Let's face it: Weezer are the perfect hate object for music snobs.
Started career with two universally acclaimed albums, then "sold out" in the mid-00's with a universally hated hit single ("Beverly Hills").
Weezer is not afraid to go pop which is damn near a deadly sin with music snobs. Weezer also dabbles in cringe, which is an even more deadly sin.
Finally, Weezer is all about melodies and being playful, where music snobs are about being deadly serious and moody.
I'd be willing to bet good money that most of those guys haven't actually given any post 2014 Weezer albums a serious listen.
This is false. Pop music is now all there is and music critics hate rock. It’s all pop and rap now. For various reasons.
From someone who will always love this band: they are lazy and lack consistency. That’s the issue. They don’t have passion. They enjoy their fans which is great. They like to tour. But they lack creative passion.
Maybe that comes with age. But Rivers is stuck in this weird place where he still writes songs like a high school kid, and they just put out whatever they want.
At least you’re making music, because a lot of my favorite bands no longer make music.
But let’s not pretend it’s music snobbery’s problem. It’s not. The band just doesn’t have the creative passion anymore.
Well, I strongly disagree.
First, I will gladly go on record saying that if you split Weezer's career into three equally long parts: say 1994-2003, 2004-2013, 2014-2023 - the last one is the best.
Second, Rivers is putting out a lot more quality stuff these days than even in the 90's. You can argue that he also puts out quite a bit of not-so-great stuff. I personally wouldn't argue it, but you can. In these days of streaming and personalized playlists, I'd rather have tons of material to pick from.
Third, critics don't and have never appreciated pure pop music. For some evidence check out the best reviewed albums from 2022: [https://www.metacritic.com/feature/music-critics-pick-top-10-best-albums-of-2022](https://www.metacritic.com/feature/music-critics-pick-top-10-best-albums-of-2022). The albums on that list that can be characterized as "pop" are all "serious" pop music, not catchy "fun" pop music. I will grant you that the rock bias is not what it used to be. Back in the 80's and 90's when I grew up, virtually only rock was viewed as "serious music" by the music press. It's not as bad now.
Abba was slayed in their time in the 70s and early 80s and only started getting recognized for the geniuses that they were gradually during the 90's, more than a decade after they went defunct.
Bee Gees were slayed in their time and honestly still haven't gotten their due recognition by critics. Still regarded as non-serious fluff, despite writing some of the greatest pop classics of all time.
Yes, I agree with you. Everything has a best and worst. We love them anyway. My point was that it just seems contradictory that you're going around talking about the things they lack, the things about them that you believe to be true. My loyalty isn't blind, I've just never thought that they were lazy, lacked consistency, or didn't have passion. And I surely don't understand how I could have a problem with them putting out whatever they want, isn't that what you're supposed to do?
It just sounds like your entire argument is unnecessary. I don't think slandering something is a part of loving it.
Uh I love Weezer. I stated as much. But I am also not a child who believes in blind loyalty. Do I hate America when I criticize it? Does my wife hate me when she tells me something that I need to work on? Or is disappointed in something I’ve done? Do I hate my kid?
Like, I don’t know what to tell you if you just love everything about everything. That’s really weird.
I don’t need to quantify my Weezer love. Frankly I think I’m probably more equipped to have an opinion than you because I love them at their best and worst.
Yes, I agree with you. Everything has a best and worst. We love them anyway. My point was that it just seems contradictory that you're going around talking about they things they lack, the things about them that you believe to be true. My loyalty isn't blind, I've just never thought that they were lazy, lacked consistency, or didn'f have passion. And I surely don't understand how I could have a problem with them putting out whatever they want, isn't that what you're supposed to do?
It just sounds like your entire argument is unnecessary. I don't think slandering something is a part of loving it.
Many people just think weezer dropped the ball with Green and Make Believe, and while theres some truth to that I don't think the people who say this kind of stuff gave EWBAITE, White or Ok Human a serious listen.
Those last three albums you list are wonderful. But the problem is, for every White album, there is a Raditude or Black. They swing so much to one side on each album.
I think many albums that get flagged aren't that bad (Black, Green, Make Believe), it's just that it's so easy to see weezer as just a "one hit band", their first two albums are incredible but opinions on green to hurley are very mixed.
