Weezer

Add Date: June 3

Artist: Weezer

Album: Weezer (Red Album)

Label: Geffen/Interscope

Genre: Alternative, pop rock

Comments: I really, really want to enjoy Weezer's new stuff. As was the case with many others who grew up listening to '90s alternative, the Blue Album was perhaps my favorite record in middle and high school, and I still think it's one of the best rock releases of that decade. (Pinkerton would rank up there as well.) But somewhere along the way, Rivers Cuomo and company stopped writing and recording good songs. The Red Album isn't as reprehensible as Make Believe--after all, it would have taken a superhuman effort to make another record that horrible--but, in the end, it isn't significantly better. I actually kind of like the single, "Pork and Beans," and "Dreamin'" is OK. The rest of the album simply doesn't do justice to the band's early work.