The Red Album brings forward everything they do best, with hooks aplenty, emotive and funny lyrics, all washed down with the odd frisson of self doubt.
Given that feeling, it makes perfect sense that the Red Album is another self-titled record, as it plays like an opening to a new chapter instead of merely more of the same.
The Red Album's a keeper, and even though the law of Weezerages says the even numbers are nearly always a return to form, 2014's Magenta Album will have a hard act to follow.
The Red Album is a wonderful jumping-off point for their second wind.
With overdubbed voices and multiple key changes, freely goofy tracks ... satirize hip-hop’s self-aggrandizement and illustrate Weezer’s central theme: If a wimp believes in himself, he can truly kick ass.
Whatever the case, as I continued listening to Red this week, staring at what looks like a reunion of “To Catch a Predator” suspects on the front cover, I started to like it more and more.
In the end ... there is simply not enough here that distinguishes the band from any of the countless suburban-garage imitators it's no doubt spawned.
The Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee-produced follow-up to 2005's Make Believe, finds Cuomo precariously balanced btween amused/amusing self-obsessed and de facto narcissism.
It’s rich, often funny material, but in Cuomo’s ambition to make a career-sweeping tourde force — telegraphed by the band’s choice to return to estimable producer Rick Rubin — he badly overcooks the musical porridge, layering on overdubs, packing songs with key-change modulations and meandering instrumental codas, and generally refusing to hone and self-edit.
Weezer – the red version – chances its arm with mixed results without ever truly going as far as it could.
If Red Album’s songs were formulaic, shiny, and easily digestible like everything on Green or Maladroit, the vacuity of the new songs wouldn’t be as big a problem. But "Heart Songs," "Thought I Knew” — these are just plain bad.
Even after the apparent bottoming-out of 2005's Make Believe, Weezer is a dispiritingly awful record.
When I was a girl, I had a fear of Weezer. I was told they felt no emotion. That their hearts never beat. But I know the truth. At the heart of the kill, they are never more alive.
Good music 🤯 It's a bit all over the place, and it gets boring at some points but... Holy crap it's good music! Weezer I am sorry for saying you were bad on discord, please accept my apology 😭😭😭 Cold Dark World is legitimately really good. Good on ya' Weez.
Weezer being the most Weezer they can be.
What I liked: the highlights, the risks taken and the album in concept
What I hated: self-explanatory
I heard time and time again that some of Weezer's worst songs of all time landed on this album and made it greatly overlooked, I wholeheartedly agree: Thought I Knew and Cold Dark World are the absolute bottom of the barrel in the Weezer catalogue. I appreciate the risk taken (being letting other members of the band take on the mic) on this album. ... read more
Cowboy Rivers Cuomo will forever haunt my dreams. In 2008, Weezer released their sixth studio album (which is also their third self-titled project), the Red Album. In comparison to its predecessor, Make Believe, the Red Album sees Weezer trying out a few new sonic ideas. Unfortunately, even if the result is kind of alright, these ideas are generally executed pretty blandly, and the band doesn't ultimately change up their somewhat stale sound in any significant way.
Though I am not crazy about ... read more
1 | Troublemaker 2:44 | 71 |
2 | The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn) 5:52 | 81 |
3 | Pork and Beans 3:09 | 87 |
4 | Heart Songs 4:05 | 68 |
5 | Everybody Get Dangerous 4:02 | 57 |
6 | Dreamin' 5:11 | 72 |
7 | Thought I Knew 3:01 | 51 |
8 | Cold Dark World 3:51 | 45 |
9 | Automatic 3:07 | 58 |
10 | The Angel and the One 6:46 | 85 |
#45 | / | musicOMH |