Review: Weezer - Raditude (* *)

Chances are you don’t need a Weezer history lesson and providing one here would be particularly pointless, as there's really no need to create any kind of context in reviewing the band’s latest album, Raditude. One look at that flying dog and cheesy, lightning-style font on the cover can give you as good an idea as anything else as to what you can expect from this seventh effort by Rivers Cuomo and company, who have consistently baffled and too often underwhelmed fans and critics over the past ten years or so. It seems Cuomo wouldn’t have it any other way; the nearly 40 year-old man-child is anything but reserved when it comes to his music and apparently thrives on defying convention, logic and even at times good taste. So after opening the singing/songwriting up to his bandmates for 2007’s Red Album (with uneven results, to say the least), Cuomo now resumes full control (well, sorta) but somehow manages to make an even more eclectic record with Raditude, which is light-hearted and occasionally fun but flounders under the weight of its many scattered ideas and general excesses. (Continue Reading...)