A dog named Sidney stares out from the cover of Weezer's seventh album, a National Geographic photo repurposed for a rock record. The American power-pop band released Raditude on October 30, 2009, in Australia, with the US release following a few days later. The title itself came from actor Rainn Wilson, who suggested it to frontman Rivers Cuomo. It was a strange package for a band once known for nerdy guitar anthems.
Five producers and a pop pivot
The strangeness was the point. Raditude was Weezer's last album for DGC and Interscope Records, and it pushed hard toward mainstream pop. Five producers worked on it, including Dr. Luke and Polow da Don, names far outside the band's usual circle. Session drummer Josh Freese played on the record while regular drummer Patrick Wilson moved to guitar. Guitarist Brian Bell voiced doubts about the outside co-writers and the glossy pop sound.
Cuomo's answer to Bell was simple: this was just one of many albums the band would still make. That calm logic did not stop the record from becoming a lightning rod. For 'Can't Stop Partying', Cuomo brought in hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri as a co-writer, and rapper Lil Wayne appeared on the track. It was a long way from the band's garage-rock roots, and critics noticed.
Critics split over the cheese
Some reviewers enjoyed the cheese. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield praised the album as full of 'deliciously cheesy' Weezer songs. AllMusic singled out 'I'm Your Daddy' and 'The Girl Got Hot' for praise. But Pitchfork tore into Cuomo's lyrics, calling them stuck in eternal puberty. The split reaction landed Raditude a weighted score of 57 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 25 reviews.
But Pitchfork tore into Cuomo's lyrics, calling them stuck in eternal puberty.
The pop crossover reached its logical extreme with a saxophone solo. Kenny G played the solo after the second chorus on 'I'm Your Daddy'. He admitted he knew nothing about Weezer before the session. Cuomo and Kenny G lived near each other in Malibu but had never met. The recording was done in one take, no rehearsal. The album's promotional appearances leaned into the same anything-goes spirit. For a Sessions@AOL performance, Kenny G was joined by rapper Chamillionaire and singer Sara Bareilles, an odd trio for a rock band. The collaboration underlined how far Weezer was willing to stretch its own image.
Sales, Snuggies and vault tracks
The album still sold. Raditude debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, moving 66,000 copies in its first week. By September 2010, sales had reached 240,000 copies. The band even sold a Weezer-branded Snuggie blanket alongside the record. It was a commercial product wrapped in a joke, or a joke wrapped in a commercial product. Some of the album's extra material reached back even further. The track 'Turn Me Round' had been recorded back in 2003, long before Raditude took shape, and appeared on the UK, Russian, and Australian editions. It was a reminder that Weezer's vaults held songs from very different eras.
The backlash outlasted the sales. In 2014, Flavorwire placed Raditude on its list of the 50 worst albums of all time. The record's half-hour of power-pop and pop-rock became shorthand for a band losing its identity. Yet the album's first single, '(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To', had arrived in August 2009 and still sounds like a band enjoying the absurdity.
Raditude was not a failure in the marketplace, but it became a symbol of compromise. The dog on the cover, the Lil Wayne feature, the Kenny G solo, the Snuggie: every choice seemed designed to provoke. Cuomo told Bell it was just one album among many. The band kept going, but Raditude remains the one fans argue about most.