Take It As Red

I believe music may be the creative format most subject to individual taste. I may be way off base on this, but I think it has to do with the minimal investment of time one has to make to listen to a piece of music. Sure, if you like a song, you'll listen to it over and over and over again, ultimately logging more time listening to that song than you've probably spent watching your favorite movie multiple times. But to just sample the song takes maybe five minutes. Instant test, instant opinion, instant love or hate.

It's perhaps this utter subjectivity that has made me shy away from regularly reviewing music on this blog in the way I review movies, television, games, and books. But lately, I figured, I blog about pretty much all other entertainment -- why not music? Hell, I even already have the "tag" for it.

Preamble aside, let me dive into a review of the latest self-titled Weezer album, aka "The Red Album." If you were to ask me if I'm a fan of Weezer, I probably would have shrugged off the notion by saying something like, "well, I like them well enough, but I don't know if I'd call myself a fan." But my MP3 player/CD collection would prove me a liar on that count -- I actually have every one of their studio albums, and there really aren't many bands I can say that about.

This newest album has a pretty thorough mix of good and bad, I have to say. Some of the songs return to the sound of "The Blue Album." If you liked that earliest stuff of theirs and haven't enjoyed the later songs (like many), you might find this a pleasant reversion. On the other hand, you could argue that some of these new songs sound too much like old songs.

I was really digging on the big single "Pork and Beans," for example, until one time through I thought to myself, "you know, this really sounds a lot like 'Buddy Holly' to me." And now I can't get that notion out of my head, and my enthusiasm for the song has diminished quite a lot. (Still love the video, though.)

The opening track "Troublemaker" is pretty catchy. And the album has a too-rare-on-CDs likeable "deep cut" in "Automatic," the second-to-last song. But then it also has the uber-pretentious "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived." And it's not the title that makes me say that -- it's the music itself. It's a sweeping 6-minute opus that shifts through about 12 different musical styles in a self-indulgent showcase. Basically, it's Weezer's attempt to create something like Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia," and it doesn't really work.

The softer track "Heart Songs" is a curious blend of good and bad all in a single track. The sentiment is beautiful, to talk about all the music that was inspirational to the songwriter. The music is a nice, gentle fit. But then the sentiment is undermined by the way the lyrics actually misattribute songs to the wrong artists. The 80s version of "I Think We're Alone Now" was Tiffany, guys, not Debbie Gibson. And it kind of sounds like you're suggesting Will Smith recorded "It Takes Two." Um... not even close. So how much can we really believe that these songs were an inspiration when you don't even know who made them?

Overall, I'd still say this is a better album than Maladroit or Make Believe, the last two Weezer efforts. But in a way, that's not really saying much. I'd call it a C+, only an album for the fans. Which I suppose I have to say I'm one of.