Thoughts On Weezer’s “Raditude”
Much has been said about Weezer’s seventh album, Raditude. From its wacky title and startling artwork, to its contraversial marketing and the fact the majority of its songs are co-written with “professional” songwriters. This is not another review or an assessment of the record’s tracks, but rather a compact case study of Rivers Cuomo’s curse/gift that is arguably at its most present on Raditude, for better or worse: Cuomo’s personal mission to perfect popular music.
A cynic could argue that the irony lies in the fact that Cuomo not only perfected, but crafted, his own brand of pop perfection in 1994 on Weezer’s self-titled debut, more commonly known as The Blue Album. Channeling a range of influences from the classic (The Beatles, Beach Boys) to the contemporary (Nirvana, Pixies) Cuomo created the “Weezer sound” so many succeeding bands have not only cited, but obsessed over, as a point of reference. There were songs about homies, sweaters, surfing and girls who looked like Mary Tyler Moore.
Raditude is in one sense the most cohesive and complete body of work the band have made since their 00s come back with 2001’s Weezer (The Green Album) and this is because it more or less maintains the same, albeit slightly updated, pop-citation philosophy found on Blue. The classic influences are still there (Cuomo has never channelled Pet Sounds era Brian Wilson as much as on closer “I Don’t Want To Let You Go”) while the contemporary influences in some intances have slightly changed (Lil’ Wayne, Lady Gaga, MGMT). There are songs about homies, Slayer t-shirts, partying and girls with the “Shirley Appleby look”.
But it’s not Blue. It’s Raditude
Weezer have been known to throw curveballs throughout their career, and that’s just putting it lightly. One look at the band’s discography and it becomes clear that pleasing the small percentage of hardcore fans is not part of Cuomo’s agenda. In fact, there is no over-arching plan besides: perfect pop music. You liked the universal catchiness and quintessentially “indie” sounding Blue Album? Well here’s a raw, heart on the sleeve personal record you’ll probably hate (Pinkeron). You want a heavy, emotional, undernourished masterpiece again? Here’s 28 minutes of sugar-coated, formulaic pop (Green). And so forth. These are experiments. The songs and albums are the results of these experiments. We, the listener, are the subjects. Whether or not these tests equate to more or less fans, higher or lower record sales doesn’t seem to affect Professor Cuomo.
The fact I’ve already spent more than three paragraphs talking about Raditude and Weezer is already too much.
“Whether or not these tests equate to more or less fans, higher or lower record sales doesn’t seem to affect Professor Cuomo.”
Dunno about this one mang.
From Rivers’ Twitter:
‘yes. if each follower plunked down 3.99 at amazon we’d sell 131,046. http://bit.ly/Vjw2p @c0stanza disappointed with sales estimates?60-65k”‘
Seems affected.
Bewbs.
While it obviously affects him financially, being his “day job”, I don’t think it has any impact whatsoever on Cuomo bending over backwards/pleasing his core fanbase by changing his writing style to suit their needs.
Else we’d have 7 albums that sounded like Blue. Or more to the point, Green and Make Believe, since I they are the two albums that have made the most money.
Fair point,
On another note, hows about pleasing YOUR hardcore fans and giving the album a more black/white, love/hate critique. a rating out of x/10 japanese pen pals perhaps?*
*nar just kidding
I’m a HUGE Weezer fan, but I think this album just sucks. It’s sad to say. And I’ve stuck with them through the long haul – I think Maladroit is VERY underrated, the Green album is great for what it is (it’s like a sequel to the Blue album in it’s popiness, whereas Maladroit is like a sequel to Pinkerton in it’s quirkiness). Make Believe was ok (at best) and I thought the second half of the Red album was killer. BUT I feel like Raditude is easily their worst album. There’s maybe one or two decent songs on the album. It’s hard to listen to without cringing and being embarassed that you like a band so much, even though they made such a bad album.
Wonderful thesis – how Rivers has attempted to perfect the pop sound. Also, great point about keeping the old influence (Beach Boys) but changing the new influence (Nirvana into MGMT).
Rivers once created a journal of sorts, and copied every form to the most popular songs at the time. He studied it, trying to find the answer to a successful pop song. It really was a goal of his.
If you are a long-time Weezer fan, and you have Raditude (Deluxe) and don’t like it, try this. Change the playlist. (No seriously, give it a go.)
1. (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
2. I Don’t Want To Let You Go
3. I’m Your Daddy
4. Put Me Back Together
5. The Girl Got Hot
6. Tripping Down The Freeway
7. Let It All Hang Out
8. In The Mall
9. Get Me Some
10. Run Over By A Truck
11. The Prettiest Girl In The Whole Wide World
would any of weezer’s core fans really want rivers to appeal just to them? i wouldn’t. sure, i would love another “blue album” but that was then, this is now. times have changed and rivers has changed. deal with it people.
Angus, you know how much I adore Weezer but I just can’t get into this album. I don’t mind a couple of tracks but it makes me feel dirty and I need to listen to Blue or Pinkerton to get the “new” lamer version of Weezer out of my head. Their albums have gone steadily downhill since Green was released IMO. Hell, I’d still kill to see them live but I’ll be the asshole yelling out “BUDDY HOLLY” or “SWEATER SONG”.
modtang,
You SHOULD see them live, they put on a heck of a show. The best part about it is their shows cater to the audience and what they want to hear. They played 5 songs from the blue album when I saw them last month. They mixed in popular hits from all albums as well as a bunch from red and raditude. I like Raditude, it is classic Weezer. I’m not sure what you expect, them to rerelease the blue album over and over?