short and sweet, this disc stands up with their earlier work. after that, there's not much, but you need to talk about the first three weezer records and not the first two.

as an aside, it was really nice to hear them "come back" at the time. with all the shit pinkerton got (and i gave it a thorough listen and liked parts of it but the reaction to the reaction has been exaggerated), it kind of seemed like he was going to give up....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_BspwFyaDU

one of the big problems - and most people might not realize it, but will agree once it's pointed out - is that he changed his guitar tone. that sounds trivial, but that thick bassy fuzz was really integral to what the band did. you take it out, you take out a big part of what made them rock. there's some other problems (less lead parts, more repetition, less angularity, dumb lyrics) but the blunt reality is that weezer without the bassy fuzz is not weezer...