CHUD.com Community › Forums › MUSIC › Music › weezer alone or not
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

weezer alone or not

post #1 of 12
12/16/07 at 6:13am
Thread Starter 
I loved the first two albums. Like I loved them enough to learn every lyric and listened to them on a daily basis in the mid 90's. I talked myself into liking the "Green Album". ala "The Phantom Menace". What other band has fallen to such depths after rising to such highs? I'm having trouble thinking of bands that have so willfully abused their cred along with musical merit.

edit to say: I like neither the Green Album or the Phantom Menace now.
Reply
post #2 of 12
12/16/07 at 12:56pm
Liz Phair - her first record (Exile in Guyville) is amazing and unique, but the talent ended there. Sure, "Whipsmart" had a couple of decent tunes, but "White chocolate whatever" was crap. Then came the Britney Spears phase of her career, which is just embarassing.

Helmet - "Strap it on" and "Meantime" are two of my favorite cds, but everything that came after it has been dissapointing. "Betty" sounded like all of the other bands that started to rip off Helmet after 1992 while "Aftertaste", well I can't really describe the level of suck coming from that one. Sad thing is, I also tried to force myself to like those two records for awhile until I realized how much they sounded like Bush. I never even bothered to listen to the reconstituted Helmet.
Reply
post #3 of 12
12/16/07 at 1:03pm
Weezer are way up there in the I-abandoned-my-cred sweepstakes (what exactly did they expect to gain in jettisoning both the humor of the Blue album and the anger of Pinkerton?), but here are some more nominations:

Genesis
Counting Crows (don't laugh)

Some individuals
Rod Stewart
Sting (who, years before, had the gall to criticize Stewart for doing the same thing in the Police's "Peanuts"!)
Eric Clapton (is there really a point to his post-Layla career?)
Trent Reznor (who, unlike the rest, kept doing largely the same thing, but worse)
Reply
post #4 of 12
12/16/07 at 1:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gamranaut
Liz Phair - her first record (Exile in Guyville) is amazing and unique, but the talent ended there. Sure, "Whipsmart" had a couple of decent tunes, but "White chocolate whatever" was crap. Then came the Britney Spears phase of her career, which is just embarassing.
Whitechocolatespaceegg was the polished take on Exile, I think. I like it better than Whipsmart. Also, after I got past my distaste for the overproduction, I came to like some of the songs on the self-titled album.

Quote:
Helmet - "Strap it on" and "Meantime" are two of my favorite cds, but everything that came after it has been dissapointing. "Betty" sounded like all of the other bands that started to rip off Helmet after 1992 while "Aftertaste", well I can't really describe the level of suck coming from that one. Sad thing is, I also tried to force myself to like those two records for awhile until I realized how much they sounded like Bush. I never even bothered to listen to the reconstituted Helmet.
I think they still had it on Betty, and, while I never really got into their later albums, I saw them on tour for Aftertaste (I think?), and they were really impressive.
Reply
post #5 of 12
12/16/07 at 1:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gamranaut
Helmet - "Strap it on" and "Meantime" are two of my favorite cds, but everything that came after it has been dissapointing. "Betty" sounded like all of the other bands that started to rip off Helmet after 1992 while "Aftertaste", well I can't really describe the level of suck coming from that one. Sad thing is, I also tried to force myself to like those two records for awhile until I realized how much they sounded like Bush. I never even bothered to listen to the reconstituted Helmet.
Hmmm, I really, REALLY doubt that Bush (who were more of a Nirvana ripoff anyway - and I hear a LOT of Fugazi in Helmet, so it's not as though they were paradigm-shattering innovators) could come up with something as creative as Betty - "Biscuits for Smut" and "Rollo" are two of my absolute favorite Helmet songs. I'd say Aftertaste was a bit more, uh, "dumbed-down" or whatever, but it's solid.

Potato, potatoe.
Reply
post #6 of 12
12/16/07 at 5:07pm
Blue and Pinkerton will always be great, no matter how far Weezer falls.

Green was almost a non-entity, but Maladroit is fantastic - Love the production, love the songs, love the nonsensical lyrics.

Make Believe is fucking awful. I still can't fathom how Rivers felt those lyrics were the best he could do.

Still, I'm looking forward to the Rivers solo album (demos from the '90s... woo!) and oddly enough the new Weezer record, if only to see how much farther they can plummet.
Reply
post #7 of 12
12/16/07 at 5:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gamranaut
Liz Phair - her first record (Exile in Guyville) is amazing and unique, but the talent ended there. Sure, "Whipsmart" had a couple of decent tunes, but "White chocolate whatever" was crap. Then came the Britney Spears phase of her career, which is just embarassing.
I brought Plair's "Exile in Guyville" when I was in college, and I still listen to it from time to time. I like her song "Mesmerizing" the most, but I couldn't get into her followup and gave up after only one listen. I can't really hate her for doing "Why Can't I" since she's a single parent and must pay the mortgage somehow.
Reply
post #8 of 12
12/16/07 at 7:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB
Trent Reznor (who, unlike the rest, kept doing largely the same thing, but worse)
One can accuse Trent of many things. My personal favorite: the fact that he hasn't become a better lyricists since 1994. But doing consecutive albums that sound the same isn't not one of them.
Reply
post #9 of 12
12/16/07 at 8:11pm
U2. While they didn't really start off as great songwriters, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby were pretty amazing. Nowadays, they're churning out some pretty shitty stuff.

(Now, I can't think of U2 without thinking of South Park's "Bono is a Turd" episode.)
Reply
post #10 of 12
12/16/07 at 8:12pm
I've actually heard that Rivers' album of recordings is pretty decent stuff.

Did you hear his Pig demo? I thought it was pretty damn solid.

I agree that Green Album and Maladroit weren't bad albums, it's just that Green Album was pretty hollow and plain and Maladroit...though I liked it, just felt like they were trying too hard.

Make Believe was shit, and felt even more like Rivers was trying too hard to say "Hey, I can still emote in my songs!" but without the dorky humor of Pinkerton.
Reply
post #11 of 12
12/16/07 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
I would add the Smashing Pumpkins to this list. I liked Gish and really liked Siamese Dream. Mellon Collie had its moments, but that is the album on which the tendencies that would reduce them to crap begin to appear.
Reply
post #12 of 12
12/16/07 at 8:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Radb707
I've actually heard that Rivers' album of recordings is pretty decent stuff.

Did you hear his Pig demo? I thought it was pretty damn solid.

I agree that Green Album and Maladroit weren't bad albums, it's just that Green Album was pretty hollow and plain and Maladroit...though I liked it, just felt like they were trying too hard.

Make Believe was shit, and felt even more like Rivers was trying too hard to say "Hey, I can still emote in my songs!" but without the dorky humor of Pinkerton.
Yeah but most of it is demos from the era of The Blue Album and Pinkerton. They are better than most of the stuff Weezer has released since 2000, but that isn't saying much.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Music
CHUD.com Community › Forums › MUSIC › Music › weezer alone or not