10 Hard Rock Albums Everyone Forgets About

10. Maladroit - Weezer

No one is going to be coming to a band like Weezer expecting some of the hardest rock out there. Even though the guitars did crunch a fair bit on their first handful of records, these were the guys that you came to so you could get a break from most of the other nasty rock and roll in the wild. The nerd rockers did have a dark side though, and the longer they were in the game, that dark side was bound to come out.

Put together from pieces that Weezer were working with and approved by the fans, Maladroit might be one of the most adventurous records that the band ever made. After already testing the waters and falling fairly flat with fans reception of Pinkerton, this is Weezer dealing with something a lot more aggro this time around, as songs like Take Control and American Gigolo bring an almost metallic crunch to the usual power pop sound that Rivers Cuomo is used to writing in.

Even on the prettier moments of this record, you can still hear them trying to incorporate some new ideas, like Death and Destruction practically sounding like a cut that Radiohead could have made back in the days of OK Computer. Rivers was always a shredder from the beginning though, and him going up and down the scales on some of these songs might be one of the best that he's laid down in his career. So next time you call Weezer nothing but a bunch of pop fluff, listen to the solo in Love Explosion and you'll see what you've been missing.