I was expecting November 3rd to be a big day in music. Between Say Anything’s new self titled album, Weezer’s Raditude, and Julian Casablanca’s Phrazes For The Young, I figured the day would produce at least one great album. Sadly, I was wrong.
Raditude is mediocre at best. I feel like Weezer needs to revert, and quit trying to create a new sound, I like the nerdy old Weezer we heard on Blue Album. Why can’t they just bring that back? This new album could be worse though, it shows some creativity, and there are some songs that are good, but they aren’t Weezer good. “Can’t Stop Partying,” “Put Me Back Together,” and “Tripping Down The Freeway” are all pretty good. They show some hope for a better album to come, the Weezer sound is still there they just have to find it again. I wanna see them return to their roots. Two guitars, a bass, and drums. Less synths, less pianos, and less Lil’ Wayne, while I actually enjoyed his contribution, it doesn’t belong in a Weezer song. Sorry guys, good try, better luck next time.
I was really pumped for Casablancas’ Phrazes For The Young since I’m a big fan of The Strokes. Unfortunately, it’s just rough, just awful. I would’ve thought Casablancas’ genius with The Strokes would have carried over into a solo project but I was badly mistaken. “River of Brakelights” is literally the only song worth mentioning and it’s only decent. A huge disappointment, definitely not for Strokes fans.
Say Anything is a hit-or-miss band. Everything from the music to the vocals and lyrics is just weird. Sometimes this all comes together and creates something truly awesome, i.e. “Died A Jew,” “Alive With The Glory of Love,” “Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat,” and “Admit It!” Their first album was good, their second album was long and bad, but I thought this one had potential, however it’s just lackluster, very similar to their second with all the same faults. It’s not as long, and it has 2 or 3 good songs instead of 1 good song, but otherwise it’s terrible.
November 3rd was a bad day for me. So there you have it, music, you can do better, maybe you’ll redeem yourself via the Omar Rodriguez Lopez album coming out this Tuesday, I sure hope so.
11/05/2009 at 10:50 AM |
Hmmmmmm. I actually like Raditude– probably my fave Weezer album since Pinkerton. And I even liked the Casablancas album well enough– the first song on it is just killer.
11/05/2009 at 4:08 PM |
The Casablancas album was an immense letdown for me. And Raditude was alright, just not what I wanna see for Weezer. I definitely don’t think it’s the best since Pinkerton, it’s probably better than Maladriot and Make believe, but not Green or Red.
11/07/2009 at 9:50 PM |
PS– Lopez released an album earlier this year called Old Money, and it’s quite good.
11/07/2009 at 11:09 PM |
I didn’t realize you were into the mass of music surrounding Omar, I’ll get that one, I haven’t listened to much of his solo stuff, but I’m up to date on the Mars Volta’s stuff.
11/10/2009 at 11:14 PM |
Alright, I hate to say it because it makes you right, but Raditude is slowly growing on me, I’m still not sure it’s any better than Green or Red though. But I might do a proper review one day with a more favorable outcome.