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Maladroit

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Untitled

Maladroit (Template:Pron-en, meaning either inept or an inept person)[1] is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Weezer, released on May 14, 2002 on Geffen Records. The album is the band's first to feature bassist Scott Shriner, following the departure of former bassist Mikey Welsh in 2001. Maladroit features heavy metal riffs, uncommon to Weezer's previous releases.

As of December 2007, the album sold 605,000 copies in the United States,[2] having reached a high of #3 on the Billboard 200 and quickly going gold.[3] Yet its chart stay was relatively brief. The first 600,000 copies of the album were specifically numbered, with the number located on the back of the CD case near the lower right-hand corner.[4]

Production

For their fourth studio album, Weezer attempted to incorporate an innovative system in which they'd release demos in MP3 format on their weezer.com website every day while in the studio working on Maladroit.[5] This resulted in dozens of different versions of over thirty different songs circulating on the Internet before the album was released.

The idea was to keep solid communication open with their fan base on their official message board as well as, more crucially, on unofficial message boards such as the Rivers Correspondent Board (which was closed to the public at Cuomo's request, chiefly so that members of the press could not gain access). Yet frontman Rivers Cuomo and the fans strongly disagreed on a number of creative aspects of the album. One thing they did agree on was bringing back the old summer 2000 song "Slob" for use on the album. Cuomo commented, "I never would have thought to put the song 'Slob' on the record if the fans did not request it. Scott Shriner also wanted a hidden track, 'Are You Gonna Be?,' for the album."[6] Regardless of disagreements, Weezer fans are still "specially thanked" in the album's liner notes and the album title itself was suggested by a board member on the Weezer message boards who went by the screen name of Lethe.[7]

The band's uploading of MP3 demos onto their website resulted in many major radio stations playing the still unreleased (and sometimes unfinished) songs on the radio for the masses to hear.[7][8] In the week it was leaked to radio stations, the lead-off single "Dope Nose" reached #25 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart without an official single having been issued.

Unfortunately, the airplay resulted in a gag order being issued by Geffen Records in which they requested that Weezer return the master tapes from the Maladroit sessions and apologize to each radio station that played the song.[9][10] The band resisted, citing that they had funded all the sessions themselves and that apologizing seemed pointless.[11] The fans resisted as well, forming an online group called "Unreleased Weezer for the Masses" that rallied for the release of the album.[12]

Cuomo's strong disagreements with his fan base during this era resulted in this album containing some slight lyrical jabs at the fans, most notably on "American Gigolo" ("if you hate this/I can't blame you") and "Space Rock" ("you wanna cry/when you're dealing with the kids/they know it all/and they're pinning you to boards.").[13]

The hit songs "Dope Nose" and "Hash Pipe" (off The Green Album) were both written using the same method on the same night, with Rivers Cuomo allegedly taking "a bunch of Ritalin and ... like three shots of tequila" to write the songs.[14][15]

25 unreleased songs from the Maladroit sessions circulate among collectors and fans on the Internet.[citation needed]

Track listing

All songs by Rivers Cuomo.

No.TitleLength
1."American Gigolo"2:42
2."Dope Nose"2:17
3."Keep Fishin'"2:52
4."Take Control"3:05
5."Death and Destruction"2:38
6."Slob"3:09
7."Burndt Jamb"2:39
8."Space Rock"1:53
9."Slave"2:53
10."Fall Together"2:02
11."Possibilities"2:00
12."Love Explosion"2:35
13."December"2:59
Total length:33:43
Bonus tracks

The European and Australian version of Maladroit features "Island in the Sun" from The Green Album as a bonus track. Some of the European issues also contain the single b-side "Living Without You," sequenced between "December" and "Island in the Sun."

