Weezer - Weezer (The White Album): ALBUM REVIEW!

Man, I've missed this blog!  I've missed you guys!  I miss writing and talking and analyzing and thinking about music!  It's been a crazy year so far, my mental health dragging me down quite a bit these past few months.  In fact, I've essentially withdrawn from school for the semester, which has a very useful upside: more time to listen to music and write.  So, let's dig into a new album, shall we?

Ah, Weezer.  I hope these guys don't need much introduction.  I mean, for a decade or so (perhaps up until recently), these dweeby SoCal pop rockers were a household name, following the commercial and/or critical successes of their 1994 debut The Blue Album, 1996's Pinkerton, 2001's The Green Album, and the annoying Top 40 hit "Beverly Hills."  They appeared on the game Rock Band, they did a music video with the Muppets, they were on college and Top 40 radio alike.  In short, they were radio rock kingpins.

Since Pinkerton, however, frontman Rivers Cuomo and his cadre of 90's revivalist Beach Boys have struggled to maintain the respect of music critics and "serious" music listeners.  And since "Beverly Hills," Weezer has struggled keeping themselves even on the radio or on the iPod Mini's of America's tweens and teens.  For the past 10 years, to be blunt, Weezer has been struggling.  A generation is growing up for whom the band that brought us "Buddy Holly," "El Scorcho," and even "Island In the Sun," defining songs of millenials' adolescences, is now becoming irrelevant.

If she doesn't know the chorus of "Buddy Holly," she's too young for you, bruh.

Through 10 years of lackluster, disheartening Weezer albums--Make Believe, The Red Album, Raditude, Hurley--fans have always quietly nurtured a hope that somehow the band would return in a glorious rebirth of colorful, quirky pop, winning our hearts over once more.  In 2014, we were given a taste of this, with Everything Will Be Alright In the End.  But we were cautious: this is... pretty good. But has the time come where I can let myself fall in love with Weezer again?

My friends, that time has come.  Behold, the redemption of Weezer.

With The White Album, Rivers serves up a tight, cohesive, substantial, and, most importantly, FUN album of built from everything that made Weezer so gosh darn lovable in the first place.  The songwriting strikes the coveted balance between simplicity and asininity.  Meanwhile, Rivers' lyrics strike the balance between quirky and plain awkward.  And there are hooks.  Everywhere.  You can hardly get through listening to "L.A. Girlz" the first time without sing along... to the bridge, no less.

I had heard friends and critics' whose opinions I respect praise this album, much to my delight and joyful crying.  So, when I popped the album in, I expected to be blown away by a total upheaval of Weezer's style, a revolution of their sound heavy enough to accomplish the redemption they needed.  

This isn't what I got.  The redeeming quality of the album is that it is not revolutionary.  It's not breaking any new ground, for rock music or for the band, really.  The White Album succeeds because it proves, in 2016, of all times, that good ol' alternative rock 'n' roll, like that which Father Cobain and Father Armstrong did give unto us, without any bells and whistles, is exciting and enlivening.  It's a (much needed) testament to the merits of the genre as much as it is to the merits of its songwriter. 

Music video for "King of the World"

Now, for the record, I need to get my gripes out.  I always skip track 3, "Thank God for Girls."  Lyrically, Rivers falls off the quirkiness/awkwardness tightrope and very whitely raps about cannolis and Adam and Eve.  Maybe I'm just letting the banality of neo-pop rockers like Twenty-one Pilots retroactively bite in the butt the band who sort of invented dorky rock rapping.  But Weezer certainly doesn't wear the genre well themselves on this track.  Aside from this, all there is to complain about is that at points and when I'm in certain moods, the songwriting is a little too predictable, the lyrics a little too bubblegum-ism.  But then there's the grimy honesty of "Do You Wanna Get High?" and the genius pacing of "L.A. Girlz," and I just tell myself, "Get the stick out of your butt and have fun, brah."

Basically, I love this album.  I love the Pet Sounds nods all over the place, like the jingle of sleigh bells on "(Girl We Got a) Good Thing."  I love the addicting choruses, like on "King of the World" or "Wind In Our Sails." I love the slick production, which makes each snare crack and guitar chug sound gorgeous and new.  If I had to describe the album in one way, it's this:  This is the Weezer album we all needed back in 2005.

Photo credit: Consequence of Sound http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/weezer-tease-the-white-album/

Really, all there is to do is just to give it a listen.  Play it in your car with the windows down on these new, warmer, sunny days.  Think back to when you first fell in love with the band; to when you first fell in love; to your first summer as a teenager; to the best ever time you went to the beach; to the last time you drank cherry vanilla Coke.  This is the soundtrack to good times past and good times to come. 

OVERALL SCORE: 8.8
Weezer – Weezer (The White Album)
1. California Kids 2. Wind In Our Sails 3. Thank God for Girls 4. (Girl We Got a) Good Thing 5. Do You Wanna Get High? 6. King of the World 7. Summer Elaine and Drunk Dory 8. L.A. Girlz 9. Jacked Up 10. Endless Bummer	O!HTT's COLORFUL SCORING SYSTEM 9-10 Holy. Crap. You must hear this song. One of the best of the year. 7-8 I'm so glad I have ears so that I can listen to this wonderful song. 5-6 Yeah, it's passable. Contributes to the vibe of the album, but not anything to write home about. 3-4 Ehh very mediocre or seriously flawed, there's a lot better music out there, or even on this album. 0-2 Good gravy, why must this song exist? One of the worst things that will enter your ears this year.