A word in defense of Rivers Cuomo

[DackAttac]

WARNING - INCOMING TEXT WALL.

As a relative neophyte here (especially having missed out on the ultimate litmus test of when the relevant packs were released), I don't know what the general Weezer consensus around these parts is. I'm willing to bet that it's like most places though: your milage may vary, wildly, but the slim-but-sure majority feels Blue Album was great, Pinkerton was an underrated gem and it was all downhill from there.

Now, I'm not here to say that every disc in that catalog is secretly amazing. I'm not here to stick up for Make Believe, Maladroit or Raditude. Christ, especially not Raditude. But with the way frontman Rivers Cuomo has become the butt of every punchline—it seems like every critic who writes a Weezer review feels the need to "get the obvious joke out of the way" early on—I'm gonna take issue with.

Let's start with the Blue Album (because there's really no other logical place to start from). We know the story. Quirky frontman introduces the fledgling 90's to garage-y rock that was catchy instead of grunge. Due to his very frank awkward nerdiness, both in his image and his lyrics, he strikes a chord with high school outcasts, becomes a folk hero of sorts. Rides high for a little while, then makes another record. Does not do so hot. Few are on board with how gritty and personal Pinkerton is, at least not initially. The band goes on hiatus for a chunk of years. During this hiatus, Pinkerton grows on people—I'm told that the 'emo' crowd really took to the personality of the lyrics.

When Weezer come back, it's a hit-and-miss affair. They can't win to lose. Everything is either not emotive enough (Green Album), emotive in bland ways (Make Believe) or just plumb unhip (smatterings throughout).

But I have to wonder what this whole whirlwind was like for Rivers. To be heralded for his uniqueness like a true ugly ducking, just to get lambasted for being too weird. Then for not being weird enough. Then for being weird in the wrong ways. That's gotta be confusing when you can't even know what your own fans think of you. The Green Album is so straight-laced, refusing to deviate from the norm, (and it's a shame it's got all this baggage attached, because you'd be hard-pressed to find a leaner powerpop record) but it was met with these cries of "Boo, this is cookie cutter, we want what made Weezer unique!" I'm sure it was tempting for Rivers to just snap and yell, "Well, where the f*** were you five years ago?!"

So I get the impression that during that hiatus, without being in a band courted by a press that celebrated his eccentricity, he did what most of us do when high school's over: grew up. Found a way to be himself in society, shed his weirder tendencies, and—keeping with the ugly duckling metaphor—came out of it a swan. Not a belle-of-the-ball swan, but an average-joe swan. Except he'd made such a name for himself being an ugly duckling, that it didn't stick. People wanted quirk.

And so, by God, he'd give it to them. He over-emoted à la Pinkerton on Make Believe, but the problem was his musings were not quite so unconventional. Most of the album boils down to, "I could use some company." Not enough. People wanted weird.

Now, I've heard some portraits of Rivers that seem to say that he is still an immaculately weird dude. One not need look further than the video for "My Brain Is Working Overtime" to see that he has not totally assimilated into society, and even my "average joe swan" assessment is a stretch. But I have to wonder, if heeding the call to be the quirky Rivers from 1994, he started wondering why just shooting straight from the heart wasn't working anymore, and started scraping the bottom of the barrel for any idiosyncrasy he could find. And that's how we got songs like Everybody Get Dangerous ("Boo-yah!"), I'm Your Daddy (Advice: Never ever recontextualize something you said to your daughter as a come-on. Unless you're intentionally going for that creepy-as-s*** feel), and Where's My Sex (Not even touching this one). None of them are bad songs until you get to the lyrics, and that's when it just starts to feel like Rivers is trying to embarrass himself. And when he got lauded as a folk hero for songs with choruses like "In the garage. I feel safe. No one cares about my ways." I can see why he'd think that might be a key to success.

And the more years go by, the more time is not on Cuomo's side for redemption. When I was browsing the user critiques on iTunes, I came across one that committed one of Dack's Cardinal Sins of Customer Reviews (I could fill a topic with these bad boys): The Je Ne Sais Quoi. When you judge something over a quality you can't (and won't even attempt to) put into words. (I don't even use the phrase je ne sais quoi genuinely because it is literally French for "I don't know what". It seems to me, if you can't put it into words, trying to look smart by using fancy idioms is immensely hypocritical.) It was something to the tune of:

"Remember when you first put on The Blue Album, and as the introduction to My Name Is Jonas started, you just felt that... that magic? There's nothing on here like that. One star."

