Rivers Cuomo – genius or madman? Or both?! Weezer are a curious band, a band that never seem to get the credit for their work at the time of releasing an album, yet always seem to be revered years down the line. Everyone knows the critics panned ‘Pinkerton’ yet it’s their best album, but the same seems to have happened with ‘Green’ and ‘Maladroit’ too – reasonable albums, Hell, even great albums, that never seemed to take off at the time. And while Rivers remains bizarre his songwriting talents are weirdly inconsistent at best, ranging from three-minute perfect pop songs like “Knockdown Dragout’, ‘Hash Pipe’ and ‘Beverly Hills’ to terrible, terrible songs which should never have been committed to tape. Or hard drive for those in the 21st Century.
‘The Red Album’ remains inconsistent. It goes from the downright glorious (‘Pork and Beans’) to the strange (‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’). The latter, incidentally, mixes The Beach Boys, The Beatles and Queen and is Weezer‘s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It’s fucking MAD in such a fun way, but Jesus is it mad – the spoken word part where he chapters his life is pure genius, delivered in a way it even out-weirds Rivers’ previous efforts; it’s so out-there and disjointed it flows perfectly, knitted together in so many different ways it’s so daft it works. ‘Heart Songs’ shows the band haven’t forgotten to be lovely, ‘Dreamin’ goes back to those old skool ‘Blue’ days with a ‘Surf wax America’ kind of vibe that’s a real throwback to better times. But then the album tends to tail off a little bit and the likes of ‘Cold Dark World’ are Weezer-by-numbers that aren’t poppy or weird enough – or an acceptable middle ground of the two – to stick out for more than a few minutes.
The band hinted ‘Red’ was more a throwback to ‘Blue’ and ‘Pinkerton’ than the sound of a ‘Make Believe’, and in a way the end result is exactly that. There aren’t too many classic Weezer songs on here – if you were making a greatest hits not too many would be taken from this album. But it’s still solid and shows Weezer are as relevant as ever, even if they’re no longer the mighty force they once were.