Dear Hipsters,

I am writing this letter to ask one simple favor, stop picking on Weezer.  They (as far as I can tell) haven’t done anything to deserve the amount of hatred a lot of you have been spewing on them for the last several years.  Sure, their recent outcrop of albums don’t live up to the quality standard they set early on, but that shouldn’t come as such a surprise.  The Blue Album and Pinkerton are amazing albums and are revered as such.  But there are varying degrees of quality between ‘Masterpiece’ and ‘Soul-Suckingly Awful,’ a fact that most of you are pretty good at remembering… except when it comes to Weezer.

Now believe me when I say this, I get where you’re coming from, nothing Weezer has done post-Pinkerton has been great (except Maladroit, that album honestly rules), but that doesn’t mean they are completely worthless.  The Green Album has more than its share of finely-crafted pop songs (although I really don’t care much for Hash Pipe), Maladroit, as I’ve already mentioned, is an honest-to-God amazing album, and if you haven’t heard it you really need to (and please listen to it with an open mind).  Make Believe, I will admit, I have not given a fair shake to, I’ve heard three songs, two of them I can’t in good conscience say I like (Beverly Hills and We Are All On Drugs) and one that is perfect latter-day Weezer (Perfect Situation).  They, admittedly, went off the rails a bit with The Red Album, but still managed roughly half of a good record.  Raditude, again, not great, but there is way more to like there than a lot of you would like to let on.

Seriously, what is with the hate?  (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To is nothing if not an amazingly fun and catchy tune.  Yet to listen to you, you’d think it was a terribly constructed, cringe-inducing, nightmarish slog of a song that was a chore to even overhear from the next room.  And I don’t think that’s fair.  In actuality, I find the song to be something of a spiritual cousin to El Scorcho.  Think about it, acoustic verses, big bombastic choruses, oddly specific lyrics of love and angst; sure, it’s more poppy than El Scorcho, but there’s more there than you’re admitting.

But like I said, I get it, you want Weezer to make more music like they used to, heck, I want Weezer to make more music like they used to, but you know who doesn’t want Weezer to make more music like they used to?  Weezer, that’s who, and ultimately, it’s up to them.  For now, they seem to be enjoying themselves making low-stakes pop music, and I say, more power to them.  I’m not trying to say you’re not allowed to hate Weezer (far be it for me to come between a hipster and their hatred), all I ask is that, if you must hate them, hate them for the music they are making, not the music they’re not making.

Sincerely,

Level-Headed Weezer Fan

Posted under Kyle's Adventures in Pop Culture