back song review: Acapulco
october 7, 2024
Acapulco is one of many, many, many songs that Weezer released on their website in the early 2000s, but never ended up on an album. by my count, 49 songs were demoed during the recording of Weezer's fourth album, Maladroit, but only thirteen would be officially released. the ones that survived were based on feