Weezer’s Red Album can’t sustain initial sizzle

Weezer (Self-Titled) DGC/Interscope Sounds like: A weakened Beck, a much more polite… Weezer (Self-Titled) DGC/Interscope Sounds like: A weakened Beck, a much more polite The Vines.

Weezer’s third self-titled album and sixth overall has an opening triumvirate of songs as hot as the album’s red cover design.

Calling a Weezer cover design “hot” should sound a little weird, mostly since the group pioneered geek rock. There are requirements to being considered geek rock, none of which are “hot.” Let us review.

Geek rock can’t be too poppy – sure-to-please power chords and vocalizations that are easy to hum put the music at odds with being geeky. The players can’t wear hip clothing at concerts – no Gap jeans and Armani T-shirts on stage. Argyle is preferable, as are thick, plastic-frame glasses. The overall demeanor must be shy and insecure. Finally, the lyrics can only be about things that are geeky, like computers, “Dungeons and Dragons” and basements.

Or if making lots of rules about music seems lame, there could be just one rule: To be geek rock, it has to be played by geeks.

The problem with having that one rule is that the traditionally “geek rock”-labeled Weezer isn’t a bunch of geeks anymore. The hasn’t been geeky for a very long time. Ever since it was signed to a record label, the title “geek” was replaced by “rock star.” As lead singer Rivers Cuomo endearingly revealed to everyone on the band’s personal and tortured sophomore album Pinkerton, he wasn’t a geek after that first album. He revealed in his lyrics that geeks don’t get tired of sex, because they’re not supposed to have it very often, if at all.

Holding Weezer’s Red Album to the same requirements as the band’s original style is therefore misguided. Who really wants to think about sitting in a garage after becoming an idol of rock? Not Cuomo, and all that’s left when the geekiness is gone is that pervading honesty. However, it seems like every review of Weezer’s work has been a reprimand for it not being the wildly successful debut Blue Album.

The Red Album is all about the faulty communication between fans and the reviewing apparatus and a band that grew up too fast, becoming old before it knew it.

This sentiment is obvious throughout the album. However, the overt self-deprecation found on last album Make Believe, in the form of tracks like “Beverley Hills,” is dialed down to tongue-in-cheek humor. Gone also are the pop-pleasers like “We Are All on Drugs,” which had high schoolers giggling every time they walked into Hollister.

The album begins on this strong premise with “Troublemaker.” Cuomo makes generalized boasts about fame that prove too full of errors to be anything but humor from the Harvard alumnus. Although the track is brought together with familiar power chords, the vocals bounce through and provide a fun leadoff.

“The Greatest Man that Ever Lived” follows up as the track that takes the most risks and renders the best payoff. It’s composed of a multitude of disparately styled sections that attack from the angles of bounding pop-rock, hip-hop, spoken dialogue and Shaker hymns. The song is as ridiculous as the title suggests, with Cuomo giving us the story of his rise to stardom, positioning him as the only star worth considering.

The third track preserves the momentum with the record’s big single, “Pork and Beans.” It also preserves the band’s sentiment toward the criticism of both reviewers and fans that’s held the group to the first album’s style. The signature deviant Weezer choruses backed by heavy power chords are accented by the odd sound effect.

The fourth track loses that momentum with a slower tempo appropriate for the subject matter – rock heroes who died in their prime, such as John Lennon and Kurt Cobain. Unfortunately, Cuomo’s voice blends into the background, and the lyrics get lost. More unfortunately, this trend continues to the album’s close.

“Everybody Get Dangerous” follows with a humorous recollection of high school days. Unfortunately, the vocals melt into the background again, and Make Believe-like ennui is the emotion of the four-minute track, the too-cool power strumming in the background overcoming and destroying the irony of how dangerous it is to bash in mail boxes or go cow tipping.

The album trails off afterward. While an improvement over the last album and convincing for the first few tracks, the Red Album isn’t album-of-the-year material. Yet the first three tracks are standout and worth a download. If Weezer holds to its promise to bring out another album in 2009, it can’t go wrong with the experimentation and confidence found in the first three songs.