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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2008 > June > 17 > Entry
Weird, winning Weezer
Today’s Disc du Jour!
Weezer
WEEZER (The Red Album)
Anybody will tell you that this gettin’-old stuff stinks, but Rivers Cuomo seems to be taking the right attitude about it: “They say I need some Rogaine to put in my hair / Work out at the gym to fit my underwear,” he sings on “Pork and Beans,” off Weezer’s sixth album. Nevertheless, he’s content with himself — by the end of this brisk little ditty, he proclaims that he’s “tickled pink” not to “give a hoot about what you think.”
So, OK: You get thicker as you get older, but you also finally get to stop worrying about it as much as you used to. Cuomo, the oomph behind this ever-brainy, top-flight power-pop band, has been grappling anxiously with whatever stage of life he’s in ever since we first heard the band in the early ‘90s: On 1994’s great, dorky debut Blue album, the band was still popping zits and worried about getting girlfriends some day; by 2001’s Green album, Cuomo and boys were shaving at least three times a week, and singing about being dumped, distraught and horny — while the musical mix was down to absolute gear-grinding perfection.
On the Red album, as the most recent is dubbed (this band loves color-coded, untitled discs), they’re in that stage of life where they’re realizing you can’t just hash-pipe all your problems away — and speaking of which, you might need to figure out what do tell the kids about, well, your old hash pipe. Time to grow up and sing about it in between sit-ups!
“Pork and Beans,” meanwhile, is one of the few songs here that sounds like the Weezer of old. The band tosses in some different sounds and grooves this time — old 1960s cop-show theme songs, some Eastern rhythms, even an old Shaker hymn — and while they never get too far out to be called experimental, they’re clearly in the mood to try new stuff. Some of it works, some doesn’t — but y’know what? Rivers Cuomo already told you he doesn’t care what you think.
Grade: B
iPod picks: “Pork and Beans,” “Dreamin’,” “Everybody Get Dangerous.”
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