What's more, they're still trading on their ?-nerd status, a ploy that is wearing a little thin by now. "Don't Let Go" articulates the rather undignified lengths to which Cuomo will go to keep a girlfriend, a theme that is further pursued in "O Girlfriend", where he dubiously confesses, "In your arms I was happy as a little boy could be", a thought that is bound to keep the groupies at arm's length. Almost all the songs are littered with cute "ooh-ooh"s and "woah-woah"s, another Weezer staple that's getting a little tiresome. There are stadium rock leanings something to do with Ric (The Cars) Ocasek's production, perhaps? particularly in "Smile", a nauseating number that sounds like something that David Coverdale might have come up with. The harder-edged "Hash Pipe" is more boldly satisfying, even though Cuomo continues to feign limpness, exhorting us to "come on and kick me" Believe me, it's tempting..
You might just as well substitute the word "people" for "accountants" in the title of Echobelly's latest album. The band, headed by the charmingly gamine Sonya Aurora Madan, have rarely had luck on their side, having reached the height of their powers just as Britpop began to lose its appeal. It gets worse in the past three years, they have parted company with their record label, sacked their management and are preparing to launch court proceedings against their accountant for embezzlement. It should come as no surprise then that People Are Expensive is largely made up of melancholy ballads, with only the occasional hint of the purified indie-pop that characterised early songs such as 1994's "I Can't Imagine the World Without Me". Loneliness ("Tell Me Why"), death ("Dying") and self-destruction ("Point Dume") are just some of the subjects trawled here.
There is the occasional embellishment to cheer things up a trombone here, a jittery drum-beat there but the overall feeling is one of weariness and dejection. To be honest, it's the kind of album you put on and then absently ignore. The title track an instrumental piece complete with out-there post-rock noodling is the only one which stands out as either innovative or interesting. As Madan sings on "Digit", "There must be something more than this" Let's hope so..
