Thank you so much Universal Records for sending me a tin of Watties baked beans and saussages with this album – the perfect gift to accompany a great new hit WEEZER song ‘Pork And Beans’ and an excellent remedy for my hunger on a day when nothing else in the pantry looks very appealing. You know, if all record labels did this I’d never go hungry again! But yeah anyway, ‘Pork And Beans’ …it’s the third track on WEEZER’s new “Red Album” although still a good place to start. This track is built from that heavy melodic Pop Rock which is WEEZER through and through – the same sort of stuff we heard on their classic ‘The Blue Album’ released back in 1994.
While you can hang onto the heavier ‘Pork And Beans’ as a fairly direct connection to the band’s past musical direction, this album definitely exhibits a softer side and also more experimental side to WEEZER on many of the tracks. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty off good solid Rock riffs in tracks like ‘Dreamin’ and ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)’ although both those songs still have their quiet, mellow parts. That second song I just mentioned also has an interesting choiral-like vocal arrangement in it where the whole band sings together and even a piano section. It’s all unmistakably WEEZER, just with the addition of some different ideas which are clearly audiable. Perhaps some input from producer Bob Rock thrown in there? The experimentation comes to a grand creschendo with ‘The Angel And The One’ which is a real roller coaster ride of musical ups and downs. Just to keep it random as a bonus track they’ve chucked in a rather straightforward but nicely heavied-up cover of THE BAND’s 1968 classic ‘The Weight’.
In all, I think this is a good album from WEEZER and makes a nice addition to the “Blue” and “Green” albums. It might take a little longer to get into but the great tunes are definitely there. And of course ‘Pork And Beans’, well that’s catchy right from the get go. Righto, that’s all you get for one tin of ‘Pork And Beans’. Of course if you want to send through a few more tins I couldadd a 10/10 on the end of this review for ya!
Review by Dave Borgioli-Jones
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