Anyone who read the liner notes of Rivers Cuomo's recent collection of demos knows that he's been a bit of a tease as of late, alluding to some experimental new sounds and ideas that Weezer has been toying with but not really telling us anything concrete. Well, this morning Pitchfork asked him exactly what he means when he says the band has been getting experimental, and this is what he's promised for the new album:

After seeing Josh's icon, I had revive this thread.

I have an ri-freaking-donkulously large file on Weezer in my brain. I don't know why this band has such a hold on me. Like most Weezer fans, I once obsessively loved them (when I was about 19 to 21 years old), and have frequently cursed them with bitter, bitter hatred. But one thing I can't do is stop caring about them. I want to. I really want to never care about Weezer again. But Weezer is the only big rock band that makes me feel genuinely excited about the release date of a record, even though I KNOW that it is going to disappoint me.

So let's talk about this: is there hope for Weezer after Pitchfork's arguably valid 0.0 rating of Make Believe? Is Rivers Cuomo going to give us anything new and interesting now that he's settled down with a wife and kid?

Even though people have been talking about a "return to form" since 2001, and it's never really happened, the new single "Pork and Beans" does actually have a chorus that sounds like something from the Blue album, and lame lyrics (as always) aside, I am digging it. Maybe it's petty and stupid to want a band to start sounding the way they did 14 years ago. But I want it so bad.

Well, I have to point back to that little snippet of text I quoted in my first post; if this album is really as out-there and risky as Rivers once said it would be, it almost HAS to be their most interesting album this side of Pinkerton.

I don't think 0.0 is a fair rating for Make Believe-- it did in fact have a few good songs on it-- but I won't disagree that it was largely a forgettable album, and that, the more Weezer mines the same old formula, the less I'm going to care about them. When The Green Album came out, I loved it because, well, it was an engaging return to music-making after their brief retirement. But with each new album since then, it's becoming increasingly worrisome that they seem stuck in a rut, simply uninterested in expanding or redefining their sound at all. The bright spot of the wonderfully weird Pinkerton-- one of my favorite albums ever-- seems more and more like a fluke.

But I'm not ready to count them out yet, especially with all the initial hype suggesting that they really do change things up a bit on us here. And as you say, the first single, though far from a reinvention, does find them making pop music as goofily charming as anything they've done in a very long time.

I had the same reaction to "Pork & Beans" as Joel. It's been stuck in my head for a few days, at least. If the rest of the album is like this, that's a good sign.

I'm one of the few defenders of Make Believe — it wasn't great, but I thought there were a couple of great tracks on there. It's much more listenable than Maladroit, I like it better than some parts of the green album, and it's certainly not 0.0 worthy (good ol' Pitchfork).

You know, I almost want to start a fight and say Maladroit is better than Make Believe, even though Maladriot is a sloppy, formless glob of ...what, ""metal?"" (huge ironic quotes) Almost.

"This is Such a Pity" is a good song, but Make Believe is just so devoid of life. Even the "emotional" songs never quite get there for me. What I like about Maladroit is its obnoxious attitude: screw the fans, screw the label, we're going to make this record really fast and put it out, and stuff it full of deeldey-deedely Scorpions solos.

Most of the songs on Maladroit are also horrible, though, now that I think about it...but they're lame in a more endearing, hey-we-can-do-it-ourselves way than Make Believe's super-slick Rick Rubin sheen is.

The big post-Pinkerton problem, of course, is lyrics -- Cuomo has been maddeningly vague for the last 3 records. I really don't care if he writes about "real" things; I just want to feel like Weezer's songs are written by a human and not PowerPopBot5000.

I didn't mind it on the Green Album, because I thought it was rather fascinating to hear Rivers toying with craft and asserting himself as a pop songsmith. But after that? Yeah, it's gotten tedious. Although "Pork and Beans" actually corrects the trend, just a bit-- it's reportedly based on an encounter in which record label suits told Rivers he had to write more hits, and I think you can definitely pick up on that in the lyrics. So it might not be as embarrassingly honest as Pinkerton, but at least it's more personal than most of the last three discs.

Release date was moved up to June 3, probably thanks to the leak. Which I have been listening to.

I don't know what to think. "Troublemaker," the would-be first single before "Pork and Beans" was tacked on, is as good as its replacement. There are two very weird, bloated, "medley"-type songs -- one of which, "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" is now available on iTunes. Kind of funny, kind of good, kind of horrible.

