Weezer | ||||
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Released | June 3, 2008 | |||
Recorded | 2007–08 | |||
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Length | 41:23 | |||
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Weezer chronology | ||||
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Singles from Weezer | ||||
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Weezer (also known as the Red Album) is the sixth studio album by the American rock band Weezer, released on June 3, 2008, by DGC and Interscope Records. [4] Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee both produced parts of the album, with the band producing a handful of tracks themselves. [5] It is the only Weezer album to feature lead vocals from all four band members. The album also features more musical experimentation in comparison to their previous efforts, especially shown in such songs as "Dreamin'", "The Angel and The One", and "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived".
Although the album proved to be less commercially successful than Make Believe (2005), the Red Album was better received by critics then the previous album. Two commercial singles were released from the album—"Pork and Beans" and "Troublemaker"—both becoming relatively successful modern rock hits. The video for the former also became the most-watched video on the internet the weekend following its release. [6] Additionally, an unconventional Hootenanny Tour replaced the traditional rock concert tour to promote the album.
After the platinum success of their fifth album Make Believe (2005), the band once again was put on hiatus. [7] Frontman Rivers Cuomo returned to Harvard University to complete his education; he graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. [8] Cuomo also married Kyoko Ito on June 18, 2006, a woman he had known since March 1997. He proposed to her in Tokyo shortly before Christmas 2005. [9] The wedding was held at a secluded beach on Paradise Cove in Malibu and was attended by over a hundred people, including six of the seven members who played in Weezer (former bassist Mikey Welsh was not in attendance) as well as notables Justin Fisher, Kevin Ridel and Rick Rubin. [10]
Meanwhile, members Patrick Wilson and Brian Bell appeared in the 2006 film Factory Girl playing John Cale and Lou Reed respectively [11] and contributing a cover of the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" for the film. [12] Also during this time, Bell formed a new side-band called The Relationship [13] while Wilson started work on material for the next Special Goodness album. [14] He also had a second child, Ian Patrick Wilson, with his wife in early 2008. [15]
The band announced in June 2007 that recording sessions for the album would begin in July. [16] In December 2007, Cuomo released Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, which featured home demos that Cuomo recorded from 1992 to 2007. [17] It was also during this time that a mysterious website called albumsix.com began gaining attention. [7] The website gave false information about the album such as the album title would be Tout Ensemble (French for "All Together") and a fake release date. [18] The website fooled several news outlets such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone . [19] [20] The website was later revealed to be a hoax created by some fans. Band historian Karl Koch stated on Weezer's official website:
Please note that Weezer and Geffen Records have no affiliation with www.albumsix.com. The new Weezer record is not called Tout Ensemble and there is no official release date yet for the album. Remember, when it's on Weezer.com, it's for sure. (Though I will say, 'well played', to the authors of that site.) [21]
At the beginning of the album's creation each Weezer member asked themselves what they wanted to get out of the album. With that in mind, they set out to record. Recording was done in three sessions. Half of the album was recorded during the spring of 2007 with Rubin overseeing production. The second session, started in July and finished on October 18, was produced by Weezer themselves at Malibu. The third and final session of recording was done at the request of Geffen Records, who claimed that there was not enough commercial material on the album. This session was produced by Jacknife Lee and completed in March 2008. [22] In the first podcast released on www.riverspodcast.com, Cuomo mentioned playing drums on two songs on the album. In an interview with Pitchfork , Cuomo stated the album would contain "longer songs, non-traditional song forms, different people writing and singing, instrument switching, TR-808s, synths, Southern rap, and baroque counterpoint." [23]
The majority of the album's content was written by Cuomo. However, for the first time since their debut album other members of the band contributed songwriting as well. [23] Cuomo consciously strived to write less traditionally-structured songs, breaking away from the "verse-chorus--verse-chorus-bridge" structure that was present on past albums. [24] Much of the album's subject matter is rooted in past experiences and nostalgia.
