Tag Archives: Weezer Songs

“Thought I Knew” (Weezer Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Welcome back to the best acoustic rock cover songs music blog on the Internet! What a mouthful…

It’s my pleasure today to bring you a new song from Weezer’s 2008 self-titled album, also known as The Red Album. This is, of course, a nod to their past self-titled albums that were colored blue (The Blue Album) and green (The Green Album). To be certain, Weezer had a lot to live up to when they released their album this year, and I was a bit put off by the remix of “Automatic” that leaked to YouTube videos via a video game trailer.

Then I bought the album and fell in love with it!

Well, to be honest, I found the album a bit quirky at first. I couldn’t decide if I thought the lyrics were catchy or cheesy. The first few songs had so many different sections and styles that it was difficult to get a handle on them. But, after a few listens, I had already decided that this was one of my favorite albums of the year. Aside from some great, catchy, upbeat, rocking, and experimental tracks by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the other three members of the band all contributed in the songwriting and singing departments.

I especially enjoyed “Thought I Knew” by guitarist Brian Bell from the first time I heard it, which is why I chose it as my first Laptop Session from The Red Album. I hope you enjoy it as well, and I can’t wait to play more from this great album!

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for another all-new and great acoustic rock cover song by Jeff Copperthite…

See you next session!



The Weekend Review: June 2011 Report

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By Chris Moore:

June was a quiet month, and I didn’t initially appreciate some of the great work that is represented below.  This is one of the only benefits to posting these reviews so belatedly this year: that my criticism has had months to percolate and develop.  I think that is revealed below…

 

Suck It And See (Arctic Monkeys)

Producer: James Ford

Released: June 6, 2011

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “She’s Thunderstorms” & “Piledriver Waltz”

With so many individually excellent songs – the opening electric barrage of “She’s Thunderstorms” and the gorgeously  Suck It And See should be an instant classic.  There’s something lacking, though: predominantly, a sense of momentum.  Individual songs achieve momentum relative to themselves, but there just isn’t a sense of ever-mounting energy as the tracks continue.  Still, the retro-rock/punk groove of tracks like “The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala” is undeniably catchy, and the Arctic Monkeys certainly haven’t lost their range, one which runs from the mean distortion of “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” to the placid ballad “Love is a Laserquest.”


Alpocalypse (“Weird Al” Yankovic)

Producer: “Weird Al” Yankovic

Released: June 21, 2011

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “CNR” & “Skipper Dan”

With Poodle Hat (2003) and Straight Outta Lynwood (2006), Weird Al raised the bar considerably, and it would seem to be a setup for failure to compare all future work by the watermark of discs like these.  Still, Alpocalypse rises to the occasion: there’s the dual-layered parody of “Born This Way” and Lady Gaga in the opener “Perform This Way,” style parodies of Weezer (“Skipper Dan”) and the White Stripes (“CNR”) that will stand up to his best work, and of course, a wittily titled polka medley (“Polka Face”).  Weird Al even manages to make the catchiness of that celebratory, patriotic Miley Cyrus tune accessible to the rest of us in “Party in the CIA.”  With Alpocalypse, Yankovic has also caught up on a few items that, in retrospect, I’m surprised haven’t fallen under his radar previously:  “Craigslist,” performed in perfect Doors/Jim Morrison fashion, and the appropriately faux-epic “Stop Forwarding that Crap to Me.”

 

Is For Karaoke EP (Relient K)

Released: June 28, 2011

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Surf Wax America” (originally performed by Weezer) & “Baby” (originally performed by Justin Bieber)

While I usually cannot condone an album of covers, much less an EP, and especially from a band that has only recently put out some of the most mature and masterful original material of their career, Relient K’s Is For Karaoke EP is actually quite good.  In seven brief songs, they span the decades, from as recent as last year and stretching all the way back to April 1980 with an impressively spot-on take of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Here Comes My Girl,” not forgetting the nineties in between, particularly with their not to Weezer in “Surf Wax America,” an excellent choice of band as well as song.  Frontman Matt Thiessen shows off his vocal range on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” and Relient K renders another annoying track listenable in their cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” a resuscitation of a cover that can only be compared with Fountains of Wayne’s version of Britney Spear’s “Baby… One More Time.”  Overall, a masterful little EP, and not bad at all to tide us over until their follow-up to 2009’s outstanding Forget and Not Slow Down, my pick for number one album of that year.

