The Summer of 2000, and Weezer are back in the studio with replacement bassist Mikey Welsh. Small infrequent shows are popping up around America and new material is being leaked onto the internet. Weezer's return to the music industry is highly promising. However, many of the tracks written for the album don't make the cut. Promising signature Rivers Cuomo songs are just thrown on the pile. Songs such as the euphoric 'Teenage Victory song', the hook filled 'private message' and the gloriously punky 'My Brain' were few of many tracks to suffer the Blow-out treatment. The lack of material made devout Weezer fans everywhere lose interest with the Weez to a certain extent.
With a total running time of barely thirty minutes, the 'Green album' is almost completely void of the brilliantly original and traditional writing that Rivers was so capable of using on 'Pinkerton' and 'Blue'. Although the lyrics still have feeling, and you can still feel the lyrics coming straight from the heart, the music does not at all do the album justice. Although many euphoric and uplifting tracks are included, such as the light-hearted 'Photograph' and 'Glorious day', most to all of the tracks feature a simple ABAC structure. the lyrics do make up for it in a way, just because they make you feel so damn good inside. "If you want it, you can have it, but you gotta learn to reach up there and grab it". The greatest thing about this album in particular; is that when I'm feeling down because of a girl or just because of life, I can sit and listen to this, instead of beating a homeless guy to death with Napalm death blowing my brains out everytime I feel blue.
However, another thing that turns people away from this album is the fact that it has little to no edginess whatsoever. the hard rockin', hard hitting Hash-pipe is the only true jump around Weezer track on here. 'Crab' could be considered as a true Weezer classic, with It's great lyrics and original guitar licks, it is definately a stand-out. "Crab if you wanna, she put her knickers on". Unfortunately a lot of the tracks don't stand the same grounds. 'Don't let go', although it opens the album well, Cuomo's voice is monotone through much of it, and the chorus is very unimaginative - "Dont let go; Ooooh woooaah".
The album in itself flows well with good consistency. The pace stays moderate throughout, apart from when we arrive to the beautiful closing track 'I Do', complete with Rivers' weeping guitar and tearful lyrics. However, the album flows too well and is substitute to a severe lack of stand-out tracks. Over half the album is filler, although the filler tracks are better than average pop-rock songs. Simple Pages, Knock-down drag-out and Glorious day fall into this category, with their simplistic pop-punk stylings.
The highlights of the album pretty much lie in the singles. 'Hash-pipe' delivers a punch to the listener amongst a lot of tamer tracks to really emphasise the hard-rock effort. 'Island in the sun' is prone to having a great catchy chordy melody, over upbeat lyrics. The Optimistic style of Photograph with it's guitar very similar to 'Buddy Holly' is always worth a listen. The Euphoric and Original 'Crab' is definately the main highlight, with 'Smile' coming in a close second, due to it's sheer slow paced pop-punk beauty.
In conclusion, the 'Green Album' is a must for any Weezer fan, or any fan of Rock music to be honest. The hugely innocent and tame lyrics and guitar work in some places may put people into harder rock off, but nonetheless a solid comeback from the Gods of Geek-rock. I must recommend you download the green-album B-sides that are mentioned at the beginning of this review, so you can cast a better vision of the green Album era.
Overall song ratings:
1. Don't let go 3/5
2. Photograph 4.5/5
3. Hash-pipe 4/5
4. Island in the sun 4/5
5. crab 5/5
6. knock-down drag-out 3/5
7. Smile 4.5/5
8. Simple Pages 2.5/5
9. Gloripus day 3/5
10. Oh Girlfriend 3.5/5
11. I do 4.5/5 (U.K bonus track)
Overall rating - 3.5/5