And here's why that's a Dack's Cardinal Sin of Customer Reviews (DCSCR). You can't define it, iTunes Customer? I will fill in the blanks with assumptions, then. You miss high school, you miss being an outcast with your outcast friends and finding solace in a Weezer record. The Red Album doesn't fulfill your nostalgia quota because it can't get you and your prom date in the back of your sedan deflowering each other, hence, "no magic". Goddammit, you're still grown up. One star.

And bringing it back to my main point, it kind of feels like all these fellow kids who were getting shoved into lockers and finding comfort in the Blue Album are now the ones giving Weezer the swirlies.

Weezer's put out some absolute stinkers since their reformation. I am not denying that. But the more I think about it, the harder it feels to blame them.

Thoughts?

[The_Oreo]

I liked Maladroit...

Good write up though, I'm in the grouplet that got through high school on Pinkerton and agree with most all your points. Not much more to add.

[RHCPfan96]

I totally agree. I thought Hurley felt like Rivers was trying to get back to the earlier days, but I still liked it. What people don't get is that BANDS CHANGE. Are you the same person now that you were in 1994? Then how can you expect a band to be?

[Cubecubed]

I've always been a fan of Weezer, but i never cared for Rivers' lyrics. They've always been kinda dumb. I always felt like his contemporaries, especially Billie Joe Armstrong, were much, much, better at writing lyrics.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

I always felt like his contemporaries, especially Billie Joe Armstrong, were much, much, better at writing lyrics.

I was actually gonna bring up Green Day. Everyone's crying over how they moved onto less punk(read; serious) work. But honestly, I really can do without the nearly-40 Billie Joe singing about getting bored of masturbation. Let him explore his writing abilities in a few rock operas as he ages. American Idiot really does stand up nicely, and 21st Century Breakdown may not be the most cohesive concept album, but it's certainly got some great writing with very few faults(isn't that right, Christian's Inferno?).


But yeah, as for Weezer. I've never really been a huge fan of them, but I do have a solid chunk of their material, and I can recognize the shift. I'm just not too picky about it since I didn't care much to begin with.

[Lameboy19]

I always felt like his contemporaries, especially Billie Joe Armstrong, were much, much, better at writing lyrics.

not even in the same league.


My problem with Rivers is that he gave in and tried to please everyone, when the "magic" that was in the first two albums was that he was doing what he wanted and everything was very personal, like reading a diary almost. Pinkerton is much more than "overemotion" it's the personal struggle that he writes about, and that it hits so close to home for most of the listeners (me included) in almost an eerie way, as if I wrote it, I'm sure I'm not the only one feels this way about it, but it's much more than just the "emotions" behind it all.

That's what made the recent albums terrible, there's no sense of personality, they feel like they were written by someone else, not Rivers. He distanced himself, and has kept his personal life out of the limelight which really wouldn't be a problem if his life wasn't entertaining or was really happy, but the stuff that he went through struck a chord with most of the fans and that's what make them so personal, and why people like me defend it, and hold it in such a high regard.

[Cubecubed]

I'm sorry,but even when Billie Joe was writing about masturbation he was a better lyricist. The more recent GD albums have just widened that to a ridiculous amount. Most of the stuff post Warning absolutely clowns Weezer's recent output in terms of lyrics.

Lyrics clearly aren't rivers' strong point. There are some embarrassingly bad lyrics, even on the Blue album and Pinkerton,that keep me from calling him a good lyricist. I still love Weezer,but with the caveat that i cannot enjoy Rivers' lyrics all that much.

I will admit he can write a catchy song like few can,though.

[MrFruitLord]

Change is fine. Bad music isn't.

If you like their newer stuff, that's cool (actually, I liked Hurley), but a lot of people just don't like the actual sound.

[DackAttac]

I've always been a fan of Weezer, but i never cared for Rivers' lyrics. They've always been kinda dumb. I always felt like his contemporaries, especially Billie Joe Armstrong, were much, much, better at writing lyrics.

I was actually gonna bring up Green Day. Everyone's crying over how they moved onto less punk(read; serious) work. But honestly, I really can do without the nearly-40 Billie Joe singing about getting bored of masturbation. Let him explore his writing abilities in a few rock operas as he ages. American Idiot really does stand up nicely, and 21st Century Breakdown may not be the most cohesive concept album, but it's certainly got some great writing with very few faults(isn't that right, Christian's Inferno?).

not even in the same league.

Rivers shoots too straight to be in the same league. He treats his lyrics like journal entries (I'll get back to that thought when I respond to the remainder of Lameboy's post), BJ tries to construct something, weaving violent punk imagery into Kinks-esque pop songs (with just a shot of campy humor to sweeten the pot). And he doesn't do it to exaggerate his problems/feelings (a fast-ubiquitous emo trope), but because he knows there's a juxtaposition there.

