ALBUM REVIEWS: WILLIAM FITZSIMMONS and WEEZER
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William Fitzsimmons
The Sparrow And The Crow
Naim Edge
Rating: 4/5
How's this for a backstory: Singing psychotherapist so traumatised by divorce of his blind parents he writes an album about it; recording of said album proves so harrowing it helps the breakup of his own marriage; the now ex-psychotherapist documents said breakup in second album, which we have here. Paper-delicate vocals and simple piano of opener After Afterall kicks off the intimate, painterly partnering of Will's hushed melancholy with both Priscilla Ahn and Caitlin Crosby. Fingerpicked guitar weaves through other songs thick with personal regret, heartbreak and searing honesty. Lyrically less poetic and opaque than predecessor Goodnight, this is catharsis at its most blunt - and its most beautiful.
Weezer
Raditude
DGC/Interscope Records
Rating: 2/5
The perennial goofball college rockers are breaking with form to come back with another slab of fuzzy-riffed rockage just a year after their last salvo. But while the BMX-riding quartet still sound young, they also struggle to find any fizz or new direction here. The odd slug of hip-hop bass and brash electronica is fired off, but Weezer are basically just pressing the repeat button. A happy exception is (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To, one of the poppiest, FM-friendly tunes of Rivers Cuomo & Co's career - and a perfect summation of the kind of awkward courtship suffered by their core early-teenage fans.
- STEPHEN MOORE
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