By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * * )
Just when they were turning ripe for whatever-happened-to status, Weezer, are back.
The Los Angeles geek-rock quartet, which arrived with nifty bubblegrunge hits like Buddy Holly and Undone (The Sweater Song) back in the mid-90s, then delivered overlooked sophomore album Pinkerton before taking the rest of the decade off, finally return with their third.
"Who needs 'em?" you might say. Well, just maybe they've created the best answer to that in this collection, also known as The Green Album.
This blasts past in little over half an hour, with Costello-spectacled frontman Rivers Cuomo leading his band through a barrage of 10 taut, fuzzpop gems. The sharpest cuts include the low-slung riff-aramas of Hash Pipe and Crab, the breezy roar of opener Don't Let Go, the Buddy-punk of Photograph, and the Neil Finn-fronts-the Foo Fighters of Glorious Day.
And they manage to briefly indulge a slightly more sensitive side on Island in the Sun and the forlorn but noisy Beatlepop of the closing O Girlfriend. Throughout, the self-conscious nerd-factor of old seems largely and happily absent (even if on Hash Pipe's chorus Cuomo entreats us to "come on and kick me").
While hardly a reinvention, it sounds like a revitalisation with a hint of maturity.
Label: Interscope
<i>Weezer: </i>Weezer
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.