"Troublemaker", which was considered for the first single, introduces the theme of nostalgia for the album, with Cuomo "reliving his lost youth". [25] "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a track that includes piano, police sirens, rapped vocals and Cuomo singing in falsetto. [26] Bassist Scott Shriner was particularly proud of the song saying, "The song 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' is a masterpiece that includes ten different styles of music based around a common theme. It's awesome. That word gets abused a lot, like 'Wow, these pancakes are awesome,' but 'Greatest Man' is . . . awesome!" [27] "Pork and Beans", the album's third track and first single, was written by Cuomo as a reaction to a meeting with Geffen where the band was told it needed to record more-commercial material. [28]
"Heart Songs" is about all the artists and records that have influenced Cuomo from Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" when he was 5 years old to Nirvana's Nevermind (1991) in his early 20s. [29] The song misidentifies the cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" as being by Debbie Gibson instead of Tiffany, an error that was brought to Cuomo's attention while recording. Cuomo opted to keep the error in due to his own memories and the personal nature of the song. Cuomo told Pitchfork that the song was partly inspired by the Mariah Carey song "We Belong Together". [30] Cuomo's childhood friend Adam Orth commented on the autobiographical element of the lyrics for "Everybody Get Dangerous". [31] "Dreamin'" was formerly known as "Daydreamer" and was described in the liner notes to Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo as an "epic, 6-minute, symphonic type of art song." [32] "This is the Way", featured on Alone, was written as a more straightforward counterpart, and was originally selected by the band to be recorded for the Weezer album, but Cuomo persuaded the others to go with "Dreamin'" instead. [32]
"Thought I Knew" was also the name of a song by Bell's band The Relationship, and is a reworking and re-recording of the track with Weezer sung as a lead vocal by Bell. The song was originally written in a minor key. [33] However, Bell felt that historically the band's songs haven't worked in minor and that the song needed to feel more uplifting. So he changed the song from minor to major and sped up the tempo. [33] "Cold Dark World" is a song that was written by Cuomo and Shriner and features Shriner on lead vocals. Shriner commented, "...I wrote this kind of creepy music, and Rivers wrote these kind of happy, positive lyrics, but when you put it together, it made a super-creepy song which I'm really proud of." [34] "Automatic" was written by Wilson and features him on lead vocals, saying that the song "is interesting. It's a big rock tune but it's kinda got a vibe to it and the lyrics are just about me wanting to give as much love as I can to my family..." [33]
"The Angel and the One" serves as the album's closer. Some members of the band have claimed that this is their favorite track, including Wilson. [33] Cuomo stated that initially the song "started out as a really standard pop song called 'bad girl' and had a verse and a chorus and bridge and all that stuff. And I just wasn't satisfied with it. It was too normal. So one day I sat down with my acoustic guitar and I just played [this] song over and over, on basically looping it. My fingers hurt so much, I just kept playing it. And over the hour that I was playing it, the song slowly evolved and it smoothed over and the sections blurred into each other. And it turned into this spiritual reverie that is really just one long development without any distinction between sections." [33]
The album's deluxe edition featured four bonus tracks. "Pig" leaked as a demo in early 2007, this song details the life of a pig including playing in the mud as a piglet, falling in love, getting married, raising children and eventually being slaughtered. [35] The final track appears on the deluxe edition, "King", is sung by Shriner. In the liner notes for the deluxe edition, Shriner says that the song was not being voted by the rest of the band but was one of his favorite tracks from the demos Cuomo played for the band. One day Shriner called up Cuomo and demanded the band add the song on the album, Cuomo responded by saying that if Shriner wanted the song so bad he should sing it, and so he did. The song apparently took the longest to record and perfect, taking three weeks. [33]
The album's cover debuted on Spinner.com on April 21, 2008. [36] It features the band members Bell, Wilson, Cuomo and Shriner in various outfits standing left to right in front of a red backdrop, and is in a manner similar to their debut and 2001 album. The cover was photographed by Sean Murphy. [37] Pitchfork writer Amy Phillips compared the cover to the Village People saying, "Meet the new Village People: The Bartender, the Professor, the Cowboy, and the Biker." [38] The cover received mixed reactions from fans wondering if the cover was a hoax. [37] [39] [40] The cover was reconfirmed by the band's publicist Jim Merlis, "Yes, that's absolutely the cover. It's what they chose. They looked at a bunch of mockups, and that's the one they decided to go with. It's not a joke." [39]