"Heart Songs" is kind of like "In the Garage" 15 years later. And by golly, there are some "personal" lyrics - about how hearing Nirvana's Nevermind inspired Cuomo to start Weezer.

Some of the other songs are mind-bendingly bad. I am already planning my own reshuffled tracklist based on the bonus tracks and b-sides that are planned for the "deluxe" and UK editions.

I've heard it, and have a very different take from Joel. I think you could make a solid case that this is the best Weezer album ever, but that's a dramatic oversimplification.

My opinion is starting to change -- a little -- and I'll concur that it's possible this is the best Weezer album since Pinkerton.

In the latest effort to combat the leak, they've now also released "Troublemaker" as another iTunes single. Here's my take on Weezer's 3 current "singles," cross-posted from ye olde blogge:

The Official Single: "Pork and Beans" (radio and iTunes) - A three-minute jam of a red herring: twangy acoustic intro (is it gonna be like "El Scorcho?"), beefy grunge power-chord chorus (is it gonna be like "Buddy Holly?"), goofy lyrics that actually have some bearing on Rivers Cuomo's life. This is definitely Weezer's best single since "Island in the Sun" -- maybe even their best since "Buddy Holly" itself. The only fumble here is that the potentially awesome cascading guitar/vocal line in the chorus stays on the same note instead of giving us the kind of tasty countermelody we would have gotten in the good old days.

The First Choice: "Troublemaker" (iTunes) - The first track on the Red Album, which was announced as the album's first single on Weezer.com before it was replaced by "Pork and Beans." Thematically similar to its replacement (i.e., I'm an iconoclast - deal with it) and almost as catchy, with just slightly countrified Tom Petty-ish chords. Embarrassingly simple rhymes, the trademark of post-2001 Weezer, abound (school/fool, for example), but Cuomo redeems himself, as others have noted, by the awkwardly endearing couplet "marrying' a biyatch, havin' seven kiyads." Perfect powerpop bridge with lyrics that work as a dual reference to "Tired of Sex" and Cuomo's 2-year vow of celibacy.

The Populist Choice: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" (iTunes) - This was probably released because of the chatter making the rounds: 50% "OMG this is the coolest thing EVER, Weezer is BACK," 50% "Weezer has descended even further than we ever thought possible into a pit of obsolescence and shame." Better to charge people $1 to find out. A mystifying mash-up of styles, from rap to country to "what Weezer is actually supposed to sound like" (which may be the most disingenuous style of all!), all supporting Cuomo's oh-so-subtle lyrical proclamation: "I am the greatest man that ever lived." Like all neo-Weezer, this song delivered with utter sincerity, although according to all known laws of reality, it must be ironic.

My geekishly long review.

Now the record is out, and I'm starting to come around. It's hard for me to take the non-Cuomo tracks seriously (although the unbelievably bad lines in "Cold Dark World," sung by Scott Shriner, were written by Rivers-- "If you want love then I'll be here to sex you"). If you edit them out and replace them with some of the bonus, tracks, it's really a pretty good album. Not Pinkerton-remarkable, but solid.

This record seems to be about growing older and accepting life, family, responsibility, and mortality. I was completely taken by surprise by the final track, "The Angel and the One," which is kind of like an anti-"Only In Dreams" - the singer chooses spirituality over romance. Who would've thought Weezer would ever write a song with the refrain "peace, peace, shalom?" I guess it's all that meditation...

Alone II, the second collection of Cuomo demos and home recordings, is out tomorrow-- and it's a surprisingly strong collection.

This is not about The Red Album, but since this seems to be the only Weezer thread, here goes.

My history with Weezer is an idiosyncratic one. Like everyone else, I suppose, I was exposed to the Blue Album (the debut), and thought that it was fun, catchy power pop. I still like that album. And it has a long and deep history in my family. When my kids were a little younger, and we set out in the car for a vacation, Weezer's song "Holiday" was sure to be blasting from the overtaxed minivan sound system as soon as we hit the end of the driveway. It was literally a rite of passage. It marked the beginning of every meaningful family road trip.

My daughters absolutely love Weezer. Both of them. And that's saying something, because one of them is the quintessential indie scenester kid, and the other is the quintessential oddball nerd who generally favors Eastern European folk tunes (she asked for, and received, a balalaika for Christmas last year, and she plays it well), Celine Dion albums, and Broadway musicals. Hey, you have to rebel some way when dad loves punk and every weird band with bad haircuts.

