The single "Pork and Beans" from their previous album, Red, was written as a response to a meeting Rivers Cuomo had with the record company, in which pressure was applied on making a more commercial sound. He responds to these requests (such as working with trendy musicians to top the charts) by saying, "Imma do the things that I wanna do / I ain't got a thing to prove to you"
Unfortunately, it appears this resistance has worn away. Only three of the ten tracks were written soley by the band. The rest were co-written by folks such as Jermaine Dupre, Dr. Luke, Butch Walker, and the All American Rejects. Depending upon whether or not one considers drummer Josh Freese part of the band, six of the ten tracks feature outside musicians.
Lead single and first track "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is quintessential Weezer - an upbeat, accoustic guitar driven rock song with quirky lyrics. After that, though, the album in my opinion starts a free fall, with quite a few generic, seemingly soulless over-produced pop songs. Two late-album tracks try to maintain some artistic integrity with the far east influenced Love Is The Answer and Beach Boys inspired Don't Want To Let You Go.
Having heard many shelved Cuomo demos over the years, it's always unfortunate to hear releases that feature bland songs. There are probably three albums worth of demos that are, in my opinion, vastly superior to a majority of the material released on the last two Weezer releases.
Instead, over-produced generic pop songs seem to be the norm.