From a Buzznet.com interview with Shriner:
"The cover for the Red Album was kind of ... a happy accident," Shriner said. "We had a whole 'nother set of photographs that we wanted to be the cover and nothing that we were looking at ever matched up to what we felt that album sounded like and represents for us. Our art director got that photo [the official album cover], which originally was a fun photo. 'OK, everybody, go as your alter ego, and we'll take a kooky picture,' [he said.] He [the art director] put the red background behind that, and that's what felt like the strongest image that matched how we feel the album sounds." Like the album cover, the album itself was very much a group effort. While many tend to assume that most Weezer material was scribed by Cuomo, Shriner insists that, "We all wrote music on the record. [Drummer] Pat [Wilson] and [guitarist] Brian [Bell] wrote songs, and we all sing lead vocals on songs and sing leads on different verses and choruses." [34]
On April 1, 2008, Rolling Stone reported that the album would once again be self-titled and become known as "The Red Album", with the first single being titled "Pork and Beans". [41] The record was one of the first albums to be released on the new microSD slotMusic media format. In addition to the full album in a DRM-free MP3 format, the memory card also includes album art, liner notes, videos, and other features. [42]
Several of the songs were featured in several media outlets. The album's fifth track, "Everybody Get Dangerous" was featured in the trailer for Disney's comedy film G-Force . [43] It was also played briefly in the film 21 , although it was later excluded from the official soundtrack release. [44] "Automatic" was remixed by LA Riots for the video game Gran Turismo 5 Prologue . [44]
The album was promoted with a tour throughout 2008 called the "Troublemaker Tour" with even a bonus track off the album "King" also being played live. This would be the last time the band would tour to promote a new release of theirs until the release of Everything Will Be Alright in the End (2014).
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 64/100 [45] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [46] |
The A.V. Club | D [47] |
Entertainment Weekly | B− [48] |
The Guardian | [49] |
Los Angeles Times | [50] |
NME | 7/10 [51] |
Pitchfork | 4.7/10 [25] |
Q | [52] |
Rolling Stone | [53] |
Spin | [54] |
The album received generally positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 64, based on 32 reviews. [45] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album a positive review of 4+1⁄2 stars out of five calling the album, "A cheerfully restless record, one where all the parts don't fit and it's better because of it, as it has a wild, willing personality, suggesting that Weezer is comfortable as a band in a way they never quite have been before." [46] The Boston Globe called the songs, "consistently vibrant, catchy, and well-built." [55] IGN also gave the album a score of 6.9 out of ten, stating, "The Red Album is totally bizarre, a certifiable mess, and a hell of a lot of fun." [56] NME complimented Cuomo's songwriting saying, "Musically, it’s a record that does much to further the claim for Cuomo’s songwriting greatness." [51] Los Angeles Times gave it a score of three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a rush, starting with a sustained, four-song soliloquy on pop music's allure." [50]
Among the negative reviews, Tiny Mix Tapes called the album "a sad portrait of a band that has been totally destroyed by fame and the pressures that come along with it," [57] and The A.V. Club saying: "If the so-called 'Red Album' really is an elaborate goof on an all-too-forgiving fan base, that doesn't make Weezer's newest worst album any less insipid." [47] Pitchfork gave the record 4.7/10, lamenting that "like the YouTube culture the 'Pork and Beans' video depicts so well, the song-- and this album-- relies on a high quantity of short-lived pretty good ideas to distract from a shortage of great ones." [25] Prefix Magazine said that if the Red Album's "songs were formulaic, shiny, and easily digestible like everything on Green or Maladroit , the vacuity of the new songs wouldn't be as big a problem. But 'Heart Songs,' 'Thought I Knew'--these are just plain bad." [58]
The Red Album debuted at the fourth spot of the Billboard 200, with 126,000 copies sold in its first week. [59] As of August 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the Red Album has sold 443,000 copies. [60]
The Post ranked The Red Album the 6th best album by Weezer, and wrote that the album is among the band's most experimental. They also wrote: "The experiments pay off, and reflect Weezer's desire to constantly attempt new things as well as their refusal to fall back on their past success as a crutch." [61]
