shiv Wrote:
I think the reason they suck now is because Rivers was let down by Pinkerton sales or however it didn't do so well at first and now he's just writing crap tunes to get played on the radio.
Make Believe is a tremendous stumble for the band, no doubt about it. The other four are pretty much on-par in terms of quality. I have no emotional ties to the band, which is what I think makes most of you rank
Pinkerton or the blue album higher than the others - those albums came along at important times in your lives, like college. However, I dismissed the band during the 90s, then got on board after green but before
Maladroit. I don't hear anything offensively different in what the band's been doing through those 5 albums. I think nostalgia clouds a lot of listeners' ears.
What I think is ridiculous is the pedestal-putting that I see people doing of Rivers and the band in general. This band didn't do anything particularly special - they're a pop band who wrote some fun music that got very popular. They're still a pop band and want to maintain their status as "pop"ular music - that's why you perceive a change in the band, because it's not aimed at
you anymore. They're writing to be popular, and you've all assigned some major significance to music that doesn't really warrant it. If anything, the quality difference with
Make Believe sounds to me more like pressure from the label to get something done - especially after dumping all the material he'd already put together. It sounds rushed and underdeveloped, something none of their other albums suffered from. Will Rivers ever pull off something great again? Who knows. At this point, who cares? For most people, those first two albums will continue to define Weezer, and the rest will just be disappointments - no matter how good they actually are.
