Criticizing late-Weezer has become old-hat, but regardless it's my turn. The first trio of songs have been compared to Green Day and the Green Album, but at least the metronomic drums and processed guitars "Memories" and "Ruling Me" instead remind me of The Killers, though "Memories" is convincing as the truest sentiment Rivers has written since Pinkerton. Although the inane Desmond Child co-written "Trainwrecks" sounds like any crap from American Idol, damned if the siren-synths and fist-pumping beat aren't addictive like Dorito-crumbs. While "Hang On" and "Runaway" have no pretensions of substance whatsoever, at least they sound professional, especially the sweet harmonies in the latter; "Smart Girls" and "Brave New World" are more monochromatic disco-rockers, parodies of the energy and sweetness that made the Green Album so refreshing. But among the cookie-cutter dreck is a little bit of ambition, such as the intimate/supersize power-ballad "Unspoken", and the noisily quirky "Where's My Sex?"****, where a "Hash Pipe"-style arena-rocker is a trojan horse for a silly lyric about his child's socks. Though deliberately lo-fi, the wistful closer "Time Flies" has charm that the most of the album lacks. Likewise, the bonus tracks are also better than most of the album. Adam Diebert-cover "All My Friends Are Insects"**** lives up to the fun that the title suggests, while Rivers' version of "Viva La Vida"**** at least has the virtue of not being sung by those English wankers, and the ingratiating acoustic "I Want To Be Something" is at least cute. But instead of these oddities, Weezer has settled for performing pre-fab hits by industry hacks and cranking out the Killers' brand of industrial grunge-pop. They have become Cheap Trick, specifically the burned-out old hacks they devolved into in the late-80's.
Comments