I’ve decided to no longer to be fans of bands, only albums. I’ve decided this after listening to Weezer’s latest record, “The Red Album,” where it’s become clear to me that bands do not change, and when they do change, they get worse. By the time you know a band, they have peaked - enjoy their masterpiece, and move on.
What’s clear about Weezer is that Rivers Cuomo has absolutely nothing interesting left to add to the music he’s put into the world already. It’s not that The Red Album is especially bad, or even that it’s absurdly derivative and exactly the same as every album Weezer’s put out previously. The real problem is that because Cuomo burst onto the scene being a self-consciously ironic scenester/dork, and being a self-consciously ironic scenester/dork is really only a game you can play for 2-3 albums because by the fifth album named for a color and with exactly 10 songs on it, you are just a scenester/dork. In fact, the only nakedly emotional album Cuomo has put out (Pinkerton) was largely shunned on its initial reception, which lead to eight more years of “Hash Pipe,” “Beverly Hills,” and now “Pork in Beans.” Of course, as everyone knows, Pinkerton is actually Weezer’s finest album.
Weezer’s route is of one of two I see for successful bands. Theirs is continuing to do what they’ve done, only slightly worse with each progressive album. It’s clear from Gavin Rossdale’s latest album that he is planning on doing the same, although in fairness to him, he’s really only made one good album in his life anyway.
The second route involves some sort of dramatic band re-invention wherein their trip to some foreign country has inspired them to add “Middle Eastern” influences into their songs, usually leading to crappy string parts and a song featuring a sitar. This paves the way for the album 10 years down the line, wherein the band “returns to its classic sound” and everyone celebrates that the lads put down the wah wah pedal and got back to making good music.
U2 famously went “electronica” after the success of The Joshua Tree (and subsequent pseudo live album Rattle and Hum) and actually did make one more masterpiece with Achtung Baby. They’ve since played the “returning to the classic sound” card, and now make nice adult contemporary ballads like “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own”. I don’t even dislike the latter U2 albums, it’s just certain fact that no one 40 years from now will be musing about Bono’s “Uno dos tres Catorce” as one of the great U2 moments. But Achtung Baby, like Metallica’s Black album, was really just the second masterpiece, which is effectively a bridge to crappy music. Metallica went from the Black album to rather strange southern boogie fried rock, and have subsequently played the “returning to the classic sound” card with St. Anger.
There are a few shapeshifters who seem to move around genres pretty effectively. I’ll profess that Springsteen is my favorite artist, and many of his fans view him as this type of style jumper. Of course, the rest of his fans hate it whenever he tries any of that “world-wearied troubadour crap” and then there are the indie snobs casually dropping that “Nebraska” is actually his best album.
So I think I’ve really got it figured out. Bands can make multiple masterpieces, but only one per style. U2 followed Achtung Baby with the essentially forgetabble Zooropa and Pop and they’ll never make another Joshua Tree. Metallica made a classic metal album (Master of Puppets), a classic Hard rock/metal album (the Black Album), but that’s the end of their good music. They need to try out a sitar.
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1 response so far ↓
1 laure // Jun 12, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I couldn’t agree more, Pinkerton is genius.
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