Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Cover

It is difficult for me to write about modern albums, I feel like. I try to make sure that if I am going to dedicate the time to learning the new music (by learning I mean a lot of listening) it had better be good. My attention span isn’t what it used to be, and I find little desire to decode the lyrics of complicated songs. And though I support the idea that all musicians should grow in depth as they mature, the fact is, I am a much older man in spirit than body, and am very much a fuddy duddy, even though my last three posts were about modern albums.

Many of the bands singing pop rock when I was a kid had their start in the 70’s before I was born. I found them in the late 80’s and respected them into the 90’s. When it comes to bands that started during my middle to teenage years in the mid to late 90’s I wonder what they are doing now. For some reason I had assumed Weezer had simply stopped making music after Green. Then I realized why I was missing their new albums, when I saw “Everything Will Be Alright In the End,” at the record store.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Record

My ascension to Fuddy Duddydum had left me listing to classic rock channels and 90’s grunge and alternative channels (which is considered classic rock in some circles). I forgot that classic Weezer, though very good, was not the only Weezer. I looked over while picking my daughter up from school and heard her singing along to Weezer’s new album and realized that Weezer had gained new status in the world, a band that survived its beginnings and grew into something bigger, something that made them into a new classic. I was just old enough to have been there when they started, but my daughter, learned of them many years after their beginning. Of course it can often be difficult reconnecting older bands, but Weezer’s “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” made it easy. Cuomo’s intent in this album was to look back while moving forward, using their classic sound.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Insert

I don’t know what it is about Weezer and Cuomo’s writing that makes me pour over lyrics, regardless of whether I want to, it is compulsive. Sure, I could try to just enjoy this album, bobbing my head as I listen to the catchy tunes, but I feel like I would be treating the writer unjustly. These songs make it hard to just listen to I want to hear them as well. In fact I had to google Foucault before writing this paragraph. I can imagine saying that to Rivers Cuomo and Rivers just walking away shaking his head. When I listen to River’s words and music I cycle through few basic thoughts that progress in this manner.

1. I’d love to meet this guy for coffee
2. We could talk about his music and theology
3. I’d love to hear about his writing process
4. Shit he went to Harvard
5. Am I smart enough to talk with Rivers?
6. Uh oh I’d better prepare how do you pronounce Foucault again?
7. Can I call him Rivers?
8. And I’d better bone up on my Greek, where did I leave my old professors email?
9. I’m tired

Would Someone Please Translate This For Me? My Greek is Terrible.

Weezer produces great and catchy music, which seems extremely unpopular today. Cuomo writes amazing lyrics, in fact he went to college to make himself a better writer, to better delve into the depths of his soul. The songs in this album are broken into three topics, Women, Work, and Father Issues. These three topics show up often in Weezer songs, but that’s not a bad thing, because these three topics show up often in our day to day lives. But Cuomo doesn’t sing about these three things the same way as he did in Pinkerton and Blue, instead, his songs engender growth, and one of the greatest truths, sometimes we have to return to the beginning to really know who we are in the end.