Review Summary: It didn't deserve to be that underrated back then, but fuck, it doesn't deserve to be this overrated now!
Seriously, stop. I've had enough. Open up your eyes. Stick a Q-tip into those ears. What is it about this album that deserves
this much critical acclaim? The album that nearly caused the death of Weezer, was panned by nearly every music critic of the 90's and was left to rot in the shelves of stores was somehow turned into an all-knowing, sentience-attaining masterpiece within the course of a few years; by the same fans who let those copies rot in stores and the same critics who dismissed the album so harshly, no less. Now, can we honestly look at this? This is a
great album. I don't even intend to contest that. But there is nothing about this album,
nothing, that is so blindingly exceptional about it (apart from its obnoxious abrasiveness) that it deserves to stand out as not only one of the seminal records of alt-rock, let alone of all time.
Let's take a look at why. This album doesn't get off to the best of starts, with
Tired of Sex. To me, this song is the embodiment of this album's issues; a microcosm of the album's flaws, if you will. First off, you'll notice Cuomo's vocals. His vocals have become rather poor in this album, sadly. His voice isn't capable of holding a note for longer than a few seconds without wavering out of place, and his vocal range has become atrociously limited. You could make a drinking game out of how many times Cuomo's voice cracks or overstretches itself in this album. Flat, monotonous and uninspired (save for a few moments), Cuomo's voice alone ruins many songs which could have evolved into sheer brilliance without it. In this song alone, you can't help but cringe while you notice how the song's instrumentals slowly build up momentum for the fast-paced chorus, while Cuomo's voice alone, unexcited and flat, just plods along the ground below it.
The second major problem with this album is the lyrics. This album’s lyrics have often been proclaimed as the voice of generations, unflinchingly and brutally honest. But that shouldn't be an excuse for juvenility! While there are a few gems here and there (
"If everyone's a little queer / Can't she be a little straight?" from
Pink Triangle) most of the lyrics are embarrassingly cheap and astoundingly immature. While I admire the bravery with which Cuomo has so bluntly poured his private thoughts into his lyrics, we still expect a modicum of maturity from a 27-year-old Harvard student! The lyrics rarely express themselves cleverly through tongue-in-cheek or humor, just blatant outbursts that are for the most off-putting. Just count the number of times you shudder when listening to gems like
"I wonder how you touch yourself" from
Across the Sea. I found that in order to enjoy this album, I really had to shut myself off to the lyrics completely.
Another slight problem I have with the album is the general messiness of the composition. While I know that this was intended by the band members in order to increase the abrasiveness and dark tone of the album, and it is in many spots executed well, sometimes the sudden randomness of the backup vocals, the random shifts in pace of the instruments, the way the vocals don't always follow the rhythm of the instruments and the random assault of feedback and distortion interrupt a song that was progressing just fine without it, breaking its flow. A prime example of this would be lead single
El Scorcho, an exercise in general messiness, which nevertheless manages to progress excellently even through the suddenly sped-up bridges, until everything just comes to a stop and falls apart with the laughable abrasive solo, which breaks the stellar flow of the song in such a gratingly infuriating way! Such problems prevent this album from reaching the heights so successfully scaled by its predecessor.
And you know what? It's amazing how despite such a barrage of issues, this album nevertheless manages to be so captivating! Apart from the meandering
No Other One and the despicable opener (and even that has its merits, like its blistering solo), and mainly thanks to the instrumentals, you can't help but sit back and enjoy as the album progresses. Nearly every track has that remarkable toe-tapping energy that keeps you enraptured, especially in the great second half of the album. And some tracks are even just... beautiful, like the dazzlingly melancholy closer
Butterfly. Weezer really became a lot more ambitious with this album, and it shows, because the instrumentals are (for the most part) really good! In fact, it's pretty much what saves this album in this case, especially seeing how pitifully Cuomo just dropped the ball in terms of vocals. Every track's instrumentals is catchy enough to immediately sucker you in, while at the same time managing to maintain a technical quality that showcases the best of every band member. Matt Sharp's delectable bass roams freely, creating brilliant bass lines underneath the power-chord-hungry guitars, where one guitar weaves delicately around the rhythm guitar to support it, until it's time for a solo to display Brian Bell's skills, like the solo of
Across the Sea that constantly keeps shifting keys.
This album is
good, I mean it. It just isn't as great as people make it out to be. You can see it really tries to be something extraordinary and special, with all the sudden changes in time and rhythm throughout songs and the highly improved instrumentals. It holds so much potential, but yet it falls lackluster in the simplest-to-rectify ways through its issues. It tries to be different from its predecessor, different from the music scene of the time with all its abrasiveness. Such abrasiveness is good in moderation. But abrasiveness, like that seen in Cuomo's voice, is not an excuse to forgive an album's flaws.
Having been given such critical disdain during the 90’s, it is definitely one’s instinct to approach this album with a forgiving mindset, which may have been what spawned the sudden burst of critical acclaim gained by this album in recent years. And don’t get me wrong, it’s an appreciable album that definitely didn’t deserve such harsh treatment. But in the end, great though it is, it isn't a masterpiece, due to its monumental flaws. It isn't a hallmark of music, nor is it a defining moment in all of music history. It didn't deserve to be that underrated back then, but it doesn't deserve to be this overrated now.
