NH7 › Review: The Red Album

In the video of the first single from The Red Album, â??Pork And Beansâ??, the band appear alongside several YouTube celebrities. From the fat kid who sang â??Numa Numaâ?? to the evolution of dance guy to that American beauty show contestant with vivid views on education, these are the entertainers of our new social era. And somewhere within this mÃ©lange of everyday heroes, Weezer slip in. Itâ??s unsurprising then that in the first seven days that the video was uploaded to YouTube, it received over four million views.

Itâ??s easy to dislike this new Weezer. There are several things about their image that just doesnâ??t sit well with fans whoâ??ve grown up singing â??Tired of Sexâ?? from their much lauded album Pinkerton. For starters, theyâ??re far better produced. They can look like the Village People on album covers and get away with it. They can make music videos with Hugh Hefner in the Playboy mansion. Some might even say they sold out.

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But is the Weezer story simply one of a band becoming too big for its original audience? Is the alienation a function of just the music? With The Red Album the answer, apparently, is yes. Coming off the back of 2005â??s panned Make Believe, this new record sees Weezer stretch their radio friendly sound over the span of 40 or so minutes. The riffs are loud, the choruses are clever, and the whole experience of listening to this album is a little tongue-in-cheek. The sarcasm is clear but itâ??s uncertain whether the band directs it to themselves or to its listeners.

Take the opener â??Troublemakerâ?? for example. Rivers drawls â??I donâ??t need a single book to teach me how to read, who needs stupid booksâ? revealing either an understanding of the American obsession of bashing their own ignorance, or just a songwriter with a formula for pop-rock success. Now thereâ??s two ways of doing this â?? one which guarantees the band a Top 10 hit but with much loss of street cred, and one which guarantees the band a Top 10 hit with some loss of street cred. And itâ??s obvious that for Weezer, itâ??s the latter which has seen them through the turn of the millennium.

Songs like â??Everybody Get Dangerousâ??, with its palpable Red Hot Chili Peppers homage, and â??Cold Dark World, with its classic rock trappings, paint Weezer with a pretty generic brush but even through these one can hear a band enjoying their middle-agedness. Cuomo has never hidden his urge to relive his youth, and The Red Album is part of this process. Itâ??s a reminder for us to not take ourselves too seriously.

They love performing their music. Itâ??s almost visible through their songs. It becomes easy therefore to label them sellouts. But if youâ??re grooving to their tunes, then the formula is only yours to love.

Indiecision: B+