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Weezer
Weezer
Crush Music / Atlantic

Weezer is the fourth (!) self-titled album by Weezer and their tenth album in total. Weezer (the album) is also known as The White Album, which means this is the fourth 'color themed' album from Rivers Cuomo and his bandmates. Their 1994 debut was their Blue Album; their third album (2001) is known as their Green Album; and their 6th album (2008) was their Red Album. "Blue often represents the human emotion of 'sadness and melancholy', or of 'happiness and optimism', but it can also mean drunkenness. Blue can also symbolize naivety, but in some parts of the world it can commonly be associated with 'torment, ghosts, death and mourning'. The blue colour can be seen as a sign of 'nobility and affluence', and another common association is for the 'faithful and loyal', or for 'excellence, distinction and high performance'. Blue is of course also forever associated with 'the blue sea and the blue sky', and with 'infinity and distance'. Green is the color most commonly associated with 'nature, vivacity and life', with 'springtime, freshness, and hope', or with 'youth and inexperience', but it can also associate with 'calm, tolerance, and the agreeable', with 'jealousy and envy', or even with 'love and sexuality'. It's also connected with 'dragons, fairies, monsters, and devils'. Red can stand for 'courage and sacrifice', for 'happiness, celebration and ceremony', but can also symbolise 'hatred, anger, aggression, passion, heat and war', and of course love, as well as 'seduction, sexuality and sin'. Red is also the common sign for danger, rage and anger. (source: Wikipedia.org)

So what about White, then? White is 'an achromatic color, a color without hue.' White associates with 'purity, innocence and sacrifice', of 'the beginning and the new', of cleanliness, and - of course - peace and/or neutrality. It can also be the color of 'mourning and funerals', as well as the color of 'ghosts and phantoms'. White is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of 'sunlight, snow, milk, and chalk' to name but a few. I choose to see Weezer's white as a new beginning, with a band coming in peace - or maybe a band that has come to peace with itself/themselves. White is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, and with honesty. Well, I guess that Weezer always has been a band of 'goodness and honesty'. Weezer is always connected to sunny, happy Californian power-pop. At times fuzzy and semi-noisy, but most of the time extremely cathcy and rich with harmony. Rivers Cuomo and his players operate well inside the Beach Boys tradition, delivering sunny pop songs about girls and love and getting high on life plus other substances - like with their songs "Hash Pipe" off Weezer (The Green Album) (which of course is known as "H*** Pipe" in the US), or "Dope Nose" off the Maladroit album (2002). This white album holds a song called "Do You Wanna Get High?", so I guess Weezer still is open for taking off, escaping and dreaming on... This time around the Beach Boys references are clear and obvious within many songs, like with "L.A. Girlz", "(Girl We Got A) Good Thing" (with bells and all), or "Jacked Up", and with song titles like "California Kids" and (especially) "Endless Bummer".

Weezer was put out a few months ago, on April 1st. April fools day! That said, this is no joke. Weezer is fooling around the joyful landscapes of pop (power pop) music. Sometimes with tints and hints of grungier pop music. The ten songs clock in a 34 minutes, which is the perfect length for a pop album. Cuomo has written all the songs - a couple co-written with guitar player Brian Bell, others in collaboration with external song-writers/musicians/producers (such as Dan Wilson, Ryan Spraker, Scott Chesak of The All-American Rejects, Alex Goose, Luther Russell and more). This album, as well as their last album (Everything Will Be Alright in the End) sees Weezer rerturn to the more guitar rock formula. At times they sound (almost) too bubblegummy, or cartoonish (same as with Green Day's early songs of punky pop). Their songs are indeed catchy, but at times they can be too much. That said, Weezer is a collection of party songs for the warm summer sun. Even though I prefer to return to the indeed cool Pinkerton (1996) album. The best songs of Weezer are "Jacked Up", "L.A. Girlz" and (my favourite) "Endless Bummer". This album is something to listen to by the swimming-pool (or the beach) with a longdrink in hand. Sunglasses are optional, but highly recommended.

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