October 26th, 2009 8:57am
She Got Hot, They Did Not
Weezer “The Girl Got Hot”
I like late-period Rivers Cuomo because he’s basically like Martin Short in Clifford trying to make faces like a “human boy.” He is a deeply bizarre man who is going far out of his way to be “normal” and make music for “normal” people, but his attempts at banality are so affected and deliberately dumb that he comes off seeming much weirder than he would if he was writing total nonsense. The lyrics and music on Raditude are all signification and no meaning, and push the willful vacuity of his last few albums to an absurd extreme. Interestingly, the only tracks that outright fail on the album are the ones that display some degree of self-awareness, as in the dreadful club pastiche “Can’t Stop Partying” featuring Lil Wayne. This sort of thing can only work with a glassy-eyed, poker-faced commitment to ridiculousness, and that’s certainly in evidence on “The Girl Got Hot,” a cheery pop tune that comes across like a long-lost collaboration between Gary Glitter and The Gas Station Dogs.
“The Girl Got Hot” is about being out at a rock party and running into a girl who was homely in junior high, but has blossomed into a total babe. (If we’re operating on the logic of Hollywood, and it’s pretty safe to say that we are, she simply ditched her glasses for contact lenses. Whoa!) The interesting thing here — and a woman had to point this out to me — is that the scenario in the song is not at all a typical male fantasy, but it is something a lot of young girls imagine for themselves. That he makes a point of harping on the notion that all the other girls from school are now basically unfuckable hags only highlights the wish fulfillment aspect for insecure girls. It’s empty objectification, but a triumph all the same. There’s no subtext in this song, no perspective or criticism. It’s just “Hey, wow, the girl got hot! Awesome!,” and out. But the context adds some weight to this glorious fluff, because the whole time I just imagine this cable news ticker scroll in Rivers’ head reading “This is normal, right? Parties. Girls. Malls. Fun. Normal! Normal! Normal! Right?”
Buy it from Amazon.
10/26/09 9:24 am
so wow, weezer now officially sucks. What the hell happened to these guys? Are they even trying anymore? Blue album was a great album, Pinkerton also pretty good, but then… WTF? This is absolutely horrible. The music is base and sounds like it was written by a bunch of preteens just learning their instruments. Boring. Flame away all you hipster Weezer psychofants, we know you’ll love whatever they do even if they take a shit into a mic
10/26/09 10:25 am
Learn how to spell sycophant you fuck. you’re completely wrong about Weezer’s new music. They only get better and better…I like where Rivers’s head is at.
10/26/09 1:58 pm
You nailed it, Matthew. Rivers’ post-Pinkerton shock trauma turned him into a zombie. Very sad.
10/26/09 5:44 pm
Well, some say sad, I say mostly awesome! Most of the Weezer songs I enjoy the most are post-Pinkerton — “Keep Fishin,” “Dope Nose,” “Photograph,” “Hash Pipe,” “Death and Destruction,” “Perfect Situation,” “Troublemaker,” “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived,” “Pork & Beans,” this tune and “I Want You To.”
10/26/09 7:00 pm
i would disagree and say that weezer are totally normal dudes pretending to be slightly weird.
10/26/09 10:50 pm
[...] October 2008 (2) tired of sex October 26, 2009, 11:50 pm Filed under: Uncategorized I suddenly remembered why I kept Fluxblog on my google reader. From “She Got Hot, They Did Not”: [...]
10/27/09 12:11 am
this is funny and fun. a+ . pinkerton is kinda poorly written and not so fun.
10/27/09 6:53 am
Hey Matthew,
I mostly agree with you on this, although i’m quite a fan of ‘Can’t Stop partying’- I think the presence of Lil Wayne provides more than enough ridiculousness to carry it off. I’m not sure if I prefer this or the version on the second Rivers demo album, Alone 2, where he sounds like he’s lamenting the fact he can’t start partying and it culminates in a full on wail- just like the Pinkerton days.
Anyway, I enjoy your blog. I don’t think I’ve ever commented before. Cheers.
10/27/09 9:02 am
[...] Great post on Weezer’s “The Girl Got Hot” at Fluxblog. [...]
10/29/09 1:39 am
I’m going to pull a Rivers circa-Pinkerton and be emotionally candid about masculinity: the “previously ugly girl suddenly becomes attractive” scenario is ABSOLUTELY a male fantasy! In fact, I would say there are few things more appealing to men than an attractive women who does not yet realize she is attractive, ESPECIALLY if she is still insecure! Exploiting female insecurity to gain sex is a reoccurring motif in books like “The Game” and all of its reality show ilk, and not by accident. I’m honestly dumbfounded that a girl could be oblivious to that.
As for post-Pinkerton Weezer being better…. Matthew, you really need to revisit those albums (everyone else here is just playing it dumb, cool, or both). Melodically, the Blue album and Pinkerton stack up against anything he’s written post-reunion, and they’re simply in another league when it comes to emotional directness. That’s fine if you like innocuous pop songs, but there was a time when this guy actually had something to say and it was worth hearing.
Hell, Pinkerton actually helped me get through a tough time in my life because it was about the pathetic loneliness of wounded masculinity *and* it was hilarious (”El Scorcho” still makes me giggle). Now It seems like Rivers would rather find his laughs at the expense of anyone who ever took him seriously, which, if you think about it, is actually really sad.
10/29/09 1:48 am
Also, “Can’t Stop Partying” is indeed a smoldering pile of dog shit. At least you got that one right.
10/30/09 1:33 am
But but Weezer is not supposed to get the hot girls, right? Which means Rivers is just gawking? Oh dear.
11/1/09 11:39 am
Wow, I just listened to this. I hadn’t heard anything Weezer’s done since “Don’t Let Go” and this song is kind of great. My first impression that it sounds like Billy Joel writing something to the beat from “Rock N Roll Part 2″, which is fine by me but it’s also understandable why someone might hate it.
11/2/09 2:31 pm
I think we’re overthinking Weezer anymore. They will never again be the band most of us used to love. I don’t believe their current state even remotely deserves this type of intelligent criticism. They just baffle me anymore. It would be amazing if, in 10 or so years time, Rivers came out and admitted to all of us that he’s been fucking with us ever since the Green Album (his successful return to the mainstream). Sadly, I doubt that will happen.
11/3/09 5:59 pm
People need to stop comparing pre and post hiatus. They are a completely different band, and need to be treated as such. Rivers is not going to give you the emotional pull in those early albums. Perhaps if Pinkerton had been a success you would still have a chance of seeing it again, but it isn’t going to happen. This album should only be compared to Green and on, and as such the music is probably the most rocking they’ve done in a couple of albums, which is nice. Lyrically it may be a little flat, but all other aspects (sans can’t stop partying) are very solid.