Weezer the Red Album

[Visirale]

It leaked.

It's being hailed as a return to the Blue Album level of quality (thank God). I'm listening to it now and it's easily the best stuff they've put out in years.

Anyone else hear it?

It comes out on Tuesday... and yes, I'll be buying a copy when it comes out.

[Jluckie3]

haven't heard anything but pork and beans, but it's great. scott shriner's tone is nice and grindy!

[Valerus]

Cool, I liked their older stuff

[Visirale]

This was released today. I'd just like to encourage anyone who's ever liked Weezer to pick this up. This is their best album in YEARS. I got the deluxe edition today with the extra tracks and more liner notes... definitely worth the $2 or $3 extra.

[Surprise Panda!]

This album is truly amazing. I am biased to weezer cause I'm a HUGE fan, but still some amazing stuff

[UncleBalsamic]

I might get this, I liked the Blue and Green album.

[Visirale]

Critics are giving it crap because Rivers is getting older and he's still sticking to his "longing to be a teenager again" lyrics. I really like the album and think it's close to the same level as the Blue album and Pinkerton... probably a few notches off. A few steps above the green album and tiers above maladroit and make believe.

It's just good catchy pop music with lyrics I can identify with... you can't beat that!

[sobie18]

Thanks for the info; I'll be on the lookout for it here...

[Muddslide]

They're not one of my favorite bands, but they frequently manage to uncork some great tunes with massive, majestic melodies.

Do yourself a flavor and check out the "Pork and Beans" video. It's up on YouTube, and anyone who's familiar with YouTube should get a real kick out of it.

[Jared Lash]

I like it a lot. I read pitchfork's negative review of it and was shaking my head the whole time. It's WEEZER. The awkwardness, the nerdy, cheesy & adolescent lyrics and the unabashed pop hooks are what they were about from the beginning. Critics waiting for their "mature" album are going to be disappointed. Weezer reminds me of Cake in that other than in very gradual and subtle ways (the shared vocal duties for instance) you aren't going to see much change from album to album. It's just a matter of how well they hit their own mark each go round. And these are collectively the best Weezer songs since Pinkerton.

Some early favorites are Dreamin' and The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. The only true clunker so far is Heart Songs, which lyrically is embarrassingly bad even for the guy that penned the words to "In the Garage".

Having listened to it a few times, I think here's where I would rank it among Weezer albums.

Pinkerton
Blue Album
Red Album
Green Album
Maladroit
Make Believe

[phxlbrmpf]

I admit I'm only familiar with their surprise hit "Buddy Holly" but I watched the "Pork and Beans" video on Youtube for the first time yesterday and was pretty dang disappointed. This has got to be the safest "rock hit single" I've heard in a while, down to the notorious "instant hit song" chord progression used in the chorus. Also the "I don't care" bridge part is embarrassingly bad in my opinion.

Question: is the video they put on Youtube really the regular music video? I don't think they could've possibly tried any harder to appeal to Youtube and its wonderful users with it...

[Visirale]

Originally Posted by phxlbrmpf

I admit I'm only familiar with their surprise hit "Buddy Holly" but I watched the "Pork and Beans" video on Youtube for the first time yesterday and was pretty dang disappointed. This has got to be the safest "rock hit single" I've heard in a while, down to the notorious "instant hit song" chord progression used in the chorus. Also the "I don't care" bridge part is embarrassingly bad in my opinion.

Question: is the video they put on Youtube really the regular music video? I don't think they could've possibly tried any harder to appeal to Youtube and its wonderful users with it...

I don't know how familiar you are with Weezer, but they pretty much trademarked that "rock hit single" progression. It's pop music, you can only have so many different chord progressions that maintain motion with the music. As for the lyrics, I find them pretty clever, but I usually don't even listen to lyrics that much. This album has been an exception and I happen to like a lot of them...

I'm pretty sure that's the real video. They hired a pretty big name director to do it. I think it's a big nod to how much youtube has become its own legitimate and big culture. Also a sign of the times...

[bassaficionado6]

I just got the album on Friday, and I think it might be my favorite album. I never really connected with the Blue Album or any of their other albums as much because I only started getting into music after they were all out. I was kinda dissappointed by make believe because there only a few good songs on it, but the Red album has alot of great songs.

The only songs I don't really like that much are Dreamin', Miss Sweeney, Pig, and Spiders.

However, the rest are pretty excellent, and because I'm fan of Weezer, I'm really happy that they put out such a good album.

[Son of Sanford]

My wife gave this to me today for Father's Day. She wasn't aware there was a deluxe edition. Now I'll have to go buy it and hide it. She's normally pretty cool about me returning things but you could tell she was very proud that she even knew they had a new album that I hadn't bought.

I never knew Maladroit was as unpopular as it seems to be. I love that album.

[Trabo]

I think its great material, especialy the single Pork and Beans by itself.

[SnakeAnthony]

Man....

Really...

I want to. I really wanted to like this, but I can't. And this is coming from a Weezer fan. The blue album was the second album I ever purchased, and Pinkerton was my second. I've been listening for years, and watched as they've leaked off slowly.

I'll agree its hands down their best since the Green album, but I still don't get how this is being compared to Pinkerton and the Blue album. Its... good, but that's all I can say. Rivers is still witty about hit writing, and still willing to take shots at himself, but the music is really just too bland, and predictable, almost cheesy for me. There's no giddiness, no nerdy indulgence about the music left. I leave it as just listenable, but not much more for me.

Originally Posted by TheBigO

Having listened to it a few times, I think here's where I would rank it among Weezer albums.

Pinkerton
Blue Album
Red Album
Green Album
Maladroit
Make Believe

For me:

Pinkerton
Blue Album
Green Album
Red Album
Make Believe
Maladroit (which I'm only now even acknowledging as existing...)

[Siegy]

Rivers's moustache on the album cover is epic.

And as for Pork & Beans being the "instant single" progression, this is from Wikipedia:

""Pork and Beans" is the first single to be released from the album. "Troublemaker" was originally considered to be the album's first single but later was switched with "Pork and Beans." It was written by Cuomo as a reaction to a meeting with Geffen where the band was told it needed to record more-commercial material."

[SnakeAnthony]

Originally Posted by Siegy

Rivers's moustache on the album cover is epic.

And as for Pork & Beans being the "instant single" progression, this is from Wikipedia:

""Pork and Beans" is the first single to be released from the album. "Troublemaker" was originally considered to be the album's first single but later was switched with "Pork and Beans." It was written by Cuomo as a reaction to a meeting with Geffen where the band was told it needed to record more-commercial material."

Which I find to be endlessly ironic. He did exactly what they told him to do by attempting to do just the opposite.

[sarcastro83]

If it were 1995, I'd be really excited about this. But it's now... and I'm not.

Sorry Weezer.

[Dan1099]

I really like it. I especially like when the other members sing leads... "I'm King" is awesome.