Here we go on a new feature at CaptainMojo.com. I’ll post reviews on new CDs that I buy, for the benefit of you, my beloved reader. Here we go…

I just bought the new Weezer CD, almost solely on the strength of the video for their new single, Keep Fishing (the video features the Muppets, and anything featuring the Jim Henson seal is warmly regarded in Mojo-land). I’ve been a Weezer fan since their masterwork, Pinkerton, came out in ’96. And as with most Weezer fans, I waited many years for Rivers Cuomo’s sequel in 2001’s Green Album. The wait, for me at least, was somewhat, in vain, as the new album had a few good singles, packaged with mediocre to decent filler. GA was listenable, but lacked the real meaty claws that made the band’s first two offerings so sweet.

Well, Maladroit, I’m afraid, is an obvious continuation of the last album’s path to so-so-ness. Keep Fishing is probably the winner of the album, but I can’t see what the second single is gonna be. The rest of the album strikes me as just average Emo stuff. Being Weezer, it’s still decent, but completely unremarkable. If you’re expecting a return to the popish tunes of Pinkerton or their 1994 self-titled debut, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.

On another purchase, I have nothing but praise for Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Not being a hip person, I’d only heard a few Neutral Milk Hotel songs before purchasing the album a few days ago. Headed by Jeff Magnum, and linked in some mysterious and transcendental ways with Indy Pop greats Apples In Stereo and Olivia Tremor Control, the band mixes an Indy sound with a folksy soul.

Although the album can drag in spots, songs such as Two Headed Boy, Holland 1945, and Communist Daughter provide solid listening goodness. Mojo Recommended.