Performer Notes

Personnel: Stevie Blacke (strings); Eric J. Dubowsky (percussion).
Audio Mixer: Justin Gerrish.
Recording information: Malibu Performing Arts Center, Malibu, CA; Shangri La Studios, Malibu, CA; Threshold Studios, Santa Monica, CA.
Photographers: Karl Koch; Sean Murphy.
The third self-titled album by Weezer mixes the hooky sound of their 1994 and 2001 releases (known as the "blue" and "green" albums, respectively) with the experimental tendencies of efforts like PINKERTON. Like its eponymously titled cousins, Weezer's sixth release overall (destined to become known as "the red album") sports a full frontal picture of the band, dressed this time in costumes that call to mind the Village People. Cheekiness has always been central to Weezer's aesthetic: their music takes an arch, outsider's approach to rock while still rocking out in earnest, channeling the awkwardness of the bookish geek through a cranked-up amplifier.
This latest WEEZER embraces this contradiction with glee. With a hook-heavy, singalong melody driven by powerhouse guitars, lead single "Pork and Beans" is a subversive ditty about the pressures of tailoring one's image and sound for commercial ends. "Troublemaker," another anti-conformist tract, is wrapped in a tune tasty as cotton candy. This is classic Weezer: sure-fire pop songs that play both sides of the alternative/ mainstream fence. Yet the experimental aspects of the band are also represented on tunes like "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived," which brings together Southern rap, heavy metal, religious hymns, and police sirens in one song. Production by Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee makes the songs gleam, but it's the tunefulness, cleverness, and irresistibility of Weezer's music that makes this another winner in the band's discography.

Professional Reviews

Spin (p.96) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "'Pork and Beans' and 'Troublemaker' rally against conformity while supplying spiffy hooks."

Entertainment Weekly (pp.68-69) - "[Cuomo's] sharp sense of melody is undeniably intact..."

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.46) - "[There is] melody to spare, a sense of compositional and tonal genius that makes this by turns a playful, witty, weird, confusing and mesmerizing set."

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.62) - Ranked #11 in Kerrang's Best Albums Of The Year 2008 -- "[E]ffortlessly catchy tunes."

Q (Magazine) (p.111) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Everything is supercharged and melodic, like a poppy version of Nirvana..."