| Product Summary | | Label: FONTANA | | UPC: 00602517671836 | | Release Date: 6/3/2008 | | Buy.com Sku: 208079316 | | Item#: M45YRR | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
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(P) 2008 Interscope Records
(C) 2008 Interscope Records
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"The Red Album is a wonderful jumping-off point for their second wind." Alternative Press
"Rivers Cuomo and co. deliver another scintillating collection of punk-pop -- with added experimentation." Hot Press
"...brings forward everything they do best, with hooks aplenty, emotive and funny lyrics, all washed down with the odd frisson of self doubt." MusicOMH.com
"Everything is supercharged and melodic, like a poppy version of Nirvana." Q Magazine
"...delivers the band's trademark combo of crushing power chords, pop-culture references and a healthy dose of ironic self-ridicule." Uncut
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | 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. |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Weezer - Weezer (Red Album) - CD Review By: Mark Kalriess - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 6/15/2008 8:48 PM | | The album starts with the best block of Weezer songs since the Green Album. "Troublemaker" and "Pork and Beans" is Weezer back in classic form with a snottier attitude. "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" is Weezer's mini-rock opera. It goes through different movements and sounds as equally inspired by old Weezer, Queen, the Beach Boys, and white boy rap-rock. ...read the full review |
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| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 06/03/2008 | | Original Release Date : 2008 | | Catalog ID : B0011135 02 | | Label : Interscope Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00602517671836 |
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| | 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..." Rolling Stone 6 of 10
Since 1994, Cuomo has been the reigning auteur-genius of power pop, but his musical fluency is wide-ranging, and on Weezer's sixth album he's determined to cram everything in - Jody Rosen
Los Angeles Times 9 of 10
The pairing of Weezer and producer Rick Rubin seemed like a no-brainer, but their first issue, 2005's "Make Believe," lacked the hoped-for chemistry between L.A.'s nerd-rock kings and a studio guru who has brought out the best in Johnny Cash, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neil Diamond...Here's to hanging in there. Though it tails off toward the end, the second Weezer-Rubin collaboration...is a rush, starting with a sustained, four-song soliloquy on pop music's allure..."I'm gonna be a rock star and you are gonna bear with me / Cuz I can't work a job like any other slob," Rivers Cuomo sings in "Troublemaker," portraying an absurdly confident musician...Rivers doesn't make apologies for his sometimes crass characters, nor does he judge them. He forms them and animates them, then lets you deal with them. But all that attitude disappears with the onset of "Heart Songs," a musical autobiography that describes a lifetime of listening, from ABBA and Debbie Gibson to Iron Maiden and Nirvana albums, and ultimately to the singer's own induction into the fraternity of record makers...The next two songs vary the theme but don't let up as they capture, in turn, the bravado of youth and the appeal of imagination over day-to-day drudgery. Both "Everybody Gets Dangerous" and "Dreamin' " extend the album's audaciously dynamic sound. The music on "Weezer" is marked by constant surprise in the structures and textures, which combine the crunch of Cuomo's beloved KISS with a Who-like urgency and wit and the Beach Boys' celestial pop epiphanies...The album's slip into a stretch of three uneventful songs is puzzling, but Weezer recovers for "The Angel and the One," which ends this march through the material plane on a note of spiritual transcendence. - Richard Cromelin
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