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Weezer - Raditude
| Allmusic |
| If Weezer's 2008 eponymous Red Album was all about singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo coming to terms with heading into middle age, then 2009's Raditude finds Cuomo looking back upon his own carefree, dirt bike-riding youth and writing songs about it, but filtered through the eyes of Weezer's younger fans. In that sense, Raditude comes off as a kind of Big Chill-esque concept album for Gen-Y kids who grew up in the '90s. To these ends, Cuomo packs these largely poppy and rockin' songs with concrete images and cultural references that are just slightly warped and out of phase with his own generational timeline. As on the driving, '60s-soul inflected opening track "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To," Cuomo croons to his teenage girlfriend, "Your Slayer t-shirt fit the scene just right" and later, "We watched Titanic and it didn't make us sad." The Titanic reference is clearly a touchstone for any Gen-Y kid, and even the Slayer shout-out -- though an '80s metal band -- seems to imply a '90s teen wearing her older brother's worn-out t-shirt. At first, the song seems to be a sophomoric and jokey make-out track hinging on the line, "So make a move 'cuz I ain't got all night." However, the song ends with the teen couple staring at each other as grown-ups in a troubled marriage with nothing left to say to fix their problems but, "make a move 'cuz I ain't got all night." The ironic ending only backs up the notion that Cuomo, having worked through his own mid-life crisis on the "Red Album," now has his aging Gen-Y fans and their issues on his mind. Musically, Raditude really sounds like vintage Weezer, but never in a pandering, played-out way. In that sense, we get the band's now-classic mix of old-school '50s pop with big, hooky '70s rawk guitars, and tracks like sublimely power poppy "I'm Your Daddy," and the cheeky glitter rock-inspired anthem "The Girl Got Hot" are as sparkling with creative enthusiasm as anything the band has done since "Buddy Holly." Similarly, tracks that include the slight hip-hop and R&B touches the band has favored in recent years fit perfectly into the sound of an album crafted for an audience who came of age in the late '90s and early '00s. Even the much anticipated party-rap song "Can't Stop the Partying" featuring rapper Lil Wayne is a dark, minor-key rumination on the downside of living it up on the party circuit and is the furthest thing from white-guy novelty-rap goofiness. Ultimately, it's Weezer's deft mixing of immediately hummable rock with lyrics that reveal Cuomo's own melancholy gaze on the pop landscape that makes Raditude a passionate surrender to growing up and a throw-your-arms-up-and-scream ride down the other side of the mid-life roller coaster....full text |
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| Boston |
| Weezer’s ferociously fractured fanbase will have plenty to squabble over on the group’s seventh album of candy-coated pop rock. Some will lament the - presumably temporary - departure of the roaring metal guitars. Others will gag on the glitter-rock grooves. Many will wonder if the dusting of Lil Wayne on “Can’t Stop Partying’’ is for real. Weezer meets Weezy? Seriously? Maybe not, as leader Rivers Cuomo’s take on hitting da club - blinged out and with a posse of video vixens - sounds more like a joke than a boast. But the goofy genius has been comically rolling with the homies since day one, so you never know. Instead of trying to divine the line between earnest and ironic, Weezer fans should just sit back and enjoy what works here. And like every Weezer record, plenty does. The bubbly electro-pop of “I’m Your Daddy’’ is a buzzy paean to the girl who stops you in your tracks. “The Girl Got Hot’’ is a chunky, glammy ode to the girl who grew up right. And for girls and boys, the summer-lovin’ nostalgia of “(If You’re Wondering if I Want You to) I Want You to,’’ is pitch-perfect in its conjuring of the excitement and fear that mingle with first kisses and more. (Out tomorrow) SARAH RODMAN...full text |
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| Rollingstone |
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Do you think Rivers Cuomo ever gets tired of pissing people off? Check that album title again. The fact that he's willing to slap a title like Raditude on his work shows that when it comes to taunting and baiting the crowd, Cuomo makes every other rock star out there look like a dilettante. Ever since he attracted the obsessive Weezer cult with Pinkerton, he's inspired wildly hyperbolic reactions to his every move. So to a casual fan, each Weezer album sounds pretty great, and each Weezer album sounds exactly like the last one. But to a true Weezer cultist, each is a shameful betrayal of everything "El Scorcho" stood for. Which was what, exactly? Raditude is full of gloriously cheesy Weezer tunes, led by the ridonk geek-love anthem "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To." He teams up with Jermaine Dupri and Lil Wayne for the hilarious "Can't Stop Partying," and he veers into dance-pop production with Dr. Luke for "I'm Your Daddy," wowing the ladies with his moonwalk moves and cheese fondue. His willingness to make fun of his psychosexual damage only makes it more poignant. The not-quite-ironic melancholy of "Can't Stop Partying" may reflect a uniquely twisted relationship with his twisted audience. But from the sound of Raditude, Cuomo savors every minute of it....full text |
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