Weezer - Weezer (The Black Album) (March 1, 2019) Album • Page 60

Me, personally, I don't get them shit over that.... When the first 3 albums came out, I was just so into them... Nothing else much in my life, I guess, for me to focus on.

SInce then, my life has changed - and although I heard the radio hits, my radio stations disappeared, and I lost track of music, and kids were born, etc etc....

But now, my kids dig Weezer, and when we saw Weezer/PATD last time, it was totally fun to dig with them.

So Im still a closet-Weezer fan (if you call it that), and I ignored all the albums after the first 3 (kind of), but Ill give them all a chance while I can.

(and I dont know if you were talking to me specifically or not... probably not) :)

 

Not singling out you...this just has been going on forever with fans and media (to the point that SNL thought it was ridiculous enough to do a skit on it).

I've never seen anything like it, really.

 

I think you’re thinking a little too deep into the spreadsheet thing. They’re all lines he’s written, which in turn means they meant something to him at the time. They’re also not randomly chosen— he shifts through them and pieces them together himself. Sooo many songwriters write songs that are stories and not the exact truth. Just because he has a different process in doing that doesn’t make it less valid.

Also, a lot of these songs have co-writers on them, so I’m willing to bet it’s not as algorithm driven as it’s made out to be

 

I really like Can't Knock The Hustle now???? A strange turn of events.

I don't get a lot of what you people are arguing about.

 

That’s fair!

My main point was just that while I don’t want them re-creating Pinkerton, I do want the songs to make me feel something. A lot of these songs are fun for sure, but that’s it.

 

A fun fact: I often put their discography on shuffle. Most people can’t tell the difference between albums or eras - it’s just Weezer to them. And several times, in reference to something off Make Believe or Raditude or Hurley or something, I’ve had people walk in a room or get in a car and say ‘I really like Weezer.’

This shit is a big deal to the writers of publications, and Weezer fans who haven’t been happy since the first time they heard ‘Island in the Sun.’ To the rest of the world, Weezer is a weird band who comes on the radio every now and then with something they can sing along to by the second chorus.

 

lol I've been an avid supporter of the band for the entirety of their career (that I was aware of them...long enough that I owned the Green Album when it came out at 10 years old). I've been one of the more prominent defenders of Maladroit and Hurley on the site. I praised White as creative and interesting (although devoid of any real sort of meaning when it came to lyrics). The post-Mal era of the band just isn't really for me. I'm not trend hopping or wishing they'd make another Pinkerton, that'd be fucking awful. I just wish the band would give me something more than soulless, cringeworthy, meme-able on purpose lyrics over a relatively uninteresting soundtrack.

 

I think this is an issue with quite a few bands that are/were like Weezer as they age and their fans grow up and change. What do you do when you meant this much to your fans as teens and then you all grow up? You can try different things. Jimmy Eat World, for example, hasn’t written an autobiographical song since like before Invented - they were an emo band writing about their feelings, and now they’re an emo band writing stories of other people’s feelings. And sure enough, all their fans want to hear online and st shows us Clarity and Bleed American. Taking Back Sunday has tried to write with the same personal autobiographical edge and intensity as their early stuff, and their refords have been as poorly received as Weezer’s. Dashboard is in the same boat too. (I should note: I’ve been happy with basically everything those bands have done. Their fans haven’t always been).

I’m not sure what the answer is to please most people. But I do think it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation to a certain degree.

 

Just listened to Black and there's nothing really bad here, but there's nothing really good either

 

This means Weezer ‘hasn’t really been for you’ for 17 years. Which means you’ve been largely ripping the band for nearly two decades. Which is the opposite of an ‘avid supporter.’

There are just many bands and musicians I don’t like. So many. That people on this site love, no less! But it feels like if I were to go into a message board on release day of a new album and say ‘lol I haven’t liked this band for 17 years because it’s soulless and cringeworthy,’ that then response wouldn’t be super positive from the people who have liked the band for 17 years.

Sorry you don’t like album.

 

I haven't even listened to this yet.

White came out 3 years ago. I liked that. I like certain songs off of certain albums post-Mal. I just think it's naive to lump everyone speaking critically about the band into the same category.

It's baffling to me that anyone who grew up a fan of their first few albums could like the new stuff more. I'm not into saying things are objective, but I really don't see a single thing "better" about the last few releases than the first four.

Would you like me to wait a few months before I come back and call the later half of their career soulless and cringeworthy?

 

I found myself in an "Album 5 Demos" from 2002 hole last night. Some of those songs are just tremendous...Sacrifice, She Who Is Militant, Private Message, etc. I remember being on the Weezer message boards in the mid-00's and loving that they were dropping multiple versions of these songs week after week. Such a cool time to be a fan.

More than anything it made me think of about the sheer and overwhelming size of the Weezer catalog when you take it all in. Album 5 Demos, Summer Songs 2K, Songs From The Black Hole, on and on and on. I mean, if you took all of Pinkerton's b-sides, there's a good chance you could argue that as their third best album!

