Weezer - OK Human (January 29, 2021) Album • Page 54

flashbacks to ap.net spo

i’m glad he hasn’t lost the fastball

 

Not too fast, I’m genuinely confused what people are seeing in this aside from a few pretty arrangements. Listen 2 blended together more than the first. Nothing is outright bad like on Black, but at least I had a strong reaction to that

 

The best compliment I can give this is that every time I listen I have a different song stuck in my head afterwards. It’s all really solid, dude just writes great pop melodies.

 

I don't fully disagree with the P4k review. Score is low imo, but the thesis is pretty much aligned with my take that new Weezer is detrimentally goofy. In other words, the through line of what makes Weezer recognizably Weezer from album to album is as often a bug as it is a feature from 2005 on. That that also exists here is enough reason to not shower it with effusive praise - that quote posted above is a good way of putting how they'd be better if they simply didn't lean into those tendencies.

But all that said I do think it's good. In terms of what people are seeing here in the positive, the arrangements help elevate a couple decent songs that would be more forgettable with traditional Weezer instrumentation (AMFS and Grapes probably the two best examples), but across the record I think the songwriting is also just much better than on PD and what I've heard of Black. There's at least 5 songs on here that feel like Rivers sat down to write no bullshit pop songs and succeeded. That, to me, puts it somewhere more in line with EWBAITE and White. That the arrangements make the duds considerably more pleasant than something like PD, where they are frequently working against the songs, helps. But I suspect we'd mostly think this album is pretty good even if it were guitars and drums like normal.

 

A question: has Weezer ever been a band that’s well reviewed? I know Pinkerton got shredded when it was released, in the super famous ‘Rivers is bummed no one likes his stuff’ story. I also distinctly remember Green and Maladroit not being overly well received, at least from large outlets. Was Blue something people loved?

I only ask because seriously, at a certain point it just seems like Weezer is a band that reviewers forever dislike and say, ‘but why aren’t they like this instead?’

 

Goofy is good

 

yeah, i mean, them and a lot of bands of their size aren’t critically appreciated in the moment. usually the narrative goes big classic albums are ignored or panned at release, then mid period gets ignored, followed by appraisal of the classic stuff, and then complaining about current stuff

it’s the same cycle happening with foo fighters right now

 

they were panned as a poser band. “Stone Temple Pixies”

Weezer is a suburban band, they don’t have a lot to offer people that invest their identity in a curated sense of cool

 

From my understanding, Blue was a monumental success, and starting with Pinkerton, there was always pushback from the fan base that the band tried to satisfy each time, only to be met with “oh wait. What you did before was good! Now this is bad!!” Pretty much until RED when the band no longer seemed to give a fuck

 

While we’re here:

I’m of the opinion that ‘Grapes of Wrath’ is one of the most clever songs Rivers has ever written, and one of the most relatable. This isn’t just a song about liking Audible - it’s a song about how Rivers prefers older stories to modern ones, and immerses himself in classics above and beyond what he sees as disposable. This makes him feel old and disconnected from people, even while he’s connecting with the books. And yet, he’s not reading - he’s listening on a modern app with a modern device. He’s being modern (definitely using a screen he rails against a couple songs later), in order to escape from being modern. He feels old and disconnected, but ironically actually isn’t.

As a 36 year old dude who feels a sense of strangeness at all of the craziness of young people today, while also texting them on my iPhone asking for recommendations for new PlayStation games? This is incredibly on target for how I feel half the time.

 

P4k gave Blue and Pinkerton both 10s in 2017 and 2010 and originally gave Pinkerton 7.5 at a time when most mainstream publications panned it. Ian Cohen is a fan of the band

 

Being a fan of the band and being a fan of Blue and Pinkerton are two very, very different things.

 

Not really going out on a ledge and giving blue and Pinkerton perfect 10s in 2017 and 2010 haha

 

Anyways I understand why people do love weezer (I’m not person) and why people don’t like or get weezer

 

The narrative being pushed in here is that they were never well reviewed. I cited 2 perfect scores lol. Blue was always rightfully respected by most places and it’s very, very hard to find someone dismissing Pinkerton now. The only album that is overlooked is Maladroit, still

 

The trouble is they end up arguing with each other as if they’re on the same page lol.

 

Pitchfork is not an opinion worth valuing. Free yourself of that illusion

Edit: not to be so glib, but P4K is a combo of gen x gaslighting and conde nast catch up game.

They gave Save Ferris like a 9.2, Lagwagon a 9, they gave Trail of Dead A 10

The ruthlessly derided My Chem until it was inconvenient

 

I just remember the time where Ian Cohen reviewed the first Hotelier album and criticized the lyrics (pulled from their bandcamp) as immature because they had the word “butthead” in them - fully revealing that he hadn’t listened to the songs since “butthead” was just being used as a replacement to censor a ~naughty word~

I can’t take any of his reviews seriously because now I question if he’s even listened to what he is reviewing..

 

Ok. Here’s the narrative: Weezer is not a band that’s well reviewed, except for 25 year old albums in hindsight. You cited stuff for Pinkerton in 2017 (and a good one from the release that is good to note). But for the most part, from at least Pinkerton on, no one every says these albums are good at first. And they’re forever compared to the specter of albums people didn’t like at the time either.

 

Because 2/every other album they’ve released since then are worth anything over a 7.5/10 lol. I agree with those reviews because they’re accurate.

 

The goalpost moving in here is wild, lol. The question was “has this been ever been well reviewed”. The answer is yes, when they release good music.

 

I agree. Value mine instead!

 

It's not gonna get me off my feelings that the product placement is clunky, but you make some compelling points here. It at least makes me think of what Rivers said the other day about fans not aging out. For the first time in a few couple records, it doesn't feel like the target audience are people a third of Rivers' age. A point in favor of this being a 7.5 not 5(.8)!

 

Great. But Weezer’s biggest commercial songs have come since then, they’ve exponentially grown the fan base, and they’ve released 90% of their catalog since Pinkerton. Weezer has a career the size it does purely because people disagree with what you think is accurate. Which is also fine.

My point is simply that a bad review for a new Weezer album I like is something that’s been happening since I was 13 years old. There’s no point in worrying about it.

 

Who is worrying?