 

Rave On Buddy Holly (Various Artists)

Producer: Randall Poster & Gelya Robb

Released: June 28, 2011

Rating: 3/5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” (Cee Lo Green) & “Changing All Those Changes” (Nick Lowe)

As with all tribute albums, the quality is uneven throughout.  And, buyer beware, there are some real clunkers here (Lou Reed’s distortion-drowned “Peggy Sue,” to name only one of several).  However, there are also some gems, and some hail from surprising corners.  Cee Lo Green’s take on “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” is easily the best track on the record, followed quickly by a plethora of pleasing yet unsurprising covers by an admittedly impressive array of artists, from Paul McCartney to Modest Mouse and Fiona Apple to the Black Keys.  There are too many strong tracks here to write Rave On Buddy Holly off, yet there are too many forgettable (at best) flunkers to offer up too much praise too easily.

Weezer’s “Hurley” (2010) – The Weekend Review

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By Chris Moore:

RATING:  3.5 / 5 stars

Simply put, Hurley is Weezer’s return to high energy rock music.

And it’s good.

Okay, so I’ll admit that it is difficult to take an album like Hurley seriously, given the ostensibly random title and accompanying cover photo that is apropos of nothing contained within.  And yet, you should endeavor to get past the cover, the pathetic excuse for CD packaging, and the bad press the album has received from those who, on the heels of Raditude, understandably won’t give it a chance, including — perhaps most notably — one James Burns, a man currently engaged in a campaign to raise $10 million as incentive for Weezer to break up.

I would suggest that he give this album a chance, but it turns out he not only is not but also has never been a fan of the band.

This is such a pity, as Hurley is an album so true to classic Weezer that it makes more sense to compare it to The Green Album (2001) than any of the four subsequent releases.  Aside from the echoes of Raditude on “Smart Girls,” the rock sensibility of Hurley extends past the experimental aura of The Red Album, doesn’t quite match the tone of Make Believe, and is certainly not cut out of the same carefully orchestrated hard rock fabric that defined Maladroit.

Musically, the track listing conjures those early albums: a total running time that barely cracks the half hour mark across ten songs with concise titles, all upbeat rock tracks with distorted guitars that play like a mix between garage rock and clean studio sounds.

As for the cover, I have never understood the criticism lobbed at The Red Album and Raditude.  Because a man who looks like a doll reading a newspaper wasn’t weird.  Neither, apparently, was several depressed looking cartoons wearing the traditional garb of the Orient wandering aimlessly around a snowy mountainside.  And four guys standing in front of a bright blue screen looking like they’d forgotten it was picture day wasn’t odd; that was somehow classic.

Hurley (Weezer, 2010)

Hurley (Weezer, 2010)

Weezer has always been quirky, and that has always been a large part of their appeal.  In a manner that should be palatable to the average rock fan, they have assembled Hurley as a return to that form, with a couple worthwhile variations thrown in for good measure.

The opening track and lead single “Memories” is honest, in-your-face rock music that begins with reminiscences that would have fit in comfortably on The Red Album, but quickly transitions to a catchy chorus and a middle stirred to perfection with a shredded vocal delivery by Rivers Cuomo.

He loosens the reigns vocally on several other occasions, not the least of which is that pinnacle of quirkiness “Where’s My Sex?,” the shtick here being that the word “sex” replaces the word “socks” throughout the song.  The result is a rocking, if somewhat ridiculous, track.

“Unspoken” is an acoustic gem, but even this song can’t help but rock out in the latter half, just as “Time Flies” wants to be the pensive closer, yet is so steady in beat as to evade the classification as a “slow song.”

Although many of the strongest tracks are placed early on the record — “Trainwrecks” being one, if not the, standout song — even the potentially mediocre numbers, like “Smart Girls” and “Brave New World,” achieve cohesion and momentum.  “Ruling Me,” “Run Away,” and “Hang On” are similarly impressive in their focus and balance between simplicity and interesting vocal and instrumental hooks.

This isn’t the new Weezer classic.  It shouldn’t be interpreted as the new Green Album, nor should it be compared to the heights of their career, in 1994 and 2002.  And yet, as much as Make Believe was underrated (and sadly oversimplified as “the one with ‘Beverly Hills’ on it”)  and as much as The Red Album grew on me and quickly became a favorite of mine in 2008, Hurley is arguably the best rock album Weezer has produced in eight years.

If nothing else, it provides proof positive that this band has not gone off the deep end (band-led hootenannies and Rivers Cuomo’s train conductor’s uniform notwithstanding). Hurley can be read as a nod to fans of their rock mentality, and the message is clear: this is a band that can still rock…. when they want to.

The Weezer Compilation – Playlists on Parade

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By Chris Moore:

With Weezer’s eighth studio album – and the third in three years – being released next week, I thought this would be the perfect time to reorganize, update, and publish my Weezer compilation.

Of course, after Tuesday, it will be in need of an update once again…

I haven’t adjusted my Weezer playlist since 2007, so the necessary selections from The Red Album and yes, even Raditude have been added, namely “Pork and Beans” and “Troublemaker” from the former and “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” and “Put Me Back Together” from the notoriously inferior latter.  “Put Me Back Together” is the only addition that I’m not fully committed to, having to knock out “Fall Together,” one of my favorites from Maladroit, and “The Damage in Your Heart,” a great song from Make Believe that is just a bit too slow and a bit too long for this compilation.

I’m certain that this list won’t please every Weezer fan.  Some may argue content (songs that don’t deserve top billing, songs that should’ve made the cut) and others may argue order (“Why is ______ so far down the list?!,” etc.), but that’s half the fun of creating a compilation like this.

I didn’t originally intend to order the tracks in bursts of chronological order, but I just loved the flow and transitions when I arranged them like this.  With the exception of the last three songs, the order (as you will no doubt pick up on quickly) is in order of album release: two full runs through their seven album catalog and a Blue Album-era outtake to kick off the third round, which extends to Maladroit before I alter the balance with extra tracks from The Green Album, Maladroit, and Make Believe.

The bottom line is that Weezer is one of the best rock bands of all time.  They’ve recently become embroiled in a critical cluster-cuss, but the dissension really extends back to Maladroit, which is – in this writer’s opinion – one of the finest rock albums of all time. Criticizing Weezer’s recent music has become a very acceptable, reasonable even, practice, one that I’ve contributed to with regards to 2009’s Raditude.

Meanwhile, Weezer rocks on.

I say, let’s rock on with them.  If you can’t applaud their recent work, then you should at least appreciate the attitude.  And, after a run through the compilation below, you just might remember why Weezer deserves so much respect.  They may not be the smartest lyric-writers or even musicians out there, but I dare you to find a band that’s more consistently fun to listen to!

1)  “My Name is Jonas” – Weezer (The Blue Album)

2)  “The Good Life” – Pinkerton

3)  “Don’t Let Go” – Weezer (The Green Album)

4)  “American Gigolo” – Maladroit

5)  “Beverly Hills” – Make Believe

6)  “Pork and Beans” – Weezer (The Red Album)

7)  “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” – Raditude

8)  “Buddy Holly” – Weezer (The Blue Album)

9)  “Pink Triangle” – Pinkerton

10)  “Island in the Sun” – Weezer (The Green Album)

11)  “Dope Nose” – Maladroit

12)  “Perfect Situation” – Make Believe

13)  “Troublemaker” – Weezer (The Red Album)

14)  “Put Me Back Together” – Raditude

15)  “Jamie” (Live Acoustic) – Dusty Gems and Raw Nuggets

16)  “Say It Ain’t So” – Weezer (The Blue Album)

17)  “Why Bother” – Pinkerton

18)  “Photograph” – Weezer (The Green Album)

19)  “Keep Fishin’” – Maladroit

20)  “Hash Pipe” – Weezer (The Green Album)

21)  “Slave” – Maladroit

22)  “The Other Way” – Make Believe

Running Time:  71 minutes