Weezer - Death To False Metal

Uh, yeah. You read it right. It's Weezer. You're right - they did just put out an album titled 'Hurley' in September of this year. Yeah - you're also right in stating that album was a little odd, and maybe not to the standard of the color based records. Why are they putting out another one? Man, you ask a lot of questions. Well - it just so happens I have an answer. Rivers Cuomo talked about how they've had all these tracks that never quite made the cut over the years. Tracks they may have even been fairly excited about, but the record execs didn't feel as though they fit or were "too poppy", "too strange" or "too bland". These tracks are compiled literally spanning their whole musical careers. Some of these tracks are from the early '90s and some of them as recent as not making the Hurley cut. This is not considered a studio album, even though some sites are labeling it as such. This is a pure compilation record - and I don't think Weezer themselves know how it'll do from a sales standpoint. Mashes like this can be very hit and miss. Some die hards might immediately run out and pick this up - but some will be skeptical (like me) and wonder why I'd want to spend 10 bucks on a bunch of tracks that weren't good enough before, but now magically are. The one thing I think is cool about this, if you're a pretty big fan like me, you can tell what period tracks are from. Something about their style changed after the Green album that they only reverted back to the classic Blue style for during the Red album. Enough colors for you? But Ratitude, Hurley and Make Believe have this different sound - not even sure how to explain it. You can tell by the riffs and the overall sound. I have no idea which tracks were created and when, but I THINK I could guess. Maybe you could too. I don't think this is amazing, but it's kind of fun. Especially the Toni Braxton cover at the end. Worth a listen if you're a Weezer nut - otherwise focus on NERD today.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Turning Up the Radio
2. I Don't Want Your Loving
3. Blowin' My Stack
4. Losing My Mind
5. Everyone
6. I'm a Robot
7. Trampoline
8. Odd Couple
9. Autopilot
10. Unbreak My Heart

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Turning Up The Radio
2. Unbreak My Heart
3. Losing My Mind

FINAL RATING:
3.5 out of 5 stars

Weezer - Hurley

New Music Tuesday! Hooray!! I think this might be one of the things I look forward to most - I love new music. Today had a pretty good amount of stuff. Weezer - one of my favorite bands ever, dropped a new one, as did Linkin Park. Weezer being a fave, of course I decided to run with them. And let me tell you, I'm hard on these guys. Ratitude dropped last year, and I did not care for it one bit. It's like their album 'Make Believe' which had the single 'Beverly Hills' on it. It was wasn't normal Weezer. It's like someone stole the songwriter and replaced him with this pop writer and composer. Blue, Green and Red are all very good or great albums. Pinkerton and Maladroit are also pretty solid. I'll get to them all in due time, I think I've already gotten to review two of them. Blue was my planned 100th review, for good reason. It's a classic. Is this one up on that type of status? Time will tell. Weezer left Geffen records and was talking about putting this album out on their own for a while. Instead, they signed with independent label Epitaph, and dropped Hurley. It's named this, and the album cover is of Chilean-American actor Jorge Garcia who played Hurley Reyes on the show 'Lost'. At first couple glances this morning, I'm digging this one. There are a couple tracks that fall back into the too poppy category, but there are others that are right in Weezer's wheelhouse. I'm going to have to listen to this another 10 times before I really understand what my top tracks are, but I'll come up with an initial top 3. I'm going to rush out and buy this tonight, so it's at least giving a decent first impression. Check it out. If you are like me and love Weezer, I think you'll enjoy this one too.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Memories
2. Ruling Me
3. Trainwrecks
4. Unspoken
5. Where's My Sex?
6. Run Away
7. Hang On
8. Smart Girls
9. Brave New World
10. Time Flies

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Unspoken
2. Hang On
3. Trainwrecks

FINAL RATING:
TBD, but at first listen - 3.75 out of 5 stars

Weezer - Red Album

Okay, so this is nothing new - or something you've never heard before. But I've never hidden my love for Weezer. I grew up loving them, and they keep putting out really good music. (Ratitude and Make Believe set aside). I really needed something great to get the bad taste of HU out of my ears. If you recall, I gave a perfect 5 out of 5 review to Weezer's illustrious Blue Album. Well B Siders, this one is NOT far behind it. I absolutely love this album! It runs the gambit of awesome. Fast paced pop tracks to sing and dance to, slow brooding tracks to ponder over and lyrically awesome tracks that make you want to write and write. I think it's fair to say I loved this from first listen - which is rare for me. ...And many of you may think that I like this purely because I love Weezer - but that's simply false. It's typically the bands I love most I'm most critical of, because I expect genius out of every single track they ever record. So - yeah, don't think that. The only way I can show you how great this is, is to encourage ya'll to listen to it. And make sure you pick up the 'Deluxe Edition', because the four bonus tracks are all either good, quite good or really good. One that's teetering on great. I think I'm going to encourage my writing protege to do something Weezer related this week. We'll see - no promises. This just made my Monday better, so I'm going to run through this at least twice to make my Monday go by like lightning. You should too - Happy Monday B Side!!

TRACK LISTING:
1. Troublemaker
2. Greatest Man That Ever Lived, The (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
3. Pork and Beans
4. Heart Songs
5. Everybody Get Dangerous
6. Dreamin'
7. Thought I Knew
8. Cold Dark World
9. Automatic
10. Angel and the One, The
BONUS TRACKS:
11. Miss Sweeney
12. Pig
13. Spider, The
14. King

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. The Angel And The One
2. Dreamin'
3. King

FINAL RATING:
4.5 out of 5 stars

***REVIEW #100*** - Weezer - Blue Album

In case you didn't notice my huge review title, this is the B-Side's ONE HUNDREDTH REVIEW!! Honestly I cannot believe it's that many already. Seems like just yesterday I was thinking about starting this up. Crazy. Anyway, since it's a fairly good milestone, I had to select one of my favorite records of all time. I have to tell you, I absolutely love Weezer. They've only tossed out a couple records I didn't care for, so for the most part if they drop something, it's gold. Quick backstory on the Blue Album here - one of my good friends was having his 11th birthday when this came out. We knew Buddy Holly from the radio - and that was probably about it. Well, I went over to the local Best Buy and picked this up for his bday. I recall him semi looking at me like, "Weezer, are you kidding me??" And to be totally honest, I had no idea if this would be any good or not. I mean, I liked the one song - so it had to be solid right? Little did we know that 16 years after the release - we'd still be jamming to this on a very regular basis. Seriously, this record is outstanding. Every track start to finish has its own unique identity of greatness. If you've heard this before, put it on again and really listen to the lyrics. Especially in a song like 'Only In Dreams'. Great stuff sitting right in front of your face. To get sentimental, this was one of my first cd's as well - and it was a great purchase. I can't say I've worn out the cd since I've been an MP3 man since 1998 or so - but it has to be the most played record on my iPod. If you haven't heard this, buy it right now. I have to put my B Side guarantee that you'll love this one. If you're facing a rough Monday morning, put on the Blue Album to take care of your case of the Mondays.

AND CELEBRATE 100 REVIEWS!!

TRACK LISTING:
1. My Name Is Jonas
2. No One Else
3. World Has Turned and Left Me Here, The
4. Buddy Holly
5. Undone -- The Sweater Song
6. Surf Wax America
7. Say It Ain't So
8. In the Garage
9. Holiday
10. Only in Dreams

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Say It Ain't So
2. Only In Dreams
3. In The Garage

FINAL RATING:
5 out of 5 stars