The Weez

I'll admit it, I bought the new Weezer album. I've bought all of their albums but the Green album, a copy of which was given to me. And I have to say that I'm fairly disappointed with the Red album. The first four or five songs are fun and decent, but the rest of the album is... odd? Something like that. After listening to it a few times I decided to listen to Pinkerton instead. After five or so listens to that album over the next few days, I decided that after years of loving Pinkerton it was time to name it as one of my top five albums. It's a great, great album, musically, lyrically, it's full of raw emotions and there are fun songs and sad songs. And it truly is sexual frustration converted into musical form. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but it's true.

In listening to both albums, as well as bits of Green and Blue, I developed a bit of a theory regarding Weezer. If you aren't aware of the history of their albums, it is thus: Blue was hugely popular and put them on the map - pop rock at it's best, Pinkerton is waaay different and was immediately criticized and has sold very poorly, but eventually it was embraced as a classic [see Rolling Stone's flipflop on it], Green was a return to pop rock and decently, Maladroit, Make Believe and the Red album have been given increasingly worsening reviews.

My theory: Rivers Cuomo poured a lot of raw emotion into Pinkerton, and it was immediately rejected by everyone who expected something much more like the Blue album. After that Rivers went into depression, the band barely stuck together, and the bassist left the band. Is it any wonder that they returned to the world of pop rock and, seemingly, have left all depth and emotion out of all albums since then? It's like someone getting left at the alter and then never taking another relationship seriously. And after Pinkerton was rightfully embraced as the great album that it is, many people want that raw emotion in their albums, but the band, being scared to be rejected again, refuses to comply. Who knows, maybe we'll see some brilliance in the latter Weezer albums years from now. But until then I accept their reluctance and will continue to love Pinkerton.

Weezer-talk aside, life is good. I passed my management class with flying colors, and my second summer class starts tomorrow. I've managed to avoid the floods and tornadoes that have taken up residence in Iowa, though I'm still hoping that the warehouse is somehow destroyed by some natural disaster [though not while I'm in it]. I've been running here and there, but still feeling knee pain - I'm hoping that changes soon. I went to the NCAA track and field championships, which was awesome, so much fun. I can't wait until the twenty-ten USA track and field championships. That will kick ass. Also, watched the movie "Eagle vs. Shark" today, and loved it. Go rent it, right after you but a copy of Pinkerton. you have my love.