Weezer - Raditude

Weezer are by far my favourite band of all time. Starting with the 'Blue' album back in 1994 I was hooked on the band's form of 'Geek Rock', stemming from the glasses that Rivers, the singer wears and also the lyrical themes of their early records.I have all their cd's, the only band that I have an almost complete discography (albums only..) - I'm missing 'The Lion and the Witch' cd only. My other collection that comes close is Misery Index's discography which I have only started to collect.

Raditude are their 7th studio album which was released in October 2009 and it has taken me this long to review it. The album title was suggested by a friend of Rivers' who also happens to be an actor by the name of Rainn Wilson. The last album before this was released in 2008 and I haven't even had time to absorb that yet and out comes this new album. For one the album title seems a bit, I don't know, childish or immature.

The 1st track off this album "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" sounds a bit like songs from back in the 50-60's and is the 1st single from the album. A good opener to the album. The rest of the songs are catchy like most Weezer songs are but the lyrical themes are not what you expect from Weezer - "I'm your daddy", "The Girl Got Hot", "In the Mall" etc deal more with what teenagers would go through than what men in their 40s would do. If you hear the songs on their own and don't know it was Weezer, you will like them or if you're a 1st time listener, most likely you will like them. But for 'old' Weezer fans, it just doesn't feel right and some what creepy (I'm your daddy? In the mall?) to think that men in their 40s to sing about this. There is also a song co written with The All American Rejects vocalist called "Put Me Back Together" which I'm surprised about and a song which was done earlier by Sugar Ray called "Love is the Answer" with some sitar/indian parts to it.

"Can't stop partying" is my favourite song off this album. Not typical Weezer in that there is actual rapping and singing about jewels, bitches and the like - like all hip hop songs are as well as rapping by Lil Wayne none the less with expletives which were unheard of in the history of Weezer! Catchy as hell! You gotta hear it and just blank out the fact that it is a Weezer song - or am I secretly liking hip hop?? Fuck no! Fuck hip hop hehehehe

Weezer are kind of going on a tangent from when they 1st started out - newer material are more "fun" and "popular" - on "Pork and Beans" on the "red" album he talks about working with Timbaland can make them top of the charts. I guess they maybe want to be more popular now and target a younger/teenage audience with the new material, but I'm still a sucker for them as Rivers does make catchy songs which stick in your head.

3.5/5