ARTICLE JUMP
1. Weezer - Raditude
Christ.What happened here? The Red Album was fun and listenable: a few duds but some catchy tracks and witty ideas. This is just throwaway garbage. Where you used to be able to discount Rivers Cuomo's weirder moments on Weezer's recent output as examples of him subverting rock and roll paradigms, this is just the sound of a band phoning it in. The track with Lil Wayne sounds exactly like you think it's going to, and not in a good way, and the opening track "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is the album's best point. Rivers' perpetual 15 year old schtick is starting to be creepy instead of endearing, and this record epitomises it.
2. Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
Interest in this record seems to have died off in the second half of 2009, thankfully. A much less interesting sequel to American Idiot, shat out by a band less concerned these days with heartfelt (if childish) lyrics, and more so with 'widening their boundaries', mistakenly thinking of themselves as genre-spanning heroes melding punk rock with stadium. The result is a boring and forgettable collection of songs that show none of the warmth of their earlier output. They don't have to write another Nimrod to please the critics, but the much-vaunted Warning was a great example of how to break the mould without sounding forced.
3. AFI - Crash Love
Davey and co supply us with an album shifted even further toward the pop/rock spectrum, gradually subtracting all of the elements that made AFI good: catharsis, depth and texture. While this still has their increasingly-prevalent flamboyance and showmanship, it also sees Havok's lyrics faltering for the first time as he attempts to widen his scope, firing off poorly-aimed shots at religion, and penning embarrassing lovenotes to Winona Ryder. The urgency and darkness is gone, replaced by plasticy efforts at enthusiasm.
4. NOFX - Coaster
It's perhaps too obvious to critique an album specifically named to suggest its throwaway nature, but this smacked of a band trying too hard to perform the trick they've perfected over their last half dozen records. Songs struggling to do the 'funny punk' thing, and some more weak attacks on organised religion, and we have a NOFX album by numbers.
5. Death By Stereo - Death Is My Only Friend
Cheesy hard rock, radio-friendly choruses, awful string-laden ballads and a re-recording of an already poor song. What is it with bands from California wanting to piss all over their discography? Skip this and head straight for Into the Valley of Death.
(Matt)