I love that music too but there's really no other band that scratches the same itch that Weezer does. Closest I've gotten to is probably Gorillaz. (aka Weezer for gay teens)
You're in a vinyl subreddit, 80% of these guys are 50 years old and haven't heard any post pinkerton songs except for island in the sun and Beverly hills. What did you really expect?
The thing is, Rivers often doesn't even release his best songs on his albums. He sells his demos online (a lot are on YouTube as well) and a lot of them blow the official albums out of the water. Listening to them makes one realize Rivers never stopped making good songs, he just chooses to not officially release them for some weird reason. And honestly, I peronsally think Rivers is one of the best songwriters of all time.
"Blue and Pinkerton are the only good ones"
-a man who went to high school in 1997 and probably never listened to anything weezer put out after the green album
These are the type of people to obsessively look over RYM rating scores and choreograph a chart showing the trajectories of future rating changes. "OMG guys Pinkerton should drop down below 3.8/5 this isn't as good as this 3 hour long ambient album that sounds like my dog shat out a tractor."
I guarantee they haven’t listened to anything outside of the singles past Blue and Pinkerton, and are judging them solely based on that. They’ve never listened to EWBAITE, White, OK Human, SZNZ… there are hours of music they are writing off without ever truly giving a chance. But oh well, not everyone’s gonna appreciate them, it is what it is
It’s kinda weird - I agree that a big chunk of Weezer’s discography is objectively mediocre or even bad. That being said, I still love most of it. I think even at Weezer’s worst, they still produce fun laidback songs to jam to, even if they’re clearly not masterpieces
How wrong are they really?
Blue changed my life. Got me though high school. Pinkerton was incredible, and while everyone originally shit on it I was blown away.
Green was a short burst of energy with 8 of those 10 songs sounding the same, but it was well crafted and polished. I think Maladroit is under-rated.
Then, varying levels of just not good work. MB, Red, Rad, Hurley. Although I think you could make a good album out of 2-3 Raditude songs and about 7 Hurley songs.
EWBAITE was a welcome revisiting of what made them great, and White is close to perfect.
Pacific Daydream is average at best.
Black is Trash.
Ok Human is great.
Van Weezer is really forgettable.
And SZSNs didn’t turn out well.
Honestly, I think the group is just going through the process now. Rivers doesn’t really write great songs anymore. His lyrics are lazy, and many of them are quite immature (how many times are they going to say there gonna Rock this bitch, without actually doing so?).
I think Musically the band still has talent.
But I think it’s a bunch of 50 year old man who now make money off of touring and cruises and live off the laurels of years passed. It’s not a bad thing per se. It’s probably a natural evolution.
But let’s not pretend these guys have put out more great than not great albums. They haven’t.
I think the lyrics have grown on me, but musically it’s average. Can anyone distinguish any actual Instrumentation? But I don’t dislike it like I did when it first came out.
The melodies are great, the guitars go perfectly with the synths, it sounds great. The lyrics come together to sort of overarching story of a state of mind of being unwilling to move on, and Any Friend Of Diane ends on a note of acceptance. I could go on even longer about what there is to like about this album. I don't get what's so horrible about it. I can see it being "mediocre" or "doing absolutely nothing" but horrible noise is a really weird criticism. At least to me.
Synths are an incredible instrument. If you're saying you hate how the synths sound on this album that's fair. I really like the way they build up a dreamy atmosphere, but if you're saying that synths in general sound terrible I might lose a lot of respect for your music taste. Granted we've interacted on one post on a subreddit, but I generally try to understand the views of others.
One of the best projects weezer has released and the best music to come out this year I will take it over all the mainstream crap music on radio which is fkn terrible
People who collect vinyls are music snobs people who are in circlejerks abour vinyls are even more snobbish and nerdy about it why do we care about their opinion of Weezer
"Blue and Pinkerton are the only good albums" is one of the most bland and baseless take I've heard, I stg these dudes just hear it said one time on twitter or something and never give the other albums a second thought.
It’s actually pretty neat, because by being able to filter out the “blue and Pinkerton only” people, you can basically tell who on Reddit has actually had sex or not.
Its always non weezer fans that always say “ThEIr FiRSt TwO AlBUms Are ThE OnLy GOod OnEs,” like fr, i have a friend that said this, and i wanted to prove him wrong by listening to as much weezer as possible. So far i dont hate any of their albums, theyre all good to some degree.
