Weezer - Raditude

Weezer has spent the last 10 years trying to make us forget that they produced a classic in The Blue Album, a record offering an escape route from grunge that would come to be known as “alternative rock.” 

Fast-forward a decade and they’re reaping the benefits of this easily won success, periodically dropping self-derivative albums while taking hiatuses in between. Just a year after subjecting us to The Red Album, we get Raditude, significant only in its abandonment of the nerdy self-portrait album art. Now, it’s a flying dog. 

Rivers Cuomo’s ironically cool nerd-shtick is now iconic in music, but he’s over the hill. His musical touchstones have degenerated from the Pixies and Nirvana—he’s now a pop egalitarian, singing the praises of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. This is fine in theory, but it looks like Weezer has taken a few too many cues from mainstream pop, dulling the edges of their once ragged, epic sing-alongs.  

On Raditude, especially with opener “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” the songs run on quick adrenaline highs. Their catchiness is fleeting—it’s hard to actually remember any interesting melodies or hooks as the mess of indistinguishable tracks bleed into one another.

In 2005, they told us Beverly Hills was the place to be, and now they “Can’t Stop Partying:” “I gotta have Patron, I gotta have the E/I gotta have a lot of pretty girls around me,” Cuomo repeats. It’s no surprise Lil Wayne dropped by the party to phone in guest verses, though I doubt he stayed long.

The raddest part of this album is the cover art, and it’s got as much ’tude as Hannah Montana’s latest.