(Kinda off topic)

And since Fhqwhgads brought up 21st Century Breakdown, and I was just talking about it with friends over lunch, my problem with the album is that it plays like a satire of Green Day. The blatant influence cribbing (Before the Lobotomy is pretty much cut from the same cloth as Behind Blue Eyes), the title track's sudden twists and turns between its wildly contrasting melody segments, the confusing us-vs-them political rhetoric (all while the candidate they backed is in office), the hilariously over-the-top contrast of a bile-drenched aggro verse and a sunny bubblegum chorus on Christian's Inferno (I really could have believed this was a Weird Al style parody), the "f***ing lies" prechorus in Modern World, and even throwing an N-word into Mass Hysteria just for shock value. But any good Green Day satire would have be damn well written melodies, and they certainly didn't disappoint. If I had to compile my Top 10 Green Day songs, Peacemaker would make the list, and it would make the top five. It's like they tried to top American Idiot by making everything about it bigger and catchier, and they succeeded. Only problem is they didn't count on the fact that when forced, albums can fast become so much less than the sum of their parts. I play individual songs from it frequently, but I hardly ever listen to it cover to cover.

(Back on topic)

My problem with Rivers is that he gave in and tried to please everyone, when the "magic" that was in the first two albums was that he was doing what he wanted and everything was very personal, like reading a diary almost. Pinkerton is much more than "overemotion" it's the personal struggle that he writes about, and that it hits so close to home for most of the listeners (me included) in almost an eerie way, as if I wrote it, I'm sure I'm not the only one feels this way about it, but it's much more than just the "emotions" behind it all.

I didn't mean to insinuate it was "over-the-top" by the word "overemotion". I just meant that the album had no filter. He didn't exclude everything. If someone was telling you the things he met, you would have to either be really intimate BFF's or a diary page in order for it not to be socially awkward. And from what I've read, during the period he wrote it, he was having lots and lots of groupie hookups, but the touring lifestyle has an adverse effect on any sort of romantic monogamous ventures. Really nothing surprising after hearing "Tired of Sex", but it does really put the entire album into a context of a twenty-something terrified of dying alone. It works really well in that regard...

That's what made the recent albums terrible, there's no sense of personality, they feel like they were written by someone else, not Rivers. He distanced himself, and has kept his personal life out of the limelight which really wouldn't be a problem if his life wasn't entertaining or was really happy, but the stuff that he went through struck a chord with most of the fans and that's what make them so personal, and why people like me defend it, and hold it in such a high regard.

...But maybe the problem is that Rivers' life isn't interesting anymore. He took a break from his band, he centered himself, now he's married with a kid... for all intents and purposes, he may have emerged from it as a different person altogether. I'm sure that in fifteen years, the same could be said for all of us between then and now. I mean, I'm sure that he's tried to tap that well that he got Pinkerton from, but cream rises to the top, so he'd exhausted his adolescence's material on those first two records, and if he's fishing for young, heartbroken angst, that has a habit of drying up by the time you're thirty.

[Cubecubed]

And since Fhqwhgads brought up 21st Century Breakdown, and I was just talking about it with friends over lunch, my problem with the album is that it plays like a satire of Green Day. The blatant influence cribbing (Before the Lobotomy is pretty much cut from the same cloth as Behind Blue Eyes), the title track's sudden twists and turns between its wildly contrasting melody segments, the confusing us-vs-them political rhetoric (all while the candidate they backed is in office), the hilariously over-the-top contrast of a bile-drenched aggro verse and a sunny bubblegum chorus on Christian's Inferno (I really could have believed this was a Weird Al style parody), the "f***ing lies" prechorus in Modern World, and even throwing an N-word into Mass Hysteria just for shock value. But any good Green Day satire would have be damn well written melodies, and they certainly didn't disappoint. If I had to compile my Top 10 Green Day songs, Peacemaker would make the list, and it would make the top five. It's like they tried to top American Idiot by making everything about it bigger and catchier, and they succeeded. Only problem is they didn't count on the fact that when forced, albums can fast become so much less than the sum of their parts. I play individual songs from it frequently, but I hardly ever listen to it cover to cover.

(Back on topic)

21CB might not be Green Day's best album,but it certainly is better than the recent Weezer output,and two songs from it ( Peacemaker and Viva La gloria (Little Girl)) find their way into my top ten Green Day songs. I will argue up and down that Warning is Green Day's most complete record,and an absolutely brilliant power-pop record to boot.

Lyrically, I feel that American Idiot and Warning are the high points of Green Day's Career.