Review Summary: If you're looking for Christmas cheer, this is not the album
Since 1996's "Pinkerton", Weezer fans have been divided by the band's sound, some love their mainstream, poppy, radio sound, while others wish they could go back to their heartfelt, dark songs. So, just after "The Red Album", the band decides to revisit their old sound, to record some cheery and fun Christmas songs.
That being said, I have no idea what was going through the band's mind when they released this.
This EP is a short selection of half-hearted recorded Christmas songs recorded for the popular iPhone game "Tap Tap" that were then put on CD in a desperate bid to sell them.
The lack of effort and care is apparent in this EP, with all but one song less than 2:30 in length.
The EP is lazily mixed and recorded, with Rivers' monotonous voice draining through all the usual happy and cheery songs, the guitars muddy, the drums sound like toys and the band sounds bored off their nut.
Rivers has never been the best singer, but his strength lay in the his ability to write and sing lyrics that people could relate to. It's not easy to relate to many Christmas songs, in which lies the main problem of this collection, they sound like they just don't care about what they're doing.
The band sounds more bored than a nit on a bald man's head, to say the least and Rivers sounds like he's being forced at gun point to sing for a mad man's Christmas treat. There's no (decent) solos, no working outside of the songs, just 2 minute basic chord playin, generic beats and Rivers moaning over the top of them. The bass work isn't too bad though, with runs up and down the scale, giving the impression that someone, somewhere gave a *** when this went into production, well that and the decent solo in "The First Noel".
It's a novelty album, hearing old style Weezer do some Christmas songs, but in the end, it's entirely forgettable and not an interesting listen at all.
And if you can't tell by the review, they're bored
This is not the album you'll be putting on Christmas day to liven up the place.
