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This is Kevin and it's my second time posting. I wanted to do a better job of being current than I did my first time (when I reviewed an album that was 4 years old) so now I bring you my thoughts on the newest Weezer album!
As a longtime Weezer fan, I've been anxiously anticipating this album release ever since I was on the second Weezer cruise this past February. Would the album be another Pinkerton, now that Weezer is established enough that Rivers doesn't need to please anyone other than true fans, or would this be another blue/green album?
Though a little bit disappointing, EWBAITE is very much in the vein of the blue/green albums, though it's a little bit more polished and sounds, dare I say, buttery smooth. While I really like the signature style and sound of the blue/green albums, I was hoping for something a bit more daring at this stage of their career.
Now that you have a sense of the overall album's sound and feel (assuming you know the blue/green albums), I will get to specific track highlights:
Back To The Shack: Instantly catchy track that is single-worthy and has the added bonus of giving longtime fans an "update" on all sorts of issues that Rivers first sang about on the blue album in 1994, such as his relationship with his Dad, who we heard about in Say It Ain't So.
Eulogy For A Rock Band: Probably my favorite track on the album (at least so far), starting right up with a typical Weezer build and progression from the first second right into their signature pop and harmonic melody-making sound. But could this be a song suggesting that perhaps this is a last song for Weezer? After all, Rivers talks about the worlds coming and going and letting them fade, saying adios and toasting his favorite rock band. Maybe it's an allusion to Weezer's future, though I sure hope not.
Go Away: Although adding a second vocal may not sound like a big deal for any band or track, I must admit that my ears perked up when I heard this song: a female(!) voice joins Rivers in this lyrically and melodically simple track that deals with the struggles that a couple faces. While the song very much fits the album and the Weezer mold, this additional dimension of a female voice perked up my ears with interest and surprise both the first time I heard and now as I listen to it while reviewing it.
Other tracks that I enjoyed and are already beginning to get stuck in my head include:
Cleopatra (the second "single")
The British Are Coming
Lonely Girl
Overall, if you're a longtime fan, go get this album since it's new material that is in the vein of what you already like, but know this is not another Pinkerton as much as you (and I) may have wished for that. If you know Weezer's music and are not a fan, this album is not going to be a conquest album. If you don't know Weezer at all, then go ahead and pick up this album and give it a try. The classic recipe of catchy riffs and expected lyrics will be sure to have you humming along in no time.
I am afraid to post anything on DropBox, but you can listen to the entire album streaming on iTunes radio!
since i'm such a nice guy:
ReplyDeletehttps://app.box.com/s/1pbhf5fmrh0edg40mt18
being a longtime Weezer fan (like a few of you in this group) i'm a little jealous of Kevin getting to post this album on his rotation. nevertheless, i have a tradition of actually buying + owning a *physical* copy of every =w= album. i had low expectations of this album though, and they were met.
3.5
maybe the album will grow on me (like a few of their post- Blue/Pinkerton ones, e.g. Maladrot, Make Believe), but it's going to take some time. i feel that some of the lyrics (esp in "Back to the Shack" were a bit too meta/self-referential). just make some good damn music please.
to that end, the album was all over the place, referencing different moments of weezer's music evolution, VS having a singular sound/theme. for some reason i really liked "the British are Coming." the whistling in "Da Vinci" is catchy.
i DID like the bookending of the mom opening with the album title, and closing with a chorus in track #10. the bonus tracks (#11-13) took away from a nice closing though
Thank you for posting the link and your additional thoughts!
DeleteThanks, Raman. Absolutely no way I was going to install iTunes...
DeleteI went in to this really expecting to HATE this album, mostly because Weezer broke my heart back in the day, and I have expected nothing but and been given the same ever since. I used to be a huge weezer fan; ever since Blue came out when I was in the 10th grade. I was the only one in my small Alabama town that bought Pinkerton when it came out, and I was one of a handful of official Weezer fan club members (#2211). I dug Green and tolerated Maladroit, but a couple times through Make Believe and there was no going back. Weezer sucked. Big time. Red, Raditude, Hurley and Death to False Metal only dug the grave deeper for me, and I have never looked at the band the same way since.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I've listened to EWBAITE twice through now, and I have to say: It's not terrible. Catchy as hell, even if most of the songwriting sounds like boilerplate, standard pop fare. I'm not going to rate it yet, because I'm going to keep listening to it, but I have to say thank you for posting this, I'm most certainly not hating it.
2.5 - Decent. I gave it a 3, but subtracted .5 for referencing Rosetta Stone and Acenstry.com in a song. That's pretty vile.
DeleteEDIT - "a handful of official Weezer fan club members IN ALABAMA"
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Weezer fan and I'm not a Weezer hater. I've largely ignored their albums, listening to the odd new release only because Raman is such a fan. I liked "Island in the Sun" and probably a whole bunch of other songs I don't even know are Weezer. This album doesn't really do much for me, it doesn't offend me or challenge me or make me want to listen to it more than twice, it's just another Weezer album. I give it 2.5.
ReplyDeleteIn "Eulogy for a Rock Band" the chorus comes in at 0:33s with a _very_ familiar melody, is it familiar to anyone else?? Like it was a Cadbury ad or something. Best I can come up with is "Build me up buttercup" but it's not quite the same.
I fell squarely into the third "If you don't know Weezer at all" category. Never even heard of them. I googled 'Island in the Sun' so see if perhaps I'd heard a Weezer song and not known it. Nope. Nothing. I think maybe I need to get out more :-)
ReplyDeleteWith nothing to compare it to, I liked EWBAITHE enough to want to go and explore their earlier work. I listened to the album before embarking on a bit of background reading about the band to get a little context and what I found in just about every review were comparisons to the Blue Album and Pinkerton. So that's where I might start.
I gave it a 3, losing half a point for the cringe-worthy ancestry.com reference in Da Vinci. The highlights for me were Eulogy for a Rock Band and the three part rock-opera-esque album ending.
While I doing the aforementioned reading, it seems the chorus of Eulogy reminds a lot of people of different things – Build me up Buttercup by the Foundations, Mr Brightside by the Killers and another Weezer song – Memories coming up the most. For me that spot at 0:33 reminded me of a bit from Don't Stop Believing by Journey (and the cast of Glee... don't judge me ;-) particularly 3:06 of www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs
Very safe Weezer album. Pleasant, but not challenging. I want to hear why Ben hates Dropbox and iTunes so much.
ReplyDeleteAnd Wendy, you've never heard the pull my sweater song? Is that possible? Or the Buddy Holly song? Really? You should change that.
I posted Eminem's MMLP2 album earlier in the rotation. He put out two good albums, then four (FOUR!) trash albums, before he put out Relapse to finally do something that was even relevant in hip hop again, before he put out MMLP2, which was his best album (but probably to meta/self-referential for Raman).
ReplyDeleteWeezer has their own sound. While I don't think any of their albums were trash, they definitely did veer stylistically, and not necessarily for the best. I went to a Weezer concert in Cincy and was puzzled to think what they could play for an encore at the end. It surprised me, but shouldn't have, that "Beverly Hills" was their go-to encore song.
Just looked at their albums and singles chart status. "Beverly Hills" is their only top 10 single and "Buddy Holly" is their only other top 40 single. They have never had a single in the top 60 in Australia. I can't understand why my perception of them is as super successful when they have rarely crossed over from Alternative.