Review: Weezer – Raditude

November 2nd, 2009 by Oswald Hobbes / Comment on this post

It’s difficult to know how to take a new Weezer record. (Opens in iTunes) Rivers Cuomo has piloted his gang of misfits through enough ups, downs, twists, and turns to kill your average nerd-rock outfit, but they’ve executed Raditude, their seventh record, with the kind of gleefully careless aplomb you don’t often see in 15-year veterans. These dudes have been making music as long as I’ve been seriously listening to it and so it’s a pleasure to report that, whatever your personal take on Weezer circa 2009, they still have the pop smarts, the dulcet melodies, and the bracing audacity that have defined their entire career. What you want to do with these gifts, once bestowed, is your own damn business.

Weezer - Raditude (link opens in iTunes)

“(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” the record’s first single, captivates on first listen with a spare beat and some rhythmic acoustic guitar; Cuomo pairs this refreshingly simple backdrop with his most evocative lyrics since the emotional bloodletting of Pinkerton. He’s telling a story, which is nice, but he’s also fleshing it out with details and wit, which is even nicer. Then the chorus explodes, and you must choose your course of action: you can pout that this latest incarnation of Weezer’s sound doesn’t touch you the way the band’s earlier work did, or you can leave behind your preconceived notions about what a bunch of middle-aged dudes with mortgages and kids should be playing. I’m here to tell you, take the ride. Raditude is great fun.

The record is front-loaded, though not to the extent the Red album was. Cuomo handles the majority of the songwriting duties here, which is for the best – I’d rather have plane-crash-awful and embarrassing than generic. But the majority of Raditude, even when it devolves into the inevitable back-half filler, won’t disappoint anybody not specifically looking to be disappointed. “The Girl Got Hot,” “Tripping Down The Freeway,” and “I’m Your Daddy” all pulse with an innocence and energy that few other bands deliver this consistently, and the final stretch (culminating with “I Don’t Want To Let You Go” and “Turn Me Round,” two tracks that actually deliver on the promise that Weezer have spent their last four records actively trying to make you forget) ends everything on an extremely positive note. Raditude is the first thing Cuomo and company have released in ages that might make you excited to hear what they do next.

So where do they get into trouble? A lot of folks will probably point to the asinine Lil Wayne guest verse on “Can’t Stop Partying,” but that doesn’t bother me nearly as much the truly odd New Ageisms and Bollywood instrumentation of “Love Is The Answer.” The takeaway there is probably that these guys should stick to what they do best, but I’m fine indulging Weezer in a few skippable faux-experimental tracks than see them devolve back into the blandness that characterized the Green album and Make Believe. And while it’s a shame that the other members of the group don’t get to share the limelight more (beastly drummer Pat Wilson in particular, a man way more skilled than you’d guess were Raditude your only exposure to his playing), and while I surely miss the amped up metal riffs that have provided most of the excitement in the second half of their career, I’m willing to make a few concessions if I can get something as wickedly loose as “Let It All Hang Out” (which finds Cuomo bemoaning the economy and his “freakin’ jerk” of a boss).

Overall, the disc makes a strong case for Weezer as they actually are: four guys that won’t let go of their signature sound or their naivety, have tried to expand and experiment but found themselves adrift in sonic confusion, and that have ultimately decided to just go balls-out and enjoy the extremely weird trip they’ve found themselves on. This is the sound, in short, of a band committing. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they just can’t be any other way.