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Raditude
Weezer
Geffen
Rating: 3 1/2 stars (out of 5 stars)
Weezer’s signature nerd-rock attitude is all over Ratitude, their seventh studio album — and it’s definitely lucky number seven for the boys who made plastic frame glasses cool again.
The band stays true to the quasi-punk sound that has characterized its work since the 1994 release of “Buddy Holly” — and they’re still singing about the same thing: nerdy guys lusting after girls they can’t have. But the act doesn’t wear thin — unlike Blink 182 (with whom the band recently toured), Weezer doesn’t seem to be pathetically clinging onto the remnants of their youth. After all, once a nerd, always a nerd.
The album’s first single, “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” has a catchy, percussion-heavy melody that breaks into a hook guaranteed to be stuck in your head as much as it will be playing on the radio waves over the next few months.
Other songs, like “Tripping Down The Freeway,” seem made for Guitar Hero — and while they’re not radio-ready, they form the backbone of a solid album. Both musically and lyrically, “Can’t Stop Partying” is another standout song. Here, Weezer toys with synthesizers, resulting in a track that sounds like the sequel to 2005’s “We Are All On Drugs.” Lead singer Rivers Cuomo even plays into pop music’s current obsession with Patrón (“I got to have Patrón / I got to have the E / I got to have a lot of pretty girls around me”), injecting a little humor into a song about drug addiction.
Ratidude loses a little of its spunk towards its end — the album seems to evolve from a collection of cleverly written and well-played songs into a jam session that’s been tossed into a blender set to purée. The final track, “Underdogs,” is a mellow and melodramatic expression of the geeky sentiment Weezer has so famously rocked for the past 15 years, and seems out of place on an album that is otherwise fairly happy-go-lucky.
One of the album’s best songs is “The Prettiest Girl In The Whole Wide World.” It’s everything that typifies Weezer’s sound — strong drums, a stronger guitar and a catchy hook — and its lyrics typify Weezer’s attitude: “I’ve got the prettiest girl in the whole wide world / And nobody can take her from me / And if even when she goes out walking alone / I waited home patiently / I’ve never been so happy / I’ve never been so sure / I’ve got the prettiest girl in the whole wide world / No one knows.”
Buddy Holly is back, and he’s never sounded so cool.
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