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This album is everything but what the title suggests, meaning clumsy and bungling. Following up on last year's successful self-titled "green album," the Los Angeles quartet have gone two-for-two with this smashing good disc which proves that Weezer indeed is one of the gods of loud-distortion-guitar-pop-rock. Weezer reappears to smack
your face with a dope albumBy Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comWeezer has perfected a fine balance between Rivers Cuomo's intimate, heart-on-sleeve lyrics and plaintive voice that's amplified by the band's identifiable manic pop crunch. Former bassist Mikey Welch vanished during the band's previous summer tour -- he resurfaced in a psychiatric ward -- but he's been replaced by Scott Shriner, and Weezer's on a creative roll now. While the band has taken the producer's chair from Ric Ocasek for themselves, it was a smart decision to hang on to Tom Lord-Alge for his masterful mixing skills.
There's not a falter nor misstep on "Maladroit," which rocks with a hard-earned confidence. It's the kind of album that, regardless of your mood, will clear both your head and sinuses with its tuneful sonic wallop.
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Weezer hits the ground running with the first four songs, highlighted by the album's first single, the freewheeling "Dope Nose." From there, Cuomo takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the downer lyrics of "Death and Destruction" and "Slob," a brief moment of happiness on "Burndt Jamb" and down again with the brutal yet cleansing power of "Slave."Cuomo had a reputation for taking advantage of what starry-eyed girls offered him because of his celebrity, and the dichotomy of living a rock-star sexual fantasy with desiring one true love comes through with the back-to-back "Fall Together" and "Possibilities." After the "Love Explosion," "Maladroit" ends with what is possibly Cuomo's most romantic song, "December," where "only trust can inspire / soggy lungs to breathe fire."
The first 600,000 U.S. copies of the album are numbered limited-edition (for the record, mine is no. 589,164) style. The only feature of the CD that may warrant the numbering are video clips of the band performing songs from "Maladroit" in the studio and in concert. One amusing clip shows a backstage tour guy doing a skateboard luge thing down the aging halls of Detroit's Cobo Hall arena.
With this and earlier albums, Weezer has secured a place as one of the best rock bands around. Do they have anything more in them? It's been reported that the band has already recorded songs for its next release, due before the end of the year. If it turns out to be as strong as "Maladroit," well, that's just downright scary!
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