KEY POINTS:
Rating: * * * *
On Weezer's sixth album there are three songs in a row that are among the best frontman Rivers Cuomo has written - up there with oldies Hash Pipe, Scorcho, and Undone - The Sweater Song.
First, The Greatest Man That Ever Lived kicks and flails in all sorts of odd directions, then there's the delicious riff of single Pork and Beans which also has a great video and, on meandering and tender album highlight Heart Songs, Cuomo reels off his musical influences, name-dropping everyone from Debbie Gibson to Slayer to Nirvana. It's obvious 1991 and Nevermind was a turning point for the king of geek rock.
This trio of tracks are a classic example of cheeky and dry Weezer rock. But then, with the hideous Chili Peppers karaoke of Everybody Get Dangerous, they almost spoil the whole album.
Luckily, the power pop geeks from Los Angeles scoop us up and whisk us away with Dreamin' and three songs written by Cuomo's band mates - something that hasn't happened since the band's 1994 debut, which is perhaps one reason the songs are tacked on the end.
While the Red Album is not a classic like the Blue Album, it's their best and most likeable since the Green Album from 2001 - apart from that one awful song, of course.
Scott Kara
