behind. It's fun to track how Pitchfork gets caught up in its own hype machine, to the point where they'll irrationally defend bands that they originally built up just to try to prove that they were right to do so in the first place. Ex. 1: Rapture's latest album Pieces of the People We Love. Not a very good album but they rated it high just because they were an original website that touted the band when they came up (Echoes was a great album, however). Ex. 2: Alt-country alliances with Kathleen Edwards and against Tift Merritt. It makes no sense to like one over the other. Merritt has maybe the best voice in country today. Edwards has the fact that Ryan Adams is her buddy and originally signed her to his label. If you haven't read this it's hilarious: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/pitchfork_gives_music_6_8 The best line is "In the end, though music can be brilliant at times, the whole medium comes off as derivative of Pavement." My friend met Ryan Schreiber once at SXSW and said he was a completely pompous douche. Anyways, I'm out.
Spacemoth, I can see how you might think that, but honestly I think the drop in the quality of Weezer material post-Pinkerton had more to do with Matt Sharp's departure than any cash-grab conspiracy by Rivers. Matt has a bigger influence on the band's sound/material than most Weezer fans are willing to admit. Go back and read some of blathersby's posts in this thread.
Sorry about that earlier, I forgot that Tift Merritt was the one who had her first album on Lost Highway (Adams' label). Still, Edwards I think is Adams' friend too. Who in Americana isn't? I'm not much of a fan tho.