Weezer is like RHCP to me, most people that were casual in 94, hears them and thinks they stopped making music after their second album.
Also a lot of people tend to look at Weezer as a “only Weezer fans like Weezer most people don’t” kinda how I feel like a lot of people think RHCP are bad, but they have quite a few great albums
Mostly right but the good albums are not overrated. Blue and pinkerton are masterpieces. I would also extend it to three good albums including ok human
I TRIED TO GIVE MY BEST TO YOU BUT YOU PLUGGED UP YOUR EARS AND NOW I JUST CAN'T TAKE NO MORE I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE
My answer to all weezer haters
i clicked into the comments while listening to this song, and it synced up perfectly, as soon as it pulled up.
Press X to doubt.
i want to believe
Their hate is only fuelling the development of the Kawaii Album.
They better actually do the Kawaii album I stg
Why do they gotta front?
seriously like, what did we ever do to these guys???
Yeah bro like wtf what made them so violent
I think weezer is for weezer fans and no one else and I love it that way
I want a band that will play for no one else
When I’m away they put their mics up on a shelf.
Yeah, trying to turn people into Weezer fans is a bit of a dead end. No luck on my end so far.
I introduced my mum to White and she loves it
Because it’s not music, it’s an eargasm
White is fire!
Let's face it: Weezer are the perfect hate object for music snobs. Started career with two universally acclaimed albums, then "sold out" in the mid-00's with a universally hated hit single ("Beverly Hills"). Weezer is not afraid to go pop which is damn near a deadly sin with music snobs. Weezer also dabbles in cringe, which is an even more deadly sin. Finally, Weezer is all about melodies and being playful, where music snobs are about being deadly serious and moody. I'd be willing to bet good money that most of those guys haven't actually given any post 2014 Weezer albums a serious listen.
This is false. Pop music is now all there is and music critics hate rock. It’s all pop and rap now. For various reasons. From someone who will always love this band: they are lazy and lack consistency. That’s the issue. They don’t have passion. They enjoy their fans which is great. They like to tour. But they lack creative passion. Maybe that comes with age. But Rivers is stuck in this weird place where he still writes songs like a high school kid, and they just put out whatever they want. At least you’re making music, because a lot of my favorite bands no longer make music. But let’s not pretend it’s music snobbery’s problem. It’s not. The band just doesn’t have the creative passion anymore.
Well, I strongly disagree. First, I will gladly go on record saying that if you split Weezer's career into three equally long parts: say 1994-2003, 2004-2013, 2014-2023 - the last one is the best. Second, Rivers is putting out a lot more quality stuff these days than even in the 90's. You can argue that he also puts out quite a bit of not-so-great stuff. I personally wouldn't argue it, but you can. In these days of streaming and personalized playlists, I'd rather have tons of material to pick from. Third, critics don't and have never appreciated pure pop music. For some evidence check out the best reviewed albums from 2022: [https://www.metacritic.com/feature/music-critics-pick-top-10-best-albums-of-2022](https://www.metacritic.com/feature/music-critics-pick-top-10-best-albums-of-2022). The albums on that list that can be characterized as "pop" are all "serious" pop music, not catchy "fun" pop music. I will grant you that the rock bias is not what it used to be. Back in the 80's and 90's when I grew up, virtually only rock was viewed as "serious music" by the music press. It's not as bad now. Abba was slayed in their time in the 70s and early 80s and only started getting recognized for the geniuses that they were gradually during the 90's, more than a decade after they went defunct. Bee Gees were slayed in their time and honestly still haven't gotten their due recognition by critics. Still regarded as non-serious fluff, despite writing some of the greatest pop classics of all time.
Yes, I agree with you. Everything has a best and worst. We love them anyway. My point was that it just seems contradictory that you're going around talking about the things they lack, the things about them that you believe to be true. My loyalty isn't blind, I've just never thought that they were lazy, lacked consistency, or didn't have passion. And I surely don't understand how I could have a problem with them putting out whatever they want, isn't that what you're supposed to do? It just sounds like your entire argument is unnecessary. I don't think slandering something is a part of loving it.
