Weezer’s Green Album Is a Safe, Solid Reset

Best Record of 2001: Day 28 Cover art courtesy of Geffen Records Good morning! Today we’re taking a look at Weezer’s Green album as it takes on Melody A.M. by Röyksopp. In my head, every Weezer fan is one of these two people. Reductive? Maybe. Accurate, probably. At any rate… At the risk of great bodily harm, here’s my tl;dr: Weezer didn’t follow up Pinkerton so much as they ran as fast as they could away from it. This was a good thing. After the (at best) confused reaction to their 1996 album, Rivers Cuomo and co. went back to the drawing board and reeled things back. The Green Album plays like something of a reset button, a record built to avoid risk at all costs, and one meant to make you forget Pinkerton ever happened. No oversharing from Cuomo or blood-on-the-page type lyrics. No big swings, sound-wise. Instead, we got ten clean, efficient power pop songs that stick to the formula and rarely step outside it. And for the most part, the plan works. Clocking in at just under 30…