Weezer “Everything Will Be Alright In The End”
A few major label acts fall into the “power pop” category, and fewer have the longevity of Weezer. Rivers Cuomo has really come back to his roots and even got his old producer Ric Ocasek to help bring the magic back. In a major turnaround, Rivers waves goodbye to the dance-rock of 2009’s Raditude for good. He explains himself on “Back to the Shack,” that “thought I’d get a new audience, I forgot that disco sucks” and even the guitar licks refer back to the bands “Blue” debut.
“Eulogy for A Rock Band” tells us that Weezer accepts its role in the rock universe, and to cement this gives us the crunchy singles “Lonely Girl,” “The British Are Coming,” “Cleopatra,” and “Go Away.” The band still goes off on a tangent with its’ closing suite “The Futurescope Trilogy,” but there are more hooks than a tacklebox on the songs preceding it. Highly Recommended, especially if you haven’t heard any Weezer since 2001.
Rob Fetters “Saint Ain’t”
I really enjoyed discovering Cincinnati musician Rob Fetters (Thanks Carl Chavis!) Recorded in Nashville with a pile of guest stars like Matt Malley (Counting Crows), Belinda Lipscomb (Midnight Star), and Clyde Brown (The Drifters, Ben E. King) to name a few. “Suffer” is a catchy rock gem that will get you hooked. “Nero” is plaintive light pop composition with a great hook about infamy, “who says I can’t last forever?” he says. His sound is similar to Tom Petty, Todd Rundgren or Ian Hunter.
Solid songs all along here, “Desire” and “Forever Never” are very enjoyable, but the collaborations are so stylistically different it’s jarring. The light folky “Famous Last Words” a collaboration with Bee Haskins is the polar opposite of the blues-rock on “Life and Death Boogie” with Clyde Brown. Honestly, Fetters is so good he didn’t need these duets here to fill the running time. “Walking Out” is another gem with excellent guitar work that closes out the album. Highly Recommended.
CD Baby
I’ve discovered so many great artists through you. I’m glad I could I could return the favor. And I second Bruce’s comments about Rob Fetters and his recommendation to seek out his music.
Rob Fetters is one of THE most under-rated and unknown songwriters who deserve a massive audience – period.
He does not have a single mediocre record attached to his name, in a body of work that stretches over 30 years.
Find the self-titled album(produced by Adrian Belew) by the Raisins, then the two albums from the Bears(on IRS Records distributed label, Primitive Man, featuring Adrian Belew as a band member) and anything by the Psychodots and every single Rob Fetters solo album.
Really. Just find ’em, pop fans. Fetter is a monster pop talent and insanely gifted(and unique) guitarist as a bonus.