Review by Chris Nowling: Chances are you don’t need a Weezer history lesson and providing one here would be particularly pointless, as there's really no need to create any kind of context in reviewing the band’s latest album, Raditude. One look at that flying dog and cheesy, lightning-style font on the cover can give you as good an idea as anything else as to what you can expect from this seventh effort by Rivers Cuomo and company, who have consistently baffled and too often underwhelmed fans and critics over the past ten years or so. It seems Cuomo wouldn’t have it any other way; the nearly 40 year-old man-child is anything but reserved when it comes to his music and apparently thrives on defying convention, logic and even at times good taste. So after opening the singing/songwriting up to his bandmates for 2007’s Red Album (with uneven results, to say the least), Cuomo now resumes full control (well, sorta) but somehow manages to make an even more eclectic record with Raditude, which is light-hearted and occasionally fun but flounders under the weight of its many scattered ideas and general excesses.

That Raditude would be a sprawling mess of an album was not immediately clear from listening to first single and lead track, “(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” which features a bouncy verse and punchy, guitar-heavy chorus in a solid, though somewhat formulaic power-pop tune. Considering recent Weezer output, the song felt tight and focused enough to give hope that perhaps there was some sort of return to normalcy going on. In fact, several tracks on Raditude hearken back to more stable times, especially lonesome closer “I Don’t Want to Let You Go”—which sounds something like a more produced version of a Green Album song—and crunchy rocker “Let It All Hang Out,” reminiscent of Pinkerton’s “Why Bother” or “The Good Life.” That these tunes sound like lesser imitations of better material is somewhat disappointing, but their appeal is difficult to dismiss. Still, these are among the best songs on Raditude, which is especially frustrating. That’s not to say the remainder of the diverse musical approaches on the album are all worth scrapping completely, but, for every decent moment, someone (usually Rivers) finds a way to derail things. “I’m Your Daddy” features one of the album’s strongest melodic hooks but becomes cringe-inducing with that creepy titular chorus; “Put Me Back Together” is pleasant but so smothered in production as to sound like a dozen other pop-rock tunes; and “Can’t Stop Partying” probably could have been fun if it didn’t feel so much like an unintentional (and terrible) parody of any number of hip/hop party anthems (the very bland guest spot from Lil’ Wayne doesn’t exactly give it much legitimacy).

Elsewhere, Rivers further endeavors to prove he’s willing to try anything once with the Hindi-rock hybrid “Love is the Answer” and unmelodic rocker “In the Mall,” two complete misfires that only add to the obnoxious ‘look what I can do’ mentality that Cuomo seems to be incapable of restraining. Lyrically, Rivers seems less convinced of his “greatest man that ever lived” status that pervaded so much of the songwriting on the Red Album, now focusing more on his typically awkward romances. It’s a welcome change and will certainly be more familiar to fans, but with so many awful lines like “I’ve got the real big posse/yeah you know I’m deep” or “There will come a day when we transcend our pain/until that day take it easy on yourself,” there’s little consolation to be found. And all of this—the lyrics, the strange stylistic choices, etc.—truly disappoints not only because Weezer used to make better music, but because you can hear echoes of what made them great on Raditude, just not near often enough to be satisfying. Sure, it’s obvious that Rivers Cuomo is having a great time, and his moderate ambition is admirable, but it feels like his goal of absolute incomparability doesn’t serve us nearly as well as it does him. “I swear I ain’t like those other boys/I’m a special kind,” he pleads on “I’m Your Daddy.” Well that, at least, is quite clear.

Last Word: Weezer’s seventh album is a sloppy, excessive affair that only briefly shows the strengths that once made the band such a compelling power-pop act.

Review By:
Chris Nowling

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