 

I don’t care what you do with it. You seemed defensive and called yourself an avid supporter who also doesn’t think anything since 2002 is for you and also that the music is cringeworthy. That seemed odd to me, so I figured I’d point it out. There’s lots of music out there! You’re under no obligation to think about a band you haven’t liked for the amount of time it takes for someone to be born and then graduate high school!

As for how someone could like new Weezer more than old: while I love Blue and Green, I like the diversity of sounds on the newer material. It’s catchier; it isn’t always guitar driven, or in need of a shredding solo. It’s different. And it makes me happy. And while we’re here, Pinkerton never made me happy. Pinkerton was my angry, emotionally stunted teenage album I listened to so I felt better about the worst parts of myself. I love so much that I had it then, and don’t mind it now. But it is not something I love at this point of my life.

And no - that isn’t critical or objective. I’m not sure why I would need to be though. It’s 2019 - the world is a giant dumpster fire. Something being happy and fun is enough.

 

I think it's perfectly acceptable to continue to be disappointed in a band that, at one time, was one of the most important things in the world to me. I think it's acceptable to say when you enjoy songs and criticize the band when you don't. They have not made, to me, meaningful music in almost 20 years. That's insane! It's insane that Hurley, an album absolutely mediocre by most other bands' standards, is in the top half of their discography.

White tricked me into believing they had it in them to record something special again. I'm not very excited for them to prove me wrong on this one.

 

Its should be easy to understand that when a band produces two albums (blue and pinkerton) that had such a cultural and emotional impact that people are still going to talk about them/care. It's a testament to how good those albums are that people are still willing to check out all of their new music solely on credit of those first few.

I find it very dismissive that criticism towards this album is being met with "well i dont think you all actually dont like it, you just wanna get cool points"

 

what if I told you all

that it was okay

to enjoy the old albums and the new albums

 

This band is a touchy subject because publications love to sling shit at them. They’re an easy target because they have released a lot of bad and ridiculous songs. I get that.

This band has greatness in them, and they release a lot of songs I don’t like. And that’s okay. To a lot of people, it’s frustrating. And that’s also okay.

 

Now I remember why I stopped having these conversations.

I think it’s irrational to say ‘you did something I liked 20 years ago, but this isn’t it, so I will endlessly complain about that fact every time anything new is put out.’ You’re more than entitled to say it, and I’m more than entitled to say it sucks. You haven’t liked Weezer for WAY longer than you liked them. So why do this? Why shit on something someone else likes - not once or twice, but over and over and over for two decades? This isn’t a one or two album misstep; this is who the band is.

Y’all have at it and enjoy.

 

Y'all really glossing over the fact that he's enjoyed a couple of albums/songs since those two albums. Weezer always has potential to put out something great, but seem to flop and fall into almost a comfort zone for them where it just isn't that interesting to a good amount of us. White was fantastic, I liked EWBAITE. These last two have just been awful to me outside of a couple of songs

 

I think your missing the point where a lot of people liked the white album? The thing about weezer is they constantly will put out songs/albums that will feed the stomachs just enough of those who only like the first two albums, constantly giving them hope to hold on and listen to their new stuff.

I also think people should be allowed to give criticism of albums and not get back lash just the same as people are allowed to give praise and not get back lash?

 

Yeah, I'm kinda baffled. As I've said before, I've defended Weezer forever on this site and will continue to do so, at least for the albums that warrant it. I don't know how many more times I can say I liked White, I just don't like the lyrics on it. The conversation got started because someone attempted to say that disliking the band is for attention or some shit, rather than the fact that they're just continuously putting out mediocre music.

 

If someone in here is being like that than I’ve missed it

 

I think we can all agree that there is truly no other band that is this frustrating or conflicting to be a fan of. It was posted in the tour thread, but if they are gonna do 19-20 song sets again with 4-5 covers this tour it is going to leave an abysmal taste in my mouth. That's just an absurd look for a band that's 25+ years old with this many albums.

 

Well I'm not weighing in on any drama. I'm pretty Weezer neutral in that I'm a fan but not a massive fan. Their albums I either usually like quite a bit or feel meh about, so I'm just popping in to say I like this one quite a bit. "I'm Just Being Honest" and "The Prince Who Wanted Everything" are both really great and I think compete with the best group of their songs. Pacific Daydream didn't stick with me, but I may go back and revisit it. I like this more than that one for sure, maybe not quite as much as White, but it's still pretty great.

What is cool about this band and the reaction they cause is that it's usually between one group of people who have such deep love for the first few albums that they still care this much and won't give up on this band just because of a couple releases they don't think are up to par and another group who cares enough about the band to be defensive about them. But at the end of the day this band means something to all of them/us and I think there's some beauty in that even if both parties get frustrated with each other (or the band).