Weezer (Red Album)

Recorded
 Genre
 Length
 Label

2. "Troublemaker"Released: July 26, 2008
3. "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)"Released: May 13, 2008
4. "Dreamin'"Released: May 27, 2008 (iTunes only)

Weezer, also known as the Red Album, is the sixth studio album and album by the American rock band Weezer, released on June 3, 2008, by DGC and Interscope Records. Rick Rubin and Jacknife Lee both produced parts of the album, with the band producing a handful of tracks themselves. Like their 1994 debut, other band members contributed to songwriting. This is the first and, so far, the only Weezer album to feature lead vocals from all four band members. The album also features more musical experimentation in comparison to their previous efforts, especially shown in such songs as "Dreamin'", "The Angel and the One", and "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived".

Two commercial singles were released from the album—"Pork and Beans" and "Troublemaker"—both becoming relatively successful modern rock hits. The video for the former also became the most-watched video on the internet the weekend following its release. Additionally, an unconventional Hootenanny Tour replaced the traditional rock concert tour to promote the album. Despite this, it proved to be less successful than their previous album Make Believe.

## Background

After the platinum success of their fifth album Make Believe, the band once again was put on hiatus. Frontman Rivers Cuomo returned to Harvard University to complete his education. He ended up graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Cuomo also married Kyoko Ito on June 18, 2006, a woman he had known since March 1997. He proposed to her in Tokyo shortly before Christmas 2005. The wedding was held at a secluded beach on Paradise Cove in Malibu and was attended by over a hundred people, including six of the seven members who played in Weezer (Mikey Welsh was not in attendance) as well as notables Justin Fisher, Kevin Ridel and Rick Rubin.

Meanwhile, members Patrick Wilson and Brian Bell appeared in the 2006 film Factory Girl playing John Cale and Lou Reed respectively and contributing a cover of the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" for the film. Also during this time, Bell formed a new side-band called The Relationship while Wilson started work on material for the next Special Goodness album. He also had a second child, Ian Patrick Wilson, with his wife in early 2008.

The band announced in June 2007 that recording sessions for the album would begin in July. In December 2007, Cuomo released Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, which featured home demos that Cuomo has recorded from 1992 to 2007. It was also during this time that a mysterious website called albumsix.com began gaining attention. The website gave false information about the album such as the album title would be "Tout Ensemble" (French for "All Together") and a fake release date. The website fooled several news outlets such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. The website was later revealed to be a hoax by some fans.

## Recording

At the beginning of the album's creation each Weezer member asked themselves what they wanted to get out of the album. With that in mind, they set out to record. Recording was done in three sessions. Half of the album was recorded during the spring of 2007 with Rick Rubin overseeing production. The second session, started in July and finished on October 18, was produced by Weezer themselves at Malibu. The third and final session of recording was done at the request of Geffen Records, who claimed that there was not enough commercial material on the album. This session was produced by Jacknife Lee and completed in March 2008. In the first podcast released on www.riverspodcast.com, Rivers mentioned playing drums on two songs on the album. In an interview with Pitchfork, Cuomo stated the album would contain "longer songs, non-traditional song forms, different people writing and singing, instrument switching, TR-808s, synths, Southern rap, and baroque counterpoint."

## Track Listing

* 1. Troublemaker
* 2. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
* 3. Pork and Beans
* 4. Heart Songs
* 5. Everybody Get Dangerous
* 6. Dreamin'
* 7. Thought I Knew
* 8. Cold Dark World
* 9. Automatic
* 10. The Angel and the One

### Bonus Tracks

* 11. Miss Sweeney
* 12. Pig
* 13. The Spider
* 14. King