Review -- Weezer (2008)

If you take away the terrible songs -- all the ones that people other than Rivers sing (except for Thought I Knew, which I think would be a good single), and "heart songs" and maybe one more (uh, about 5 all together) -- it's actually a great album.

But that's a pretty big thing, right -- ditching 5 songs?  Not for another band, perhaps, say, the Police (they let Andy Summers sing. . .  uh. . .), or for Blur, or hundreds of other bands.  But Weezer's discography is so solid -- there's only one track on their previous albums I don't have on my ipod (their biggest selling single "Beverly Hills"); they just don't have bad songs -- an remarkable achievement for 5 major label records.  

But the new record does -- it has painfully bad songs.  Not just songs that are too poppy and get old.  Not just bold tracks that take some getting used to.  Bad bad bad songs.  With bad singing, bad lyrics, and cheesy production.  I wonder if "Beverly Hills" is to blame.  Rick Ruban asked them to record a "boom-boom-chop" song, like "pour some sugar on me" or "you don't know how it feels", with two kick drums before each snare.  And they did, and it was without a doubt the least imaginative Weezer track, and it sold huge.  It made Make Believe about 5 times more successful than the previous Maladroit, which was an awesomely indulgent self-produced album.  I feel like Rivers has split the difference and recorded simple cheesy songs for the "Beverly Hills" fans, and then made the rest for those of us over the age of 12.

You can pick and choose what you want, and easily.  I just went ahead and ditched the shitty tracks from iTunes, and they no longer exist.  What is left is a really exciting and bold record.  I'd say the tracks sound about halfway between The Green Album and Pinkerton -- which ain't such a bad place to be.

So, check it out, alright, and when a song sucks, just delete it.  The deluxe album has enough tracks that what you're left with is still longer than The Green Album.  And as for the rest of the tracks, let's just pretend they never happened -- unless you're an 11 year old, in which case, you might dig them too.