In 2012, NME ranked The Red Album the 5th best album by the band. [62]
All tracks are written by Rivers Cuomo, except where noted. All lead vocals by Rivers Cuomo, except where noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Troublemaker" | 2:44 | ||
2. | "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" |
| 5:52 | |
3. | "Pork and Beans" | 3:09 | ||
4. | "Heart Songs" | 4:06 | ||
5. | "Everybody Get Dangerous" |
| 4:03 | |
6. | "Dreamin'" |
| 5:12 | |
7. | "Thought I Knew" | Brian Bell | Bell | 3:01 |
8. | "Cold Dark World" |
| Shriner | 3:51 |
9. | "Automatic" | Patrick Wilson | Wilson | 3:07 |
10. | "The Angel and the One" | 6:46 | ||
Total length: | 41:23 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
11. | "Miss Sweeney" |
| 4:02 | |
12. | "Pig" | 4:02 | ||
13. | "The Spider" | 4:43 | ||
14. | "King" |
| 5:11 | |
Total length: | 59:21 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
15. | "It's Easy" | Bell | Bell | 3:10 |
Total length: | 62:31 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
16. | "I Can Love" | 3:49 |
Total length: | 66:20 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
11. | "The Weight" (The Band cover) | Robbie Robertson |
| 4:31 |
Total length: | 45:54 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
12. | "Life Is What You Make It" (Talk Talk cover) | Wilson | 3:32 | |
Total length: | 49:26 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
13. | "Meri Kuri" (BoA cover) |
| 5:24 |
Total length: | 54:50 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Intro" | ||
2. | "Dope Nose" | ||
3. | "Why Bother?" | ||
4. | "Surf Wax America" |
| |
5. | "The Good Life" | ||
6. | "Island In The Sun" | ||
7. | "Undone – The Sweater Song" | ||
8. | "Behind the scenes From Japan Tour" | ||
9. | "'Pork and Beans' MV" | ||
10. | "Interview" | ||
11. | "Song-by-song commentary" | ||
Total length: | 64:00 |
Weezer
Production
Chart (2008) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.S. Billboard 200 [65] | 4 |
Australian Albums Chart [66] | 21 |
Austrian Albums Chart [67] | 39 |
Canadian Albums Chart [68] | 2 |
Irish Albums Chart | 27 |
Japanese Albums Chart | 9 |
Japanese International Chart [69] | 1 |
New Zealand Albums Chart [70] | 15 |
Norwegian Albums Chart [71] | 21 |
UK Albums Chart [72] | 21 |
Country | Date [4] |
---|---|
United States, Canada | June 3, 2008 |
Japan | June 4, 2008 |
Australia, Germany | June 6, 2008 |
Worldwide | June 9, 2008 |
United Kingdom | June 16, 2008 |
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell, and Scott Shriner. They have sold 10 million albums in the US and more than 35 million worldwide.
Weezer is the third studio album by American rock band Weezer. It was released on May 15, 2001, by Geffen Records. It was the second Weezer album produced by Ric Ocasek, who produced their debut album, and it is the only studio album to feature bassist Mikey Welsh, as he left the band a few months after the album's release.
Maladroit is the fourth studio album by American rock band Weezer, released on May 14, 2002, by Geffen Records. It was self-produced by the band, and was their first album to feature bassist Scott Shriner, following the departure of former bassist Mikey Welsh in 2001, although Shriner was featured in the music video for "Photograph" from the band's previous album Weezer. Musically, the album features a hard-rock sound and heavy metal riffs uncommon to Weezer's previous releases.
Return of the Rentals is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band The Rentals, released on October 31, 1995, through Maverick Records and Reprise Records. The album features Matt Sharp—Weezer's bassist at the time—on vocals and bass, as well as Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson.
Weezer is the debut studio album by the American rock band Weezer, released on May 10, 1994, by DGC Records. It was produced by Ric Ocasek of the Cars.
Make Believe is the fifth studio album by American rock band Weezer. It was released on May 10, 2005, by Geffen Records. The album was considered to be a return to some of the emotionally vulnerable lyrics of Weezer's previous releases, and due to the strength of the hit single "Beverly Hills", the album was a commercial success, peaking at number two on the US Billboard 200 and number eleven on the UK Albums Chart. In addition, "Beverly Hills" also earned Weezer their first Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. Despite this, Make Believe received mixed reviews from critics and fans, although it has remained a consistent seller. The recording process of Make Believe began prior to the release of their previous album, Maladroit; however, it was prolonged compared to the recording of most of Weezer's previous albums, and lasted for almost three years. Rivers Cuomo's songwriting on Make Believe was described as "[a] return to musical, emotional bloodletting", although the lyrics were noticeably simpler than before.
