When I am 76 years old and on my deathbed I hope that my kids, my wife, a brother or sister or friend or two will be around to say goodbye. If I find my self all alone I would prefer drifting into the other life while looking at pics of them, reminiscing of days gone by while listening to my favorite playlist of all time. Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" from their 1994 self titled debut album will be on that playlist, many other Weezer songs will be on it as well. Will any songs off of their current album, "Everything Will be Alright In The End" be? Maybe a few. Ain't Got Nobody, Go Away and the nearly instrumental The Futurescope Trilogy: The Waste Land/Anonymous/Return to Ithaca (more on that later). Rather than review this album, here are some random thoughts on some of the songs.
Eulogy For A Rock Band starts out promising but the chorus seriously sounds like a 80's Episodic TV theme show. I can't forgive the J-poppy chorus. Hmmmm??? Maybe it will be big in Japan.
Lonely Girl is as catchy as hell. It truly is. Guitar sounds are sweet but like fast food, it doesn't stick with you.
I appreciate the personal history behind Back To The Shack but the lyrics are too transparent for me and the music is too bland. It is the Beverly Hills of this album and I disliked that song as well.
What the fuck?? That is what I said when Rivers goes all Freddy Mercury and Brian May-ish on I've Had It Up To Here. Even for a Queen-ish / Weezer song is feels waaaay too over produced and is bi-polar times three in it's writing.
The beginning of The British Are Coming kind of stunned me. The simple kind of elegant tone is nice and that melody does carry throughout but the lyrics just leave me scratching my head. Why?? Why?? Even as a metaphor for whatever it fails for me.
Da Vinci is just way too cute for me. Not to mention it feels like it is peppered with product placements. The whistling thing is annoying and the mention of Ancestry.com made my skin crawl. On the positive side, Rivers did not sing about Harmony.com (ewwwww).
One of the big bright spots is Go Away. It has that 50's sock hop
retro meets proto-punk feel that Rivers Cuomo likes to swim in. Made me think of Denis by
Blondie a bit. Does it blow me away? No, but it doesn't have to. It is
simple and sweet and has nice harmonies. It is the perfect campfire and death bed
song.
Cleopatra I really like everything about this track and the vocal melodies until it stumbles hard with the heavy metal cheese that interrupts the flow two times.
The track Foolish Father despite the nice sentiment is over layered, over wrought emo rock and the melodies do it in in the end. The ending literally sounds like a something you would hear on Glee.
The Futurescope Trilogy: The Waste Land/Anonymous/Return to Ithaca is over the top rock opera stuff and is a total surprise, so much so that it engaged me. It being a nearly instrumental piece of work also was a plus because the lyrical content on this album is much weaker than the music. Pretty lush stuff and the over production works on this one.
The track Ain't Got Nobody is a great opening track. Thick with guitar chops, classic Weezer breaks and angst. River's voice is tinged with sadness. The guitar leads have a live feel and puzzle piece with the bass and drums perfectly. My favorite track on this album.
For a limited time you can stream "Everything Will Be Alright In The End" at Itunes Radio.
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Robb Donker
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