Weezer

The Green Album (2001)

Anonymous

Weezer has always been amazing in the sense that throughout all the time away from the public, they continued to get bigger and bigger through the years. "The Green Album" is the first Weezer album in 5 years. When the band embarked on their Yahoo sponsored tour early last summer they thought a total of five people would show up and their shows, and that the people who would show up would just laugh and make fun of the band. Little did they know, but all the shows soon became sell outs and the crowd at all the shows went crazy for them and showed their dedication to the band. Weezer was very taken aback and very surprised with more than anything with how things turned out.

The trouble the band faced was after "Pinkerton". "Pinkerton" essentially was a "commercial" flop (MTV, radio play) compared to the "Blue Album". Common, when did you hear "Tired Of Sex" or "El Scorcho" on the radio? Never. This all happened because Weezer took stride with some punk rock DIY ethics and didn't really promote the album all that heavily. Still with all things said, "Pinkerton" was absolutely brilliant, a musical masterpiece of sorts. "Pinkerton" was a change as well from some of the manufactured radio friendly songs from the "Blue Album" like "Buddy Holly". The album was also very personal and deeply emotional in nature.

Listening to the "Green Album" you can't help to compare this to the "Blue Album" at every turn. "Don't Let Go" is the first song and its a nice up beat tempo. When you talk about opening songs for Weezer songs, this song just isn't as good or gets the blood pumping as much as say "My Name Is Jonas" or "Tired Of Sex".

Next up is "Photograph" and its one of the best songs on here. Hand claps galore (why don't more bands do this?), and a good melody make this song quite tasteful.

The single "Hash Pipe" is next and of course this song rocks. Now I wouldn't have chosen this song to release as a single, but it sure makes sense because this is the most radio friendly. How could you not like this song? Hello, they are singing about good old hash! The guitar riffs are killer and the back-ups are sweet.

"Island In The Sun" is a nice trippy song, and my guess is that this will be the second single. I'm always good at guessing those things. I can really imagine myself on the beach playing this song. I'm telling you though, next time I get near any beach I'm bringing my stereo and I'm going to listen to this. This song seems like its a b-side off of Pinkerton, it was different than anything on this album anyways.

Unfortunately thats about it folks. For the rest of the album, its all pretty much down hill the rest of the way. Songs like "Crab", "Smile", "Glorious Day" and the rest of the album just aren't what you expect from the band. The rest of the songs just aren't that A quality I have come to expect from Weezer. These songs don't really suck, but they just don't click at all. I can't tell you how many times I have listened to these songs over and over telling myself, "I want to love these songs as much as I love "Pinkerton" or the "Blue Album" but its just not going to happen. I have talked to countless friends about this and they feeling is the same.

I'm not really sure why Weezer made this album with these songs on them, after all they had all the time in the world, 5 years. I'm not sure if adding newcomer Mikey Welsh to the band has brought about sound changes, because all of this new music sounds just like Weezer of old, it really does. While this is a decent album, for Weezer this is a disappointment. While I do recommend this to Weezer fans, I do not recommend it to people who are not familiar with these guys. If you don't know too much about these guys get their two other albums and not this one. My only hope is that we don't have to wait another 5 years for an album from these guys.
Here are my favorite Weezer albums in order

1. Pinkerton
2. The Blue Album
3. The Green Album