Weezer delivers original
sound in second album
By Kyle Boggs
Summer
Reporter
After more than four years, Weezer, the band who
topped the charts in the mid-'90s, managed to resurrect much of there
original style in their second self-titled album.
As one of the only mainstream bands classified
as "Emo," or emo-tionally charged punk rock blended with pop riffs,
Weezer makes it safe once again for vintage cardigans, greasy hair,
black rimmed glasses and collared shirts to re-enter the alternative
music scene.
After their under-rated 1996 sophomore album, "Pinkerton"
fizzled and burned on the radio, it would have been easy to assume that
the band would fade away like the latest fashion trend.
However, last year’s triumphant comeback tour
proved successful as the ever-growing cult of suburban punks and emo
kids continued to support the geek rockers.
Lead vocalist Rivers Cuomo displays his ability
to write catchy rock songs that easily find a home inside your head
and stay there.
Referred to as the "green album," it
contains a few tracks reminiscent of the first self-titled "blue
album."
A few of these include the crunchy guitar driven
"Don't Let Go," and the strangely familiar melodious sound
found in the song "Simple Pages." In the song, Cuomo sings
"Simple pages on my mind/Give me something I can believe."
Although the sound of the album is a bit different
from what has been heard from them in the past, "Simple Pages" definitely
reassures Weezer fans that they are the same band.
The heaviest song on the album and the first radio
single, "Hash Pipe," blends Cuomo's sporadically pitched vocals with
muscular power chords. The song is a bit eerie with an underlying theme
of paranoia.
The laid back "Island in the Sun" is obviously
one of the album’s strongest songs. The blended acoustic and electric
guitar work mixed with the emotional, almost neo-Beatles-like vocals,
make the listener wonder how good John Lennon and George Harrison would
have been in a punk band.
Many fans may be concerned that the band they love
may sound different in 2001.
Weezer has clearly found a style that works well
for them. Like most bands, evolution is the key to staying fresh. Though
Weezer has changed slightly over the years, it was their own sound that
has evolved.
When compared, "the green album" does sound more
like the original blue album and less like "Pinkerton," and was definitely
worth the four-year wait.
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