hypotheticlee speaking

Let me get this out of the way… I love(d) Weezer. That’s what makes their decent into mediocrity and worse so painful. There was nothing that I liked more than putting The Blue Album on replay and relaxing with some Mariocart 64 freshman year of college.

It is in my opinion, without a doubt, one of the greatest overall albums of all time. The sheer quantity of quality is staggering. I think you could argue there are no bad/weak songs on the cd, not to mention the countless hits.

And although this would be their greatest album as their debut, this was just the start of years of good music. Pinkerton was a fine follow up 3 years later and even The Green Album and Maladroit had their moments.

But in 2005 something started to happen. The band began to regress. Whereas during the Blue Album era the band was in their mid 20’s, now they were in their mid 30s and yet instead of getting better with age and perhaps more wise, there was a noticeable de-maturation in both lyrics and music.

“Beverly Hills” although a pop chart hit, seemed to be a slap in the face to traditional and loyal Weezer fans who couldn’t get over the ultra-pop-ified beat and inane lyrics. The only bright spot on that album was “Perfect Situation” which seemed to at least be a throw back to the songs of old, but this would be the last flicker of a dying flame.

And so here we are today, after suffering through The Red Album and Raditude, I am left questioning why I loved these pretentious misfits in the first place. I still listen to The Blue Album and other assorted singles but when I do, I cannot help but feel their degradation as a band tainting my listening experience.

Now at age 40, their lyrics are about cheesy camp romances, the coolness of being a troublemaker, and cliched phrases that don’t even make sense set to bouncy alternative pop minutia. And whether satirical or not, it has become so off-putting that I as a fan rush for the dial if anything of their’s post 2005 comes on the radio.

As is often the way of life, the greatest disappointment comes from watching those things you loved the most, decay and prostitute themselves in the effort to achieve some greater acclaim, that they may or may not have already secured a decade earlier.