Weezer
Weezer
Interscope/ Universal



"If you don't like it, you can shove it; but you don't like it, you love it," Rivers Cuomo leers in spoken word on Weezer's sixth record. It's a line that, along with the stupendous piss-take of the artwork, perfectly sums up the fearless indignation that pervades the entirety of the 'Red Album', which is essentially a musical fuck you to critics, wayward fans, and most importantly, as evidenced on brilliant lead single Pork And Beans, former label Geffen ("Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the chart/ maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art"). It is also, without the faintest shadow of a doubt, the finest Weezer record since 1996's 'Pinkerton'.

Opening with the inspired pop-crunch of Troublemaker, 'The Red Album' quickly shows its true colours as it stumbles into The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn), a six-minute epic which opens as a siren-backed hip-hop rant before passing through all manner of genres, from unaccompanied choir ballad to falsetto folk to furious punk rock. It's a remarkable achievement; it is the most ambitious Weezer song yet recorded, ditching the radio-ready simplicity of the last three discs to recall the indie-nerd-heroism that made those first two albums so special all those years ago. Cuomo drops the affectation in his voice and shoots it through the best lyrics of his career, and on strange slow-burner Heart Songs and the swirling, 'Blue Album'-esque Dreamin', he finally sounds like someone you can relate to again.

What is perhaps most stunning about the record, however, is the fact that Cuomo lets his bandmates take the limelight - guitarist Brian Bell pens and sings the endearing Thought I Knew while drummer Patrick Wilson runs riot over the edgy Automatic. The only stumbling block is the tag-team between Rivers and bass player Scott Shriner on the unsatisfying Cold Dark World, but it's all made up for by the time Cuomo takes back the reigns on oh-so-emo closer The Angel And The One, which is pure 90s Weezer; fuzzy, heartbreaking and slightly flawed in all the right ways.

As I struggle to un-drop my jaw after my first listen, I begin to consider: if this isn't the best album I've heard all year, it's certainly the most satisfying; it is hilarious, it is surprising, and it is beautifully, beautifully weird. Rivers is back, baby. With a moustache.

Matt Vesely