The Green Album
(Geffen)
After a half-decade of creative bottlenecking, the alt-rock answer to Einstein known as Weezer has deigned to descend from Olympus to deliver their incessantly emulated brand of melodic manna to the throngs of starving geeks the world over. Imposters and naysayers alike take heed: the day of reckoning is at hand.
Fans of Weezer’s trademarked bittersweet-but-catchy-as-hell music have been frothing at the mouth ever since word spread that the group was preparing to release its first album since falling into disarray after 1996’s ambitious yet coolly received landmark Pinkerton.
Green definitely revisits the fuzzy, quasi-New Wave rock anthems of Weezer’s triple-platinum eponymous 1994 debut, right down to the return of producer and former Cars honcho Ric Ocasek to the boards. Once again, Ocasek smoothes out the band’s sound, which remains thick and heavy enough to blow your speakers, but not in the caustically noisy manner of Green’s roughly hewn predecessor.
However, lovers of the deeply complicated arrangements and thematic grandeur of Pinkerton may be somewhat disappointed to hear the more simplistic style that prevails on the Green Album. Gone are the soaring, intricately composed leads and unabashedly personal lyrics, a decision that head-Weez Rivers Cuomo made consciously after having misgivings about baring his soul so completely in the past.
Instead, Green offers a collection of ten extremely acute, focused power pop songs that will cut straight into the heart and keep you whistling for days. Infectious doesn’t even begin to sum up the unshakeable quality of the tunes found within.
The hit single, “Hash Pipe,” as drastic a departure from Weezer’s signature style as anything they’ve yet released, rumbles like a dirty semi-truck, with blistering guitar riffs, thundering bass, and Pat Wilson’s pummeling drums. The cryptic “Crab” is rife with delectable melodies and hooks galore, and the beatific “Smile” vacillates between warmth and despair in the way that only a Weezer song can.
“Island In the Sun,” an intriguing, tropically flavored gem, combines chiming, staccato guitars with dreamy lyrics of an island getaway for two. Meanwhile, the raw “Photograph” and “Simple Pages” just plain rock out in that classic Weezer fashion. “O Girlfriend,” the record’s somber finale is a plaintive reminder of Cuomo’s understated genius, as he sings, “O girlfriend/ That’s the end/ And I’m lost without your love.”
If Pinkerton was Cuomo’s metal album, then Green is in tribute to his hero Brian Wilson, as evidenced by the surplus of gorgeous vocal harmonies that he and bandmates Brian Bell and Mikey Welsh turn out to great effect.
A year ago, Weezer’s very existence was debatable in all but the most ardent circles of fans. Now, with what is arguably the most anticipated release of 2001, the Green Album finds Weezer once again poised to take over the universe.
By Casey Lombardo
Long Beach Union
Originally printed 5.14.01
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See also: Weezer Live @ The Whiskey