This sounds like Red to me for some reason. Some really good parts, some that didn’t land with me (Opening night verses…)
I actually don't hate the "Opening Night" verses because it's one of the moments that sounds more "weird Weezer" and less "autopilot Weezer" Not as big on "The Sound of the Drums" (I don't listen to Weezer for lyrics, but these are next level generic) but I do love the chorus melody of "Wild at Heart"
I've always been a casual Weezer fan but really really enjoyed OK Human and I like this a lot too. My gf and boss have both sworn by the blue album. Don't wanna open a can of Weezer worms here but could I get some recs on where to go from here/rankings?
It seems obvious at this point but since nobody has explicitly mentioned it yet, Pinkerton is a masterpiece
Umm.... Good performance, but... you know.... Somethings just felt different in it, and I cannot put my finger on it....
Weird review, nothing on this sounds close to Pinkerton (that's okay) and to act like this is going to be the one to please old fans (but not OK Human or Van Weezer) is...strange
I feel like White & EWBAITE are the ones I always recommend to people who claim to not like the new stuff. For me, Van Weezer was entirely forgettable but I might have been biased. I did love OK Human though.
Yeah White and EWBAITE are the closest to their older stuff by far. OK Human and Van Weezer are great but those other two are the ones that will please fans of Blue and Pinkerton most.
Van Weezer should have been an EP. There are 3-4 great tracks, a few alright ones, and some forgettable tracks that drag the album down. EWBAITE and White are why I still follow everything they do. Rivers can be great, if he feels like it that year.
I love OK Human and like Van Weezer, but I guess what I'm saying is these songs aren't doing anything more to please old fans than those records are. And those records have better songs, lol
Gave this a second listen and I still think it's pretty middle of the road, but I'm a little less negative on the second go-round. Still a bit frustrating how OKH, VW, and this feel like they're tiptoeing around the edges of great Weezer without fully achieving it. Like, I love 2/3 of VW. OKH a little less, and I think the arrangements feel a little gimmicky by the end, but it still has some great songs. This doesn't have any single song that reaches the highest points of those two, but it has a few bananaland melodies and some interesting bridges in particular. As fun as the near constant stream of output is, sometimes I just wish Rivers would hole up for 3 years and come back with 10 perfect songs - I believe now far more than I did in the 2005-2015 stretch that he's still capable of it.
I feel like, from a dispassionate compositional perspective, the songs on Blue (and to a lesser extent, some of Pinkerton) really are not particularly standout songs. They have a kind of stock, naive character to them. Things like “In The Garage” and “Surf Wax America”, even a song like “Undone” doesnt have a ton going on compositionally. Some of my favorite songs ever, but I dunno if I’d receive “Surf Wax America” as a revelation nowadays. A lotta charm is much more in the youthful performances and vibe than the actual songs. Props to the lyrical specificity tho (which is lost on Spring it seems, but certaintly abundant on OK Human) Naive writing is way underrated though. A lotra great music lives in the underthought. It seems like writers lose some of their charm as their chops get more and more refined.