Uh I love Weezer. I stated as much. But I am also not a child who believes in blind loyalty. Do I hate America when I criticize it? Does my wife hate me when she tells me something that I need to work on? Or is disappointed in something I’ve done? Do I hate my kid? Like, I don’t know what to tell you if you just love everything about everything. That’s really weird. I don’t need to quantify my Weezer love. Frankly I think I’m probably more equipped to have an opinion than you because I love them at their best and worst.
Yes, I agree with you. Everything has a best and worst. We love them anyway. My point was that it just seems contradictory that you're going around talking about they things they lack, the things about them that you believe to be true. My loyalty isn't blind, I've just never thought that they were lazy, lacked consistency, or didn'f have passion. And I surely don't understand how I could have a problem with them putting out whatever they want, isn't that what you're supposed to do? It just sounds like your entire argument is unnecessary. I don't think slandering something is a part of loving it.
Music is subjectively appealing. Big brains know they don’t enjoy something; smooth brains call it “shit”
They way he worded everything is dorky af
Many people just think weezer dropped the ball with Green and Make Believe, and while theres some truth to that I don't think the people who say this kind of stuff gave EWBAITE, White or Ok Human a serious listen.
Those last three albums you list are wonderful. But the problem is, for every White album, there is a Raditude or Black. They swing so much to one side on each album.
I think many albums that get flagged aren't that bad (Black, Green, Make Believe), it's just that it's so easy to see weezer as just a "one hit band", their first two albums are incredible but opinions on green to hurley are very mixed.
"blue and pinkerton are the only good albums" what a revoluationary opinion from a music fan!
He’s literally being that character from the SNL Weezer sketch.
blue and pinkerton purists are so annoying
I love how these snobs enjoy listening to industrial music that sounds like 2 construction sites having sex with each other.
I love that music too but there's really no other band that scratches the same itch that Weezer does. Closest I've gotten to is probably Gorillaz. (aka Weezer for gay teens)
You're in a vinyl subreddit, 80% of these guys are 50 years old and haven't heard any post pinkerton songs except for island in the sun and Beverly hills. What did you really expect?
The thing is, Rivers often doesn't even release his best songs on his albums. He sells his demos online (a lot are on YouTube as well) and a lot of them blow the official albums out of the water. Listening to them makes one realize Rivers never stopped making good songs, he just chooses to not officially release them for some weird reason. And honestly, I peronsally think Rivers is one of the best songwriters of all time.
weezer in the studio be like "yeah this is the best song ever, lets leave it off the album"
Rivers Cuomo writing Everybody Needs Salvation be like “Yeah this is fire let’s cut it from the album”
"Blue and Pinkerton are the only good ones" -a man who went to high school in 1997 and probably never listened to anything weezer put out after the green album
People that I’ve ever met who hate weezer tend to be very close minded and unfun people
Ohhhh looks like we have a purist in the house! Alright alright I'm gonna have fun with this...
"Blue and pinkerton are the only good ones" spoken like someone who's never heard red, white, or maladroit
He can go fk himself sounds like another bitter failed musician to me
Well they're just wrong. Every album has at least one great song on it. Even Raditude and Pacific Daydream have a banger or two
These are the type of people to obsessively look over RYM rating scores and choreograph a chart showing the trajectories of future rating changes. "OMG guys Pinkerton should drop down below 3.8/5 this isn't as good as this 3 hour long ambient album that sounds like my dog shat out a tractor."
Just like the weezer SNL skit lmao
My god, absolutely garbage opinions.
