Weezer -- Raditude

3/10

By 2009, I was working for this cool independent company called TaskForce. One of my best friends there was Andrew Price, and Andrew Price and I both liked Weezer. Our Baton Rouge office was right around the corner from a Best Buy, which, on November 3, 2009, the day Weezer released Raditude, had that album on sale for like $3.99. Andrew went out to Best Buy at lunch, got Raditude, and I guess listened to it in his car. We had both been both optimistic about the album's prospects because the single "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" was decent. However, when Andrew walked back into our big open floor office, and I asked him if I should get Raditude after work, he said, "Don't even bother, bruh. I ain't worth it. It's so bad."
Andrew was right, and I should almost just leave it at that, and save the effort, but I'll make this a two paragraph piece. Raditude is Weezer's career nadir. If Weezer releases a worse album in their career than Raditude, they should just call it quits. Raditude plays as a sad grasp at relevance, where the band want to be seen as cool so desperately, they brought in 2009's coolest rapper to try to raise their cred with the kids. It makes them look ridiculous, and little here rises above that. "Put Me Back Together" is heartfelt and solid, and "Tripping Down the Freeway" has a nice (and the album's only) guitar solo. There's little to nothing here that resembles what fans fell in love with 15 years before. For long-time Weezer fans like Andrew and the Nicsperiment, who had been waiting for a return to any kind of respectable form, Raditude is a crushing disappointment. And now that I've done it for this review, I see no need to revisit Raditude again. Also, I hate Rivers' passive attitude in "(If You're Wondering)..." even if the song is great. This isn't a new paragraph, it's a caption. Though I also want to say to producer, Jacknife Lee, stay away from bands I like. Every one of their albums you work on is my least favorite one of their albums (except maybe An End Has a Start).


2009 DGC/Interscope/Geffen
1. (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To 3:28
2. I'm Your Daddy 3:08
3. The Girl Got Hot 3:14
4. Can't Stop Partying (featuring Lil Wayne) 4:22
5. Put Me Back Together 3:15
6. Tripping Down the Freeway 3:40
7. Love Is the Answer 3:43
8. Let It All Hang Out 3:17
9. In the Mall 2:39
10. I Don't Want to Let You Go 3:48