Reception

Maladroit received generally positive reviews, earning a 72/100 on Metacritic.[16] Nude as the News were pleased with the album and commented "Maladroit combines the best parts of the three previous Weezer albums: creamy guitar riffs, addictive beats, staple 'hoo hoo's' and the brilliant mystique of Cuomo’s lyrics."[17] Allmusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine claimed that the band had hit a peak.[18] Kerrang! gave the album five out of five stars and stated, "It is a magnificent record, strong enough, graceful enough, and with enough talent and skill to ensure that any talk of Rivers Cuomo as anything other than an artist shrinks to nothing in comparison."[19] Spin Magazine ended up calling it the 6th best album of 2002,[20] and Rolling Stone readers voted it as the 8th best of the year.[21] In another Rolling Stone readers poll, it was voted the 91st greatest album of all-time.[22]

In June 2009, Magnet Magazine had an article on the five most overrated and underrated Weezer songs. "All of Maladroit" was ranked number one on the list of the underrated half. [23].

Chart positions

Album

Chart Peak position
Billboard 200 3[24]
UK Albums Chart 16[25]
Sweden 22[26]
Norway 4[27]
Finland 11[28]
Netherlands 95[29]

Singles

Year Song Peak positions
US Modern Rock
[30] 		US
Main-
stream Rock
[30] 		US
Bill-
board
Hot 100
[30] 		UK
Top 40
[25] 		Sweden
[31] 		Finland
[32]
2002 "Dope Nose" 8 - – – – –
2002 "Keep Fishin'" 15 – – 29 – –

Personnel

The following people contributed to Maladroit:[33]

Band

Recording personnel

  • Weezer - producer
  • Chad Bamford - additional production, engineer
  • Rod Cervera - additional production
  • Jordan Schur - executive producer
  • Tom Lord-Alge - mixing
  • Christopher Carroll - additional engineering
  • Carlos "Loco" Bedoya - additional engineering
  • Femio Hernández - assistant engineer
  • Darren Mora - assistant engineer
  • Steven P. Robillard - assistant engineer
  • Stephen Marcussen – mastering
  • Karl Koch - "Farm Hand"

Artwork

  • Francesca Restrepo – art direction and design
  • Sean Murphy - photography
  • Chris McPherson - photography
  • Karl Koch - photography
  • Sarah C. Kim - photography

Additional credits

  • Lethe - album title

Notes

  1. ^ "Maladroit - Definitions from Dictionary.com". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  2. ^ "Album Sales". MetalSludge.tv. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  3. ^ "Gold and Platinum: Searchable Database". RIAA. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
  4. ^ Luerssen D., John. Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story. ECW Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-619-3 p. 432
  5. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 398
  6. ^ "Odder Than Hell". Guitar World. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  7. ^ a b Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 405
  8. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 406
  9. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 410
  10. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 411
  11. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 413
  12. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 412
  13. ^ Maladroit booklet and liner notes
  14. ^ Eliscu, Jenny. "Rivers Cuomo's Encyclopedia of Pop". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  15. ^ Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 420
  16. ^ "Weezer: Maladroit (2002): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  17. ^ Horowitz, Jon. "Nude as the News: Maladroit: Review". Nude as the News. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  18. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Maladroit > Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  19. ^ Winwood, Ian. "The Great Album: Rivers Cuomo Rises Above On His Band's Fourth Album". Kerrang!. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  20. ^ "Best Albums of 2002". Spin Magazine. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  21. ^ "Rolling Stone Readers' Top Ten of 2002". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  22. ^ "2002 Rolling Stone Readers' 100". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  23. ^ http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/06/30/the-overunder-weezer/
  24. ^ "Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  25. ^ a b "UK album chart archives". everyhit.com. Retrieved 2007-11-26. Cite error: The named reference "everyhit" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  26. ^ "Sweden Chart Archives". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  27. ^ "Norway Chart Archives". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  28. ^ "Finnish Chart Archives". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  29. ^ "Netherlands album chart archives". dutchcharts.com. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  30. ^ a b c "Weezer Artist Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-11-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ "Swedish album chart archives". hitparad.se. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  32. ^ "Finland Charts". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  33. ^ Maladroit liner notes.
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