I could see that. I just happened to discover Pinkerton right as I went through my first HS break up and i just FELT SO MANY FEELINGS that the album ended up meaning alot to me. Which is also why Maladroit comes off so vapid and worthless to me. Opinions, y'all.
I find Maladroit a lot more appealing when I look at it as '80s rock done with a hint of weezer blue melodic sensibility' rather than 'brilliant 90s songwriter continues tragic descent into out of ideas'
for me it's Maladroit Blue Album Pinkerton EWBAITE Green Album White Album Red Album Hurley Raditude Make Believe
Damn just going back through these old demos it's really frustrating that they rushed Maladroit out so quickly after Green album. Some really good ideas in the early album 5 demos too. 367 She Who is Militant The Organ Player Everybody Wants a Chance to Feel Alone
They never really picks the right songs to go on albums. So many demos from Green-Make Believe were far better than what showed up on the actual albums. Red would have been waaaay better if Pig, Miss Sweeney and King replaced Everybody Get Dangerous, Cold Dark World and Automatic (although I know some have a soft spot for that song)
Yeah it's cool on Blue and Pinkerton where all the songs are great so the omissions of top 10 =w= songs like Susanne and Waiting on You just means mindblowing bside discoveries down the road but they really blew it on just about all the others. Listening to everything Rivers did from like 97-2000 and then the actual green album is actually sad, and I don't even hate that record. But he threw away at least an album and a half of incredible songs en route to making it.
Id have to do a check of what songs are on what albums.... My brain is mush on their albums. Such a fun band t osee live though.
HOMiE was the greatest unreleased project from Rivers, right up there with Songs From the Black Hole. Two insanely talented AllThingsWeezer boardies recorded a cover album of all the songs HOMiE every played live and its truly amazing stuff. Many of these songs are crazy good. If you've never heard of this project, I recommend "Autumn In Jayne", "Fun Time", "Sheila Can Do it", a much more fleshed out version of "Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World", and the always epic "Hot Tub".
Those Album 5 Demos were sooooo damn good. Was so deflating when none got waved onto an album. Adding: Mansion of Cardboard / So Low Sacrifice Queen of Earth Private Message Running Man
Album 5 was an interesting time. Rivers basically recorded all the Album 5 demos with the band and also left them a bunch of acoustics that would end up on Deliverance at Hand demo tape to choose from while he went away on his Vipassana meditation retreat, and whatever the band chose, I think he ended up dictating again when he came back and basically just chose what he wanted anyway. That's what became Make Believe. What the band chose while he was away was "Fallen Soldiers". Deliverance at Hand/Album 5 Office Demos that made their way out: Pig (acoustic leak) Everybody Wants A Chance to Feel All Alone (leaked) I Can Love (Red Album bonus) It's Easy (Red Album bonus) Private Message (leaked) Story of My Life (Raditude bonus) I Was Scared (Alone 2) Blowin' My Stack (Death to False Metal) Unbreak My Heart cover (Death to False Metal) Losing My Mind (Death to False Metal) I'm A Robot (Death to False Metal) Outta Here (Death to False Metal) Yellow Camaro (Death to False Metal) Autopilot (Death to False Metal)
I actually sadly wasn't. I only got into Weezer just before The Red Album was announced, and joined the forum AllThingsWeezer back when it was called Albumsix.com. I spent soooo much time ingrained in that community. Years. Learned everything I possibly could about Rivers and Weezer. That board is a wasteland now. Barely anyone I used to talk to still goes there. So sad :(
tbh most of these songs are the worst and I never really understood the a6 fascination with Deliverance at Hand, especially so after DTFM came out. I'd say after the maladroit demos every phase of weezer had more bad material than good, though there was definitely some album worthy stuff up through 2002.
I agree most of these are terrible, but I think it was born out of the fact that the Pig demo was from Deliverance, which made the whole thing seem like a Schrodinger's Cat of a Holy Grail. It could be 9 songs all just as great as Pig until we hear them, or they could all be garbage. Death to False Metal has revealed the latter, haha. Although I would still kill to hear "Piece of the Pie", "East Coast vs West Coast", and "Softies".
@Allpwrtoslaves Oh wow. I was very active on the official Weezer boards in the lead up to the Maladroit era, though my brother got me Blue Album in first grade. My board name? OnlyInWetDreams...lulz.