While "Make Believe" marked a notable shift for frontman Rivers Cuomo, Weezer's sixth studio effort and third eponymous album, this time dubbed "The Red Album," indicates a change for the band itself. This marks the third self-titled album to be released seven years apart ("Blue" - 1994, "Green" - 2001, "Red" - 2008).
For the first time since the "Blue Album," other Weezer band members aside from Cuomo are contributing to the songwriting process. No longer bound to contributing solely through instrumentation, the album divides lead singing duties between the group. While Cuomo is still the lead singer and featured prominently on the album, drummer Patrick Wilson ("Automatic"), guitarist Brian Bell ("Thought I Knew") and bassist Scott Shriner ("Cold Dark World") all sing at least one song. Despite this being the first time singing lead vocals on a Weezer album, this isn't the first time for any of the members, since Patrick Wilson and Scott Shriner both play in a band called The Special Goodness together and Brian Bell has a side project called The Relationship.
As one of the most interesting frontmen in modern rock, Cuomo continues to be the centerpiece to the band, despite his bandmates efforts to shift this balance. Cuomo's contributions to "The Red Album" are no longer of the self-deprecating variety - the self-deprecating sense of humor in "Pinkerton" and "The Blue Album" are gone, replaced by a defiant humor against accepted social practices and storytelling. When Cuomo isn't challenging his record label for the lack of commercially viable music available on "The Red Album" ("Pork And Beans") or declaring a mantra of tenacity ("Troublemaker"), Cuomo reflects on the future ("Dreamin'"), his state of being ("The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)") and how his band came into stardom ("Heart Songs").
In a Pitchfork interview, Cuomo noted that "the Red Album" would be experimental, meaning "longer songs, non-traditional song forms, different people writing and singing, instrument switching, TR-808s, synths, Southern rap and baroque counterpoint - for starters."
The band delivers on these claims as the album does features longer songs, with three of them clocking in over five minutes, and the most experimental song on the album, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" changes musical genre every eight bars, beginning with the aforementioned "Southern rap."
There is a sharp contrast in the album between Cuomo's songs and his bandmates. While Cuomo is specific and meticulous with regard to the subject areas he writes about, his band members shoulder writing the trite, traditional and overly general love songs that ultimately hamper the album. Even Cuomo's heart-on-sleeve cringe-inducing "Heart Songs," which name checks Gordon Lightfoot to Michael Jackson and Nirvana, is stronger than "Thought I Knew" or "Cold Dark World." Of the non-Cuomo contributions, Patrick Wilson's "Automatic" is above its peers.
"The Red Album" is also available in a deluxe edition, which features four additional tracks: "Miss Sweeney," "Pig," "The Spider" and "King." Of these cuts, "Pig" is the most interesting, if only for its story arc. The song chronicles the life of a pig, his marriage and his trip off to be slaughtered.
"King" is sung by Scott Shriner, while the rest of the bonus tracks are handled by Cuomo. These tracks are clearly meant for Weezer-diehards, playing out more like B-sides than proper tracks originally intended for the album.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Contact Fernando Dutra at Fernando.Dutra@UConn.edu.
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