It’s a well-worn archetype that a band’s worst enemy is their fanbase. I don’t think this is endemic to music. You see, I watch Dr. Who, so I know about fanbases that can be passionate about what they love. How that passion comes through varies in levels of adjectives.

Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and Arcade Fire seem to cohabitate with Weezer that strange strata of fanbases. Thoroughly enamoured with the output, hypercritical for reasons that are understandable once you get deep into the lore.

I feel okay when a band’s output doesn’t “speak to me” any longer. I don’t waste too much time frothing over discussion forums or reddit, there are other things I can spend my energy in.

Having watched several times the informative essays by MarcButEvil, I can understand two things about Weezer. One: Rivers Cuomo’s constant bullying is the reason he needs validation and popularity. I don’t blame him, you can understand a person being like this if you ever experienced bullying. Second: Weezer could release a hard rocking, riff filled, drunk in guitar solos stupor, crunching album. They just won’t do it. It’s probably the reason why so many b-sides and demos are far superior to the released albums they’ve put out. The Gold Album, which is due in a couple of weeks, already has the demos out on video form on a YouTube channel, and surprise surprise, they’re much better than what’s been teased.

I’m still waiting to judge until I listen to the album. It needs a fair shot, like everything.

With that said, I keep coming back to their Green Album time and time again. At barely 28 minutes, it’s a concise, clinical mixtape of good rocking riffs, and Cuomo’s decisively horny lyrical work. He never hid it, and it’s right there in Crab and Hash Pipe, two of the album’s most raunchier tracks, well hidden under a veneer of radio friendly pop.

It’s not a revelation, but The Green Album saved Weezer. After the apocalyptical reception of Pinkerton, later re-evaluated as their finest hour (I disagree), the band had no direction and worst of all, no confidence on their own prowess. Cuomo’s frail mental health took a major hit and everyone seemed ready to move on. Many false starts and side projects prolonged the agony. It wasn’t until Ric Ocasek’s summoning that things finally shoved forward.

Ocasek always had a good hear for melody. Listen to any track by The Cars and you understand how much of a genius he was, probably on the same height as Mark Hollis (Talk Talk) and Jeff Lynne (ELO, Traveling Wilburys).

Ocasek took the best demos from the plethora of sketches the band had and fine tuned them. The result is an album that is crisp and never overstays its welcome. It’s the opposite of what Rick Rubin did to Make Believe.

The entire future of Weezer was riding on the back of Hash Pipe. Marcos Siega, the ubiquitous video director of the early 00’s was hired and the sumo wrestlers felt odd until you finished watching the video. Weezer we’re back with a rocking song and an odd video. Business as usual.

The Green album sold like crazy, and it’s weird that both Pinkerton and The Green Album achieved gold status at the same date. One was the flash fire the band wanted, the other a smouldering fire. Both feel like embers now, with newer generations sometimes fanning non-existent flames. Perhaps Weezer has a sell-by date, like all of us.

I have a special place in my heart for The Green Album. I was wandering Manchester after a job faire. I remember my tactical delivery of CVs, waiting for any company to hire me. I applied to 40 or so places and by day’s end, I was exhausted. Roaming around under a cool November drizzle, I dove into Fopp and both The Green Album and Maladroit were for sale. 2 for a tenner. My first Weezer experience was with those two albums, a merry contrast to the harsh winter of 2003. Didnae manage to get a job, though, and had to leave Nottingham for Mexico in March of 2004.

I don’t believe the band realised how much their fandom wanted them back. It feels contrary to their latest releases, where it feels they are taking too many thing for granted. I do appreciate them trying to change their sound, my main qualm is about how overproduced some of their recent albums feel, with a loss of dynamic range to booth.

-Sam J. Valdés López