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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/redalbumtvtropes.jpg]]
2 [[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm a troublemaker, never been a faker..."'']]
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4''Weezer'' (retrospectively known as ''The Red Album'' to separate it from the other band's self-titled releases) is the sixth studio album by Music/{{Weezer}}, released in 2008.
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6It followed ''another hiatus'' for the band, as Cuomo went back to Harvard to finish his degree and marry his now-wife, Kyoto Ito. Meanwhile, the rest of the band pursued side projects; Patrick Wilson and Brian Bell appeared in the 2006 film ''Factory Girl'', while Brian formed another band called The Relationship (though unlike with ex-bassist Matt Sharp's band The Rentals, this would not lead to Brian departing from Weezer).
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8The band reconvened in 2007 to begin work on what would become ''The Red Album''. Production duties were split three-way between ''Music/MakeBelieve'' producer Music/RickRubin, Jacknife Lee, and Weezer themselves. It is noted for being more experimental than the other albums, with Cuomo allowing his bandmates to contribute songwriting to the album (the first time since ''Music/WeezerTheBlueAlbum'') and even sing lead on some tracks (a first for ''any'' Weezer album). It contains songs that deviate from the "verse-chorus--verse-chorus-bridge" structure, like "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)", "Dreamin'", and "The Angel and the One".
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10Four singles were released, including the aforementioned "The Greatest Man that Ever Lived" and "Dreamin'", as well as "Pork and Beans" and "Troublemaker", the latter having an iTunes cover illustrated by mangaka Manabu Akishige (who wrote and illustrated the manga ''Go-On!''). "Pork and Beans" is notable for having a music video which featured many of the famous [[MemeticMutation internet meme]] stars of the day, including Music/TayZonday ("Chocolate Rain"), Gary Brolsma ("Numa Numa"), Tom Dickson (''Advertising/WillItBlend'') and Cara Cunningham ("Leave Britney Alone"). It became the most-viewed WebSite/YouTube video the weekend after it was released, and has since been cited as a direct precursor to ''WebVideo/YouTubeRewind'', as the first ''Rewind'' installment would come out the following year in 2009.
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12It was released in a standard edition and a "Deluxe Edition" with four bonus tracks and a booklet containing interviews with the band. Despite the strength of its four singles, it underperformed compared to its predecessor ''Music/MakeBelieve''.
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14----
15!!Tracklist:
16# "Troublemaker" (2:44)
17# "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" (5:52)
18# "Pork and Beans" (3:09)
19# "Heart Songs" (4:06)
20# "Everybody Get Dangerous" (4:03)
21# "Dreamin'" (5:12)
22# "Thought I Knew" (3:01)
23# "Cold Dark World" (3:51)
24# "Automatic" (3:07)
25# "The Angel and the One" (6:46)
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27[[AC:Deluxe Edition bonus tracks:]]
28# "Miss Sweeney" (4:02)
29# "Pig" (4:02)
30# "The Spider" (4:43)
31# "King" (5:11)
32----
33!!Principal Members:
34* Rivers Cuomo – lead vocals, guitar
35* Brian Bell – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Thought I Knew"
36* Scott Shriner – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "King"
37* Patrick Wilson – drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Automatic"
38----
39
40!!I'll eat my candy with the Trope and Beans:
41* AgeProgressionSong: "Pig", a song about growing up, meeting a girl, getting married, having children, and finally dying. In the end, it's revealed that the protagonist is a literal pig who is slaughtered.
42* DeathSong: "The Spider", about Rivers lamenting about a spider trapped in a drain dying and the fragility of life. It's a lot sadder than it sounds.
43* BoastfulRap: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" starts with one.
44* ConceptAlbum: The album features heavy themes of nostalgia.
45* EpicRocking: "The Angel and the One" which clocks in at about a whopping '''seven minutes'''.
46* IAmGreatSong: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived".
47* IAmWhatIAm: "Pork And Beans" is about Rivers rejecting any change being pushed onto him and how he is happy with who he is.
48-->''I'm a'do the things that I wanna do\
49I ain't got a thing to prove to you\
50I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans\
51Excuse my manners if I make a scene\
52I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like\
53I'm fine and dandy with the me inside\
54One look at the mirror and I'm tickled pink\
55I don't give a hoot about what you think''
56* ListSong: "Heart Songs", which is Rivers rattling off his influences until it segues into an autobiographal account of how Rivers' roommate at the time played for him a copy of ''Music/{{Nevermind|Album}}'' by Music/{{Nirvana}}, which inspired him to launch Weezer.
57* MinimalisticCoverArt: It's a Weezer colored album. Of course it would be this.
58* {{Pastiche}}: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" is a pastiche spanning ''eleven artists and genres''. They are, in order of appearance:
59** Rap
60** Music/{{Slipknot}}
61** Music/JeffBuckley
62** Choral
63** Music/{{Aerosmith}}
64** Music/{{Nirvana}}
65** Music/TheAndrewsSisters
66** Music/GreenDay
67** Spoken Word
68** Music/JohannSebastianBach
69** Music/LudwigVanBeethoven
70** Finally, they fall back on their regular sound for the last section.
71* PornStache: Rivers sports one on the album cover.
72* SodaCandySplosion: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQHPYelqr0E music video]] for "Pork and Beans" features a variety of then-popular viral videos, including Eepybird's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_2osOb2SMU Extreme Mentos & Diet Coke]]". Rivers first sprays himself in the face with a single bottle, before Voltz and Grobe of Eepybird help enact a large-scale display of Diet Coke and Mentos eruptions behind the band.
73* StepUpToTheMicrophone: This album is notable for being the only Weezer album where every member has a writing credit and a lead vocal.
74* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: "Everybody Get Dangerous" is a song about all of the stupid things Rivers and his friends did as kids, but one part that stands out is a game Rivers came up with called (which according to an interview was called "[[CapsLock HOLY SHIT WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE]]"). While driving on a hill with a dead man's curve at the bottom, Rivers, without warning, would shift the car to neutral and rip the keys out of the ignition and toss them in the back seat, leaving his friends to scramble to give him back the car keys and restart the car as it goes rolling back down the hill before it reaches the bottom and crashes.
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