On the third self-titled release of its 15-year-careerdestined to be
called the Red Album in the tradition of the bands classic 1994 debut
(the Blue Album) and the second Weezer a decade later (the Green
Album)bandleader Rivers Cuomo marks a welcome return to the more
complicated but deeply heartfelt songwriting of the groups early days and
the proto-emo Pinkerton, veering away from the simplistic and at times
bombastic arena-rock epitomized by Beverly Hills, the standout hit from
its last album Make Believe (2005). The song that best captures the vibe
here is a sort of sequel to the rock n roll bildungsroman of In the
Garage called Heart Songs, in which the quartets auteur recalls falling
in love with pop music while listening to the AM radio in the backseat of
his parents car.
Gordon Lightfoot sang a song about a boat that sank in a lake/At the
break of the mornin a Cat name Stevens found a faith he could believe
in, the still-adenoidal, Harvard-educated Cuomo sings. Eddie
Rabbitt sang about how much he loved a rainy night/ABBA, Devo, Benatar were
there the day John Lennon died These are my heart songs/They never feel
wrong. The tune culminates with the writer hearing his roommates
copy of Nevermind and deciding to form a band himself.
Scoff if you will, but at his best, Cuomo has always been able to turn
cheese into gold, and he walks the tightrope in brilliant form through much
of the bands sixth album, whether hes mocking hip-hop braggadocio (The
Greatest Man That Ever Lived), mocking the inanity of
lowest-common-denominator pop (Pork and Beans) or daring to be the
left-footed fool trying to get funky on the dance floor at a family wedding
(Everybody Get Dangerous), all the while challenging conventional song
structure with unexpected twists and turns that nevertheless produce
unlikely hooks.
The Red Album isnt without flaws: Late in the disc, Cuomo makes the
well-intentioned gesture of allowing his bandmates to write or co-author
one song each, and these turn out to be the albums least memorable. But
the high points are as high as any these still essential alternative-era
veterans have given us.