Review: Weezer – Raditude
Weezer – Raditude (2009) [Geffen] // Grade: F-
I want to start this review off by getting straight to the point. Weezer’s Raditude gets two middle fingers down. Each track is worse than the previous and while that shouldn’t be a huge surprise considering the band hasn’t made a solid release since 2001′s The Green Album, Raditude is on another level, an absolutely terrible album that has left me disgusted and tarnished my fond memories of Weezer’s golden years.
This piece of dogshit honestly makes me uncomfortable to listen to. The songs are an awful mix of MTV afterschool pop punk centered on themes that would have felt juvenile when I was a teenager. Rivers Cuomo turns 40 next year so why he’s writing lyrics about malls, the girl that got away (in junior high), and dropping Patron references is unfathomable. Raditude is Cuomo’s midlife crisis—awkward, uncomfortable to be around and an embarrassment.
“I’m Your Daddy” amps up the creep factor with lyrics that are exactly what you’d expect from the title and light electro beat under the guitar that makes for the statutory rape anthem of the year. “Tripping Down The Freeway” has a catchy chorus that at times seems like a passable track reminiscent of Pinkerton-era Weezer, but following it up with “Love is the Answer”, a piss-poor attempt at riding the coattails of the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack’s success, negates any potential of a saving grace.
As much as I don’t even want to tell you all about this song’s existence, I can’t end this review without a mention of the album’s biggest WTF moment, “Can’t Stop Partying”, a track I assume is the band’s attempt at being clever and mocking the current music scene. Lil’ Wayne lends a cameo over a club beat that hints at autotune as Cuomo painfully grasps at relevance amid name drops of “jewels”, “Patron” and “the Goose”. It reminds me of 3OH!3 and joke or not, it’s probably the worst song I’ve heard in 2009.
“Undone” turned 15 this year and for one of the greatest songs of the 90′s birthday, the band celebrated with Raditude, an album that, if it’s indicative of things to come, I hope ends their career before any further damage is done to my eardrums and memories. Happy Birthday, “Undone”!
October 30th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I can’t believe these losers. How the mighty have fallen. To think anything could be stupider than the Red Album, but judging from your review it seems like they might have outdone themselves here!
Guess I’ll go put on Pinkerton and just be glad that one exists.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I think because Pinkerton initially flopped with the teens who gave the Blue Album popularity, but then got second life a few years later with a slightly younger generation; Weezer has just given up trying to write albums and just decided pandering to the lowest common denominator of what 15-16 year-olds want to hear at the time of their next release. Thankfully at the time of the Green Album’s release everything was in sync where 13-16 year-olds and 21-25 year-olds all just wanted to hear something that slightly resembled a watered down version of the Blue Album.
No one band has gone so out of their way to tarnish the reputation of two great albums and one good-to-Ok one. After the Green Album, hell even after (the shitty) Maladroit, Weezer were on that coveted path where a rock band position could pursue any creative avenue and their fans would follow them, and their records and tickets would still sell. That’s burgeoning on R.E.M., Radiohead, & U2 status. So what do they do on the cusp of such artistic freedom? They decide that they’re going to release the album equivalent of fart jokes. Actually… I take that back, because I find fart jokes funny and comparing one to a latter day Weezer album would be insulting to a fart joke.
I’m starting to really think that Matt Sharpe played a much larger part than just bass, backing vocals and a few co-writing jaunts in Rivers Cuomo’s supposed “genius”.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Fuck Lil’ Wayne i really hope he finally gets locked up and has to share a cell with Suge Knight, as for Weezer, I personally nominate them as the sell outs of the year.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I don’t think Suge is in jail is he? If he is, he’s not in New York.