"Say It Ain't So" is a song by American rock band Weezer. It was released as the third and final single from the band's self-titled 1994 debut album on May 15, 1995. Written by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finished and one line, "Say it ain't so". Cuomo made a connection to an incident in high school where he came home and saw a bottle of beer in the fridge. He believed his mother and father's marriage ended because his father was an alcoholic, and this made him fear the marriage between his mother and step-father would end this way as well.
Songs from the Black Hole is an unfinished album by the American rock band Weezer, recorded between 1994 and 1996. The songwriter, Rivers Cuomo, conceived it as a rock opera that would express his mixed feelings about the success of Weezer's 1994 self-titled debut album. Its characters were to be voiced by members of Weezer, plus the guest vocalists Rachel Haden and Joan Wasser.
"Perfect Situation" is a song by American alternative rock band Weezer. It was released to radio on October 11, 2005 as the third single from the band's fifth album Make Believe, following "Beverly Hills" and "We Are All on Drugs".
Weezer's Christmas CD is a two-track promotional EP officially released January 1, 2001. It was sent to radio stations, as well as in small quantities to members of the band's fan club. The songs were recorded at Rivers Cuomo's home studio, dubbed "Mocha Fusion Studios", in October and November of 2000. Additional work was done at Cello Studios.
"Photograph" is a song by American alternative rock band Weezer. It is the third and final single from the band's self-titled third album, Weezer. "Photograph" was released as the first single off the album in Japan instead of "Hash Pipe". The song enjoyed only modest success on the radio, peaking at #17 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo is a compilation album by American musician and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo. It was released on December 18, 2007 by Geffen Records. It is available as a digital release, CD release and 12" vinyl. The album features home demos that Cuomo has recorded from 1992–2007.
"Pork and Beans" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on the group's 2008 self-titled album Weezer, also known as the Red Album. It was released to radio on April 22, 2008 and released in digital form on April 24. The track debuted at number 19 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and spent eleven weeks at number one. The song charted in many countries such as Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
"Troublemaker" is a song that was originally released as an iTunes single from alternative rock band Weezer's sixth album and third self-titled album, Weezer. It was released in digital form on May 20, 2008, as the second single from the album. It debuted the week of July 26, 2008, at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks charts and peaked at No. 2.
Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo is a compilation album by the Weezer songwriter Rivers Cuomo. It is Cuomo's second compilation of demos, after Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, and includes material written for Weezer's unfinished album Songs From the Black Hole. Alone II debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart with first-week sales of 6,000. It was followed by Alone III: The Pinkerton Years (2011).
"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a song released as an iTunes single from American alternative rock band Weezer's sixth album, Weezer (2008). "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" was released to radio on December 9, 2008. The song bears a resemblance to the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" hence the "(Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" in the title. According to lead vocalist and writer Rivers Cuomo, "The Greatest Man" has 11 different themes, including rapping and imitations of other bands such as Nirvana and Aerosmith (both of whom also recorded for Weezer's then-label Geffen Records at one point).
Raditude is the seventh studio album by American rock band Weezer, released on October 30, 2009, and is their final album on DGC Records, Geffen Records and Interscope Records. The title of the album was suggested to Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo by actor Rainn Wilson. The album's first single, "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To", was released in August 2009. The album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200. The album's cover artwork is a photo of a dog named Sidney, originally published in the August 2009 issue of National Geographic.
Death to False Metal is a compilation album by American rock band Weezer, released on November 2, 2010 by Geffen Records. The album comprises several previously unreleased tracks from throughout Weezer's career, with vocalist and guitarist Rivers Cuomo stating that the songs together make an album that should "logically follow Hurley". The album debuted at number 48 on the US Billboard 200.
Weezer is the twelfth studio album by the American rock band Weezer. It was released digitally on January 24, 2019, through Crush Music and Atlantic Records, with a retail release on March 8. The album is composed of cover songs, mostly from the 1980s, making it the band's first covers album. It was announced and released on the same day as a surprise precursor to Weezer's thirteenth studio album, which was released on March 1, 2019. The album received mixed reviews, with some praising the self-aware frivolity of the project, while others criticized the arrangements.
SZNZ: Summer is the eighth EP by American rock band Weezer, and the second of four EPs in their SZNZ project. It was released digitally on June 21, 2022, coinciding with the Summer solstice. The album received its lead single "Records" just a few days before its release.
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