Weezer's third self titled album, or 'The Red album' is the most inconsistent Weezer album of them all. Some of their all time best songs mix with some of their worst. Although after 'Make Believe' this is a pleasant surprise. Released in 2008, 'Red' is unique because of two notable aspects - having some songs with unconventional structures, which is very rare for Weezer, and because three of the songs are written and sung by Brian Bell, Patrick Wilson and Scott Shriner, e.g The other members of Weezer.
The album starts off very poorly, with 'Troublemaker' having many of Weezer's worst ever lyrics - "Marrying a beeyatch, having seven keeyads" is a particular highlight" - but the song seems to have the self-awareness that 'Make Believe' lacked, meaning that while it's bad it's not unforgivable. Then we get to the all time most insane Weezer song, 'The Greatest Man That ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)'.
The song has about 10 different styles and sections which it switches through so quickly that it's kind of amazing. My particular favourite bit has got to be Cuomo's Queen-inspired falsetto. The lyrics on this are so cringingly that they circle round to being amazing ("I'm like a mage with a magic spell, you come like a dog when I ring your bell") and it's one of my all time favourite Weezer songs.
From there we get 'Pork and Beans' which is a hellish fusion of 90s and 2000s Weezer and is one of their better big chart hits. 'Heart Songs' and 'Dreamin'' are both like good versions of the unbearable slower songs on 'Make Believe' and sandwiched between them is 'Everybody get dangerous' which sounds like Weezer trying to cover 'Can't stop' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and getting it a bit off.
Then there's the triplet of songs written by the other members of Weezer and they're all decent. Brian Bell is first with 'Thought I knew'. The songs fine, but it doesn't really feel like a Weezer tune, with none of their trademarks being present. This is combatted a bit in 'Cold Dark World', which contains bad-but-in-a-charming-way spoken word verses from Scott Shriner, while the chorus and bridge are sung by Cuomo. Unfortunately the song is a tat, but it's still interesting due to Shriner's presence. Finally theres 'Automatic' by Patrick Wilson, which is a sweet song about his friends and family, and is my favourite of the three. It sounds recognisably Weezer and Patrick sounds as if he's really enjoying the chance to finally create his own song.
The closing track of 'Red' is easily the best song on the album, as well as one of best Weezer songs, maybe the best they released in the 2000s - 'The Angel and The One'. Now this is how you do a slow Weezer song! The song builds up and has multiple climaxes, each bigger than the last. It's one of the saddest Weezer songs in existence yet manages to also be incredibly uplifting. It also has incredible lyrics, which, as you've probably picked up, is quite a rarity in this period. By the time the vocals start chanting "Peace Shalom" you have chills down your spine.
Overall, 'The Red album' is more good than bad and other than several pretty bad songs and the weirdness of the band member songs, it's a decent album - which is more than can be said of what came next...
6/10
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