Ah, what the heck, I might as well. (Thoughts on Weezer and Coldplay)

I have so many things I should be working on right now, but... I have to give my two cents on the recent musical achievements of two iconic bands: Weezer and Coldplay. They are both wildly popular, but beyond that there are few similarities, except that they both released albums after a brief hiatus.

All of my friends grew up with Weezer, and I heard their name thrown around, along with snippets of songs like Say it Ain't So, The Sweater Song, Island in the Sun and of course, Buddy Holly. On one of my recent routine trips to McKay's used bookstore to get the albums that I should have always been listening to and loving, I finally picked up the Blue Albums. I subsequently lived a 30-minute or so adolescence on the drive back up to school. Then, after hearing the recent single, "Pork & Beans", I took an interest in the new album (my ears are still relatively new, mind you). Listened to a few tracks online (thank you, Hype Machine), and picked it up at Best Buy. Oh man.

The first track, "Troublemaker", had me rolling with laughter it was so good. The breaking point for me was the verse in which he sings, with a guitar riff going on underneath: "You wanted arts and crafts, how's this for arts and crafts - wuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh THAT'S RIGHT!" The second track, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived", I couldn't believe, was subtitled "Variations on a Shaker Hymn". Starting off with a dinky piano riff version of "Simple Gifts", Rivers Cuomo goes into a mock-rap, making it sound a bit like Jay-Z's use of "It's a Hard Knock Life". (Listener beware: it's a bit sexual, but in a mocking sort of way, a la Chazz Michael Michaels from Blades of Glory). But after the rap and in-your-face response, it just takes off. This is the new Bohemian Rhapsody...can I say that? It at least echoes the greatness. Every half minute or so the song shifts gears to a new sound, resulting in a masterpiece of a song that covers just about every base musically. You really just need to listen to it.

Then it's "Pork & Beans", which is a great song. The two after that are great - "Heart Songs", a somewhat sappy (but it's alright) walk through all the songs that influenced Rivers Cuomo, and then "Everybody Get Dangerous", which is awesome, just because it has the lines: "Hey Dad, my friends got some new ninja swords; Is it cool if we slash up this place...And get dangerous?" And then the rest of the album is good, sort of. But that's where I finish raving and move on to Coldplay.

Viva La Vida (or Death and All His Friends) is much easier to talk about than the Red Album, because I really can just say that you need to buy it and listen to the whole thing over and over again. (You can listen to the whole thing right now, at http://www.fm97.com/cc-common/news/sections/special/coldplay.html) I heard Violet Hill when it came out a while ago (again, thank you Hype Machine), and I really liked it. I thought it was interesting Coldplay was going for rock and roll, but it was good. Then Viva La Vida came out, and burrowed into my brain and I've been singing it since. Way to go, Eno. Brian Eno's production has really helped Coldplay make an excellent album. Viva La Vida is such a good song, but so is every other song on the album. I would suggest listening to Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love, Cemeteries of London and Death and All His Friends if you've already heard the singles and want to hear some great tracks from the CD. In the words of the wife in Raising Arizona: "I love it sohohohoho much."