Idolator

That strategy certainly didn't lead the album to be any good, why settle for one miss when you can have the whole megillah?

Wow Maura, thanks. Its like a full service blog. Love the tag too.

Now I feel obligated to comment, even though I have nothing really original to say that hasn't been said many times before. Its ok album. They'll never make another Pinkerton, so I've stopped hoping that they do. Now I'm just looking for hooky pop songs, which they try to deliver. I see the The Red Album as basically Green Album/Make Believe all over again. Which I've convinced myself is fine. And because I have nothing original to say, for reasons not entirely understandable to me, I've decided to offer my two-word reviews of each song.

1) Troublemaker -- really poppy
2) Greatest Man -- i'm confused
3) Pork & Beans -- the single
4) Heart Songs -- rickrolled us (or junior-high nostalgia)
5) Dangerous -- second single
6) Dreamin' -- very weezer-y
7) Thought I Knew -- not rivers
8) Cold Dark World -- not rivers
9) Automatic -- half rivers
10) The Angel And The One -- lonely rivers

Actually "Cold Dark World" is also half Rivers, since he provided the lyrics and vocal melodies.

I think people that are slamming the album are kind of nuts. Even Pitchfork gave it a glowing review until the last graf. I think at this point if it's not Blue or Pinkerton people feel like Cuomo is slacking.

What's wrong with just writing geeky pop songs at this point in his life?

Forgive my hubris. I'm not asking them to remake Blue or Pinkerton. I think that's what they've actually been trying to do, so I'm asking quite the opposite: I'm asking them to make records that seem even the least bit inspired instead of mediocre attempts to reinvent the same wheel every time.

I don't think Weezer sucks -- I just seriously believe in them so much that I would think, perhaps incorrectly, that they're capable of turning out something better than they've been turning out. I apologize for being one of those people who really can't understand their need to embrace mediocrity.

I don't think they're going to write some epic opera or remake Pet Sounds. Actually, at this point, I don't know what I think. I just don't like this album.

@tankboy: What's wrong with just writing geeky pop songs at this point in his life?

I would argue nothing. But the problem is that once you put out an album that connects to people in a way that 99.999% of albums never will, people want those feelings again. And again. And again.

And you know what, that has both its positives and negatives. On the positive side, how great is it that you once greated a work so awesome, so beloved that people long to have that feeling again? On the negative side, that's probably impossible because such albums are inevitably tied to feelings of youth (of both the artist and the audience), but you're only young once.

Maybe Liz Phair and Rivers should start a support group.

"while Jewel's attempt to cash in on the fact that country fans still buy albums may fool as many as 50,000 people"

That line is soooooo the laugh I needed as I'm still in the office at this late hour ahahah

And hey, Mr. Weezer fan club - tell your boys that, if they've got any decent material left in their repertoire, to please release THAT to the radio so that the rest of us don't have to sit through garbage like 'Beverly Hills' over and over.

I'm not a Weezer hater but wow do some of their songs suck hard. Sorry.

@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: ...I was actually just about to bring Phair into the mix to make the same point. Hell, if her next album was half as good as Red is, that'd make me happy. Talk about a truly downward artistic turn...

It should also be noted that the bonus tracks on Red are pretty durn good. "Ms. Sweeney" is particularly winning with its Pinkerton vibe.

Weezer should record a country record.

Rather:

WEEZER SHOULD RECORD A COUNTRY RECORD.

They're overdue for making their Nashville album

Then they follow it up with their relationship breakup album

Then their comeback album released via Starbucks.

Then the Jonas Brothers record a tribute album to them

Which resurrects the Jonas Brothers career momentarily