18 = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2002
Album lacks creativity
Weezer, Maladroit, Geffen Records
Weezer's formula for releasing records is starting to sound like the directions on the back of a shampoo bottle record a clever and catchy power-pop album, follow with a more intricate and textured album and repeat.
This system worked brilliantly through the band's debut (1994's self-titled blue album), sophomore release (1996's Pinkerton, a classic collection of love gone wrong or going nowhere) and its return to the top of the power-pop mountain (2001's self-titled green album).
With Maladroit, though, Rivers Cuomo and company may have followed the procedure one too many times.
Songs where the band sticks to its hooks, harmonies and power-pop roots, like "Keep Fishin" and "Possibilities,"
MOVIE REVIEWS
Levi Chronister lchronister@kansan.com
shine, but numbers like "Take Control" and "American Gigolo" are so heavy with crunching guitars befitting a '70s arena-rock concert that a listener may not recognize them as Weezer songs if it weren't for Cuomo's distinctive voice.
Maladroit lacks in lyrical creativity as well, featuring just one couplet on the level of Cuomo's previous writing ( "Fag of the year/who could beat up your man" from the first single, "Dope Nose").
"Slob" does a nice job of following in Pinkerton's footsteps and showing Cuomo's issues with himself as both a person and a rock star, but the rest of the album seems trite compared to the intelligence and freshness of the band's past work.
Considering the title, which means "inept," maybe this is all listeners should have expected. Hopefully, the band's next release will be another one of those self-titled albums everyone refers to by its color and bring a bit of familiar Weezer magic back to the rock world. Rating: 5 out of 10
Record worth the wait
The Breeders, Title TK, Elektra Entertainment
It seems like ages ago that the Breeders ruled the summer airwaves with their single "Cannonball" off their album Last Splash.
It seems that way because it was ages ago — 1993 to be exact, when the Lazer was really the Lazer and MTV still showed cool, important videos during the day.
After nine years without a release because of drug arrests and other bands, Breeders lead singer Kim Deal has put together a new lineup and released the band's third album, Title TK, which sounds every bit as fresh and important as Last Splash.
Although no song sticks out like "Cannonball," there are numerous highlights that feature similar creative pauses and vocal and musical tempo changes and are
influenced by Deal's time with the Pixies.
"Huffer" features an intro of nonsensical vocals that sounds like the Breeders' signature song, and other songs such as "Little Fury" bring back memories of 1993, but rather sound old and cliched, Title TK reminds listeners how far ahead of their time the Breeders were, and still are.
The band does hit a low spot on "Put on a Side" which seems uninspired musically and lyrically, but Deal still has as much songwriting talent as ever ("I'm over Houston/You're over the night we met" from "The She").
No one song on Title TK is as catchy as "Cannonball"but that's not a bad thing, though,because songs that terrific are few and far between.For a band to release an album this good after nearly a decade is more than any fan could sanely wish. Rating: 8 out of 10.
Sophomore effort another keeper
Doves, The Last Broadcast, Capitol Records
Rising like a phoenix from the ashes, Jimi Goodwin and twin brothers Jez and Andy Williams created Doves after the studio in which their equipment and recordings as dance group Sub Sub burned down in 1995.
The newly named trio released their first full-length album, Lost Souls, in 2001 to critical acclaim and brought a deeper and even dreamier sound to the current wave of Britpop.