The closing song, “Butterfly,” acts almost as an apology for the album. While this personal touch is no excuse for its various offenses, and arguably makes the lyrics worse, it does bring with it a level of artistic appeal. However, “Pinkerton” as an album is an incredibly personal look into Rivers Coumo’s loneliness, and in the album he is extremely vulnerable. While many see these lyrics as a way of Cuomo masking himself and as an appeal for genuine human connection, they come across as whiney and offensive. While “Pinkerton” is debatably Weezer’s best album, the lyrics of songs such as “El Scorcho” and “Pink Triangle” make it quite difficult to get through the album. It’s quite hard at times to listen to Weezer due to their lyrics, especially those in “Pinkerton.” At their best Weezer’s lyrics are all right, on average they’re not great, but at their worst they have elements of sexism, racism and homophobia in them. Most of Weezer’s lyrics are uncreative, dull and make me question why I’m even listening to the band. Although many of Rivers Cuomo’s lyrics sound good, when you actually listen to them it becomes obvious how bad they are. Much of this apathy comes from their lyricism. Does this large amount of forgettable music take away from their-admittedly fairly large-collection of fantastic songs? I would say no, but for all the praise that I love to give some of their songs, I have to remind myself of the apathy I have for the majority of their music. While I’m hesitant to call any Weezer song truly bad, I can only name a small portion of their music as truly excellent. As excited as I was when a new Weezer album would drop, whenever I would go back to listen to them, I would find myself relishing a few amazing songs within a sea of average ones. Any band with that amount of music is bound to have some duds. Over the past two and a half decades they’ve released a dozen albums, with another album recently announced. However, while Weezer boasts much amazing music, the sheer size of their discography means that they also have a lot of mediocre music that just gets ignored. The portrait of Weezer’s songs, painted by each of the members with their own musical talents, ends up as an incredibly full audible experience. Patrick Wilson’s drumming, though easily missed in the background, provides the base for every great Weezer song. Their vocals, if you’re looking at them sonically rather than lyrically, fit perfectly into their songs. The band has the ability to bring out some of the best guitar work from the alternative rock/pop-punk genre. Weezer’s songs are as catchy as they are iconic, and I would have a hard time finding someone who didn’t know “Buddy Holly,” “Say It Ain’t So,” “Beverly Hills” or “Island in the Sun” among their other most famous songs. Rivers Cuomo, for all of the hate that I like to give him, can write an incredible hook. Many of the Weezer fans that I’ve talked to share this oddly specific sentiment, so what makes Weezer the perfect band to love to hate and hate to love? For me, Weezer is the perfect combination of fantastic-if not uneven-music, terrible lyrics, nostalgia and teenage (or pre-teenage) angst. I love Weezer, but I also hate the fact that I love Weezer, but I also love the fact that I hate the fact that I love Weezer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |