There May Come a Day When We Have Nothing Left to Say

Listening to their debut a lot recently, it is easy to see why Weezer’s latest album Raditude falls flat, and it is not just the silly title (almost as silly are some of the song titles I’m Your Daddy and The Girl Got Hot). With all its geek tendencies the original Weezer just rocked with shredworthy licks throughout every song while most of Raditude, the guitars are just blended into an overproduced wall of sound. Their first album was chalk full of songs that were sing-a-long-worthy even after one listen, whereas on the latest Rivers Cuomo’s voice is also victim of the overproduction and just fades into the music.

As embarrassing as some of the song titles are, there are some songs on the disks that are even more cringeworthy. The Polow da Don produced (yes you read that right) Can’t Stop Partying featuring Lil’ Wayne (“It’s Weezer and it’s Weezy, it’s upside-down MTV,” seriously) sounds like a darker version of Beverly Hills after Cuomo got accepted by the culture. Hearing Cuomo talking about homies a decade and a half ago was quirky; hearing the forty year old version do so on Let it All Hang Out is just corny. Then there is Indian influenced Love Is the Answer which is just too tree hugging hippieish for a Weezer song. I don’t know if they were trying to make a U2 song, but whatever the case, it fails miserably.

There are some sparkles of hope on the disk; Put Me Back Together is classic Weezer, from the love gone wrong lyrics to the guitar feedback that ends the track. Trippin’ Down the Freeway bounces along in typical Weezer fashion with Rivers sounding like Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day at certain points of the song. And first single (If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To may be the greatest Cheap Trick song they never wrote. But that isn’t enough to save a lackluster album.

Song to Download – (If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To

Raditude gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.