by Tzarathustra
After one full listen-through, I can say that this is certainly the strongest record that Weezer has done since the Green Album.
The first single, "Back to the Shack"
is a
simple rocker that functions as an
outright apology for the bland pop
experiments of the last few Weezer
records, and they do seem sincere
about
getting back to the sound that we all know
and love from the 90s.
Ric Ocasek is back behind the boards,
and the big crunchy sound with the
70s
stadium rock leanings is firmly in place.
The songs all have that unmistakable Weezer
catchiness and Cuomo's way with a melody,
and there's a nice balance between the more
serious relationship-type songs
and the
breezier songs. Overall it's fun, it's
rocking, and there are
some enjoyably weird
arrangement choices throughout to hold your
attention.
The only thing that I think keeps it
from being a truly great album like the Blue
Album or Pinkerton
is that those songs feel
like they were written in more of a vacuum,
or
at least for a small devoted audience.
Twenty years of big-time fame
later, these
new songs have a tendency to feel like Cuomo
wrote them
knowing that everyone was
watching, and while he's giving the people
what they want again, the songs have a film
of self-awareness to them.
Considering how
much better the whole thing feels than their
previous
few records though, that's a pretty
small complaint, and perhaps with
more
listens the songs will feel more lived-in
and the album will settle
into a spot beside
their best work where that self-awareness
won't be
too noticeable.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
The Screaming Trees- Last Words:Final Recordings
In August of 2014 The Screaming Trees
released their long rumored final recordings
as Last Words: The Final Recordings. The
band broke up back in 2000 with the songs
comprising the album already long since in
the can. But due to the poor performance of
their previous album (1996's Dust) and the
generally tepid mood of the industry towards
their type of sound at the time, the songs
found no home.
released their long rumored final recordings
as Last Words: The Final Recordings. The
band broke up back in 2000 with the songs
comprising the album already long since in
the can. But due to the poor performance of
their previous album (1996's Dust) and the
generally tepid mood of the industry towards
their type of sound at the time, the songs
found no home.
The Screaming Trees were signed by Epic
in 1989 but came into the mainstream
consciousness on the wave of enthusiasm for
grungy northwestern rock that followed
Nirvana and Pearl Jam's success.
Specifically they had a hit (Nearly Lost
You) from the soundtrack for Cameron Crowe's
film Singles. The band bore only slight
sonic resemblance to its peers. They always
tended more toward psychedelic garage rock,
rather than the harried and hard worn Black
Sabbath homages of their northwestern scene
mates.
Though they had a minor hit with Nearly
Lost You and some name recognition, their
career never really ignited. Their 1990's
albums are among the top under appreciated
recordings of the decade. And now, to add to
that list, comes Last Words. It shows a band
still possessed of fire and energy and
sounds like what it is, a message in a
bottle from a great 90's band banging on all
cylinders. What more could you want?
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