Spring '08 LPs From Madonna, Coldplay, The Roots, Mudcrutch, Elvis Costello

Weezer

Weezer 6/17

For the third time in six albums, Weezer has named a record Weezer. The latest — they're already referring to it as the Red Album — was cut in three sessions over the past year: The first was with Rick Rubin, the second was mostly self-produced, and the last was with Jacknife Lee (who produced U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb). "We put a lot of emphasis on blowing our minds with creative freakouts," frontman Rivers Cuomo says. Freakouts like "I'm the Greatest Man That Ever Lived," which blends piano, police sirens and Cuomo in falsetto mode. The probable first single, "Pork and Beans," was inspired by a record-company meeting where the band was told it needed to record more-commercial material. "I came out of it pretty angry," Cuomo says. "But ironically, it inspired me to write another song."