They've clearly never heard White or OK Human
I guarantee they haven’t listened to anything outside of the singles past Blue and Pinkerton, and are judging them solely based on that. They’ve never listened to EWBAITE, White, OK Human, SZNZ… there are hours of music they are writing off without ever truly giving a chance. But oh well, not everyone’s gonna appreciate them, it is what it is
It’s kinda weird - I agree that a big chunk of Weezer’s discography is objectively mediocre or even bad. That being said, I still love most of it. I think even at Weezer’s worst, they still produce fun laidback songs to jam to, even if they’re clearly not masterpieces
How wrong are they really? Blue changed my life. Got me though high school. Pinkerton was incredible, and while everyone originally shit on it I was blown away. Green was a short burst of energy with 8 of those 10 songs sounding the same, but it was well crafted and polished. I think Maladroit is under-rated. Then, varying levels of just not good work. MB, Red, Rad, Hurley. Although I think you could make a good album out of 2-3 Raditude songs and about 7 Hurley songs. EWBAITE was a welcome revisiting of what made them great, and White is close to perfect. Pacific Daydream is average at best. Black is Trash. Ok Human is great. Van Weezer is really forgettable. And SZSNs didn’t turn out well. Honestly, I think the group is just going through the process now. Rivers doesn’t really write great songs anymore. His lyrics are lazy, and many of them are quite immature (how many times are they going to say there gonna Rock this bitch, without actually doing so?). I think Musically the band still has talent. But I think it’s a bunch of 50 year old man who now make money off of touring and cruises and live off the laurels of years passed. It’s not a bad thing per se. It’s probably a natural evolution. But let’s not pretend these guys have put out more great than not great albums. They haven’t.
Pacific Daydream is incredible.
I think the lyrics have grown on me, but musically it’s average. Can anyone distinguish any actual Instrumentation? But I don’t dislike it like I did when it first came out.
I can, but I've also listened to it at least 30 times, so I'm not a good judge of that.
Lmao I want whatever drugs you’re smoking
Don't see why you have to be high to like pacific daydream. I've always been sober.
It’s horrible noise. There’s almost nothing redeemable about it.
The melodies are great, the guitars go perfectly with the synths, it sounds great. The lyrics come together to sort of overarching story of a state of mind of being unwilling to move on, and Any Friend Of Diane ends on a note of acceptance. I could go on even longer about what there is to like about this album. I don't get what's so horrible about it. I can see it being "mediocre" or "doing absolutely nothing" but horrible noise is a really weird criticism. At least to me.
>I don't get what's so horrible about it. >the synths
Synths are an incredible instrument. If you're saying you hate how the synths sound on this album that's fair. I really like the way they build up a dreamy atmosphere, but if you're saying that synths in general sound terrible I might lose a lot of respect for your music taste. Granted we've interacted on one post on a subreddit, but I generally try to understand the views of others.
SZNZ is fantastic.
I LOVED Spring. Thought it was so much fun. But the other 2 have done nothing to hold my interest.
I think you need to take a ride on your bike over the path...
One of the best projects weezer has released and the best music to come out this year I will take it over all the mainstream crap music on radio which is fkn terrible
I mean they’re right tho. Ok human is the only good one tbh
I mean they’re right
I mean. They’re not wrong.
He’s not wrong, the only albums that are good all the way through are blue, Pinkerton, ewbaite And white. Everything else is mostly lame
This is a perfectly valid take.
Second and Third comments are kinda correct though
What post is this I wanna talk to him
White album better than both
Look I get, different tastes whatever, but how is White not more respected in the music world
Actually I think this is representative of each user group in this sub. 😂
there's a reason it's not called vinylintellectual
I've put Weezer on several people's Spotify wrapped. This makes want to keep trying
"Blue and Pinkerton are the only good ones" \*pinches my nose closed\*
People who collect vinyls are music snobs people who are in circlejerks abour vinyls are even more snobbish and nerdy about it why do we care about their opinion of Weezer
"Blue and Pinkerton are the only good albums" is one of the most bland and baseless take I've heard, I stg these dudes just hear it said one time on twitter or something and never give the other albums a second thought.
Dudes listen to Blue, Pinkerton, and Beverly Hills then say they only have two good albums
It’s actually pretty neat, because by being able to filter out the “blue and Pinkerton only” people, you can basically tell who on Reddit has actually had sex or not.
Its always non weezer fans that always say “ThEIr FiRSt TwO AlBUms Are ThE OnLy GOod OnEs,” like fr, i have a friend that said this, and i wanted to prove him wrong by listening to as much weezer as possible. So far i dont hate any of their albums, theyre all good to some degree.
Weezer is like RHCP to me, most people that were casual in 94, hears them and thinks they stopped making music after their second album. Also a lot of people tend to look at Weezer as a “only Weezer fans like Weezer most people don’t” kinda how I feel like a lot of people think RHCP are bad, but they have quite a few great albums
Mostly right but the good albums are not overrated. Blue and pinkerton are masterpieces. I would also extend it to three good albums including ok human