10 2000s Albums That Are A Lot Better Than You Remember
3. The Red Album - Weezer
There are normally two very different camps when it comes to Weezer's career trajectory since the '90s. Either you're the die hard Weezer fan who will stand up for whatever they do, or you're the naysayer who maintains the fairweather status and holds onto albums like their debut and Pinkerton as the only true classics. Regardless of its spottiness though, The Red Album was probably the best we could have hoped for at this point in the nerd rockers' career.
Having gone on full pop rock mode on the songs on Make Believe, this was a good time for Rivers Cuomo to experiment, which he does to great effect on almost every track here. They don't always land too well...with Troublemaker being one of the more cringey things to come from the man who would eventually make Raditude. On the other hand, songs like The Greatest Man That Ever Lived are still good attempts to write an experience like song, along with the eternal jam Pork and Beans.
It's also interesting to hear the band pull a bait and switch by having the other members sing on the back half of the record, which makes for some pretty distinct genre bending tracks like Cold Dark World. Though this would be an experiment that would lead to a dead end, The Red Album has way more color than the title probably implies.