So the indie scenester kid has been telling me for years that Pinkerton, the followup to the Blue Album, is her alltime favorite album. For whatever reasons, I didn't pay much attention. I'm sure I've heard it, or parts of it, before, in the general cacophany that emanates from the bedroom or the bathroom whenever the indie scenester kid is home on break from college. But I remember reading the reviews when the album came out, and I remember the scathing reception it received, and so I never really bothered to check it out. Well, the scenester is home again for Christmas break, and she told me again yesterday: "You need to check out Pinkerton, dad. Don't believe what you read. I have better taste than those clowns at Rolling Stone." I'm not sure where she gets this, but she seems to come by it honestly.

So I took her up on it. And, by (stereo)gum, she was right. I've heard this album precisely two times, both within the past four hours. I think it's safe to say that it will not become my alltime favorite album. But I understand the appeal. There's an emotional rawness that is lacking in the sometimes-too-cutesy debut. There's an air of desperation, and an almost oppressive sense of loneliness and alienation. It's the perfect soundtrack for sensitive 22-year-olds. But there's some absolutely great rock 'n roll, too, as when the overamped guitars kick in on the opening track "Tired of Sex," and Rivers Cuomo lets fly with a wordless howl that takes in everything that's ever been written about frustration and self-loathing. It's really great, and I can see why the scenester kid cherishes that howl. I just may end up cherishing it as well.

So you never know. Don't believe music critics. They suck. Some times -- most times, in fact -- the kids are all right.

And of course, Pinkerton might be the only album in history that actually caused Rolling Stone to retract their own review; their initial critique of it was, as Andy notes, scathing, but they later apologized and named it one of the best albums of the year. And really, both the RS review-retraction and Andy's post here summarize Pinkerton's history: Though it was initially panned by nearly everyone, the album has only grown in stature since its release, and I'd say roughly half the Weezer fans in the world would call it the band's best album. (The other half, of course, still pulls for the Blue Album.)

Pinkerton may've received some bad reviews when it came out, but I've seen lots of critics (and fans) say it's the band's best album.

I know I do. I didn't like it when I was a kid. I remember sitting in the cab of my parents' pick-up truck on the way back from an outlet mall, opening the shrink wrap in shock — there was a song with the sex word in the title. Ick.

That said, I listened to it, amiss that the innocent Weezer was gone, replaced by a horny, angry Rivers. (Any innuendos from the blue album soared over my tween head, obviously.) But Pinkerton grew on me. And grew some more. It's not my favorite album either, Andy, but there are some priceless moments on their: "Tired of Sex" is one of my favorite opening tracks from any album, a brutal mix of catchy and madcap...Cuomo's guitar solo sounds like a great afterthought; "Getchoo" turns the guitars into buzz saws; Pat Wilson's steady backbeat almost one-ups anything Bun E. Carlos ever did (almost); Matt Sharp's blaring bass lines and near-shouted backing vocals make me miss him even more; and "Butterfly," the only acoustic track on the album, serves as a pretty breath of relief after the rest of the songs.

So, I love it. It seems like there's been a revival of interest in the album over the past few years, as more and more folks are realizing that it's a great album.

I bought Pinkerton the summer before seventh grade and it was one of the first CDs in my record collection. At the time I didn't understand the loneliness, angst, or sexual/romantic frustration about which Cuomo was singing--I just loved the raw tunes. Thought it isn't my favorite album, one reason I love it so much is that as I was going through the tumultuous high school and college years learning how to interact with the opposite sex, Pinkerton was a constant companion. I think its noisy rock also greatly influenced my very impressionable musical tastes as I'm still attracted to a little squeal and noise in my music. I remember, shortly after buying it, trying to convince some high schoolers who were huge Weezer fans that Pinkteron was better than The Blue Album. They laughed, but a few years later, they, along with countless others, repented.

Pinkerton is one of the greatest rock records of the last 20 years, easily. Not that I'm making sweeping generalizations.

Cuomo's Alone II has some more tracks from the pre-hiatus era that are worth listening to, as well: "Walt Disney" is pretty great, and there's another trio of songs from the abandoned "songs from the black hole" project which was eventually replaced by Pinkerton as Weezer's second album. Enough of the demos/b-sides from SFTBH have been released now to allow for a pretty great homemade version of it: "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams," "Superfriend," "Longtime Sunshine," and "Blast Off" are some of Cuomo's best melodies.