10 Terrible Albums By Legendary Music Bands

One of the main appeals of Weezer back in the day was just how much they felt like outsiders to the mainstream. In the wake of the grunge empire falling, these nerdy guys making rock tunes was actually a lot more interesting, not having that much of a gimmick and celebrating the fun of being the little guy. After Pinkerton got a pounding from the critics though, Rivers Cuomo went down a dark rabbit hole of trying to sound cool in the '00s.

While there are a few Weezer records that are called into question as the band's worst, Raditude is the moment where everything seemed to go wrong at once. Straying away from the kind of nerdy tropes that they were used to, Rivers seemed to craft this entire record as their attempt to go pop, with fairly mixed results all around. Though his knack for melody hasn't really gone anywhere, there are lyrics and collaborators on here that have no business being associated with a Weezer project, from Jermaine Dupri having a songwriting credit to giving Lil Wayne a whole guest verse on Can't Stop Partying.

Compared to their humble beginnings, this almost feels sacrilege for the core Weezer audience, as Rivers talks about loving the excesses of being the big swaggering rock star, while also still looking like Buddy Holly. Weezer were able to bounce back from this a few years later, but as soon as you hear a song like Trippin Down the Freeway, you know that they're never going to write a song as poignant as In the Garage ever again.