My interpreration is that the song is about objectification, which I think Rivers’ annotations support (“alright kids, let’s play with some gender stereotypes”). Verse 1 touches on contemporary cultural objectifications, likening bro hangs to fantasy tropes about the heroic masculinity, which to me is the stain of stuff like Star Wars, og D&D campaigns, video game narratives, fairy tales about rescuing princesses from dragons, love song cliches etc. Hundreds of years of culture where the man is the active hero and the woman is the passive healer. And I think not coincidentally narratives that run through a lot of “classic weez”. Which I think is further supported by the integration of lyrics written in 1997 for Verse 2: I’m so glad I got a girl to think of Even though she isn’t mine I think about her all the day and all the night* It’s enough to know she’s alive *“all the day and all the night” is a really opportune Kinks reference. A band who has a lotta songs about gender stereotypes, and were a major influence on the most aggressively objectifying trends of rock n roll Verse 2 is gnarly. I think it’s about the abstract “female” that invades gender stereotypes. It’s about real life vs the illusion of ideal love, and the theater of “courtship.” And probably a lot of other stuff too. The Chorus and Verse 3 seem to me to be drawing a line from the rock n roll/nerd culture gender stereotypes to deeper seated religious roots of these issues in places like the Adam and Eve origin story and Christian notions of the paternal God. This song is insane. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s one of his best lyrics.
I’m not sure that even in the least generous reading of ‘Thank God For Girls,’ that it makes the top 25 of ‘Worst Sentiments About Women in Weezer Songs’ list. Rivers has written songs like that since 1994. But yeah, I’ve been cringing at certain lines for two decades and that’s not a song I ever took that way.
I will say this about the White Album: I struggle understanding how it’s so embraced and Pacific Daydream is seemingly universally panned (and, actually, the Black Album too). One hallmark of Weezer records is how dramatically they change their sound with each album - Blue and Pinkerton sound like a light side and dark side of coin, and then you have crazy poppy Green, hair metal inspired Maladroit, arena anthem Make Believe, purposely eclectic and non-cohesive Red, whatever the heck Raditude was, and then there’s Hurley. They then tried a ‘return to form’ with EWBAITE. It’s super obvious that each album is supposed to be its own thing, apart and separate from the rest. Then, there was White. To me, it’s a blend/marriage of Green and Blue; the rockier parts sound like that era, but it’s also incredibly poppy, maybe more than any other album. PD is, in my mind, the first time the band said, ‘let’s just make another one of those.’ And then they basically did the same with Black. Sonically and thematically, they’re cohesive in a way that nothing had been before. You could shuffle those songs and hand it to a non-Weezer fan and they’d buy that those are all from the same project. To me, those three records are essentially a trilogy of sameness, and a break before Weezer gets back to their radically different stuff (the Van Weezer and OK Human). Or maybe I’m insane and this is all in my head. But it sure seems like that to me.
I completely agree that White, Pacific and Black are all basically the same era whereas every other album feels very specific
I made it to Raditude in my album listening party. I do think If You’re Wondering is one of their best songs haha. Album sucks though.
I feel like PD definitely shares some DNA with White and Black definitely shares some DNA with PD. But that's pretty much it.
I'll say the bridge in Jacked Up could be stronger, but my least fav on White is pretty handily Thank God 4 Grls
It just sounds more indie-pop than the rest of the guitar-heavy record. I think Fitz and the Tantrums did the remix, which makes complete sense. Just doesn't fit the record for me
you missed the point of the song by about ten football fields lol, wow also "Jacked Up", indeed, rules