Weezer - Weezer

Geffen

Somebody please stop Rivers Cuomo from making records. Just as George Lucas stomped all over the dreams of millions of misty-eyed twentysomethings with his guff-heavy Star Wars sequels, so the Weezer frontman continues to do the same to those slackers who fell in love with the band’s debut 14 years ago. ‘Troublemaker’ and lead-off single ‘Pork And Beans’ promise great things, with their dum-dum lyrics and chocolate crunch guitars, but elsewhere listeners are sold a pup.

For every smoking riff that gets your fret noodle twitching, there are three bumper bags of awful to slap you right in the kisser. Crimes against taste include, in order of heinousness, twittering birds, white boy rapping, falsetto vocals, spoken word monologues and the already infamous sleeve, on which Rivers appears to be auditioning for Brokeback Mountain. And whose decision was it to have the lead singer not sing lead on a third of the songs? Allegedly, this is Weezer’s new ‘experimental’ direction, as in the kind of ‘experiments’ cosmetics companies perform on animals. They pull it together for the lovely closing track ‘The Angel And The One’, but for the most part this is painful stuff. Ross Thompson

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DOWNLOAD: ‘PORK AND BEANS’, ‘THE ANGEL AND THE ONE’.
FOR FANS OF: THE BITTER TANG OF DISAPPOINTMENT.

Issue #52 - Very Bro-some

Featuring Panama Kings, ASIWYFA, an investigation into DIY touring, details of what over 25 of the finest NI bands are up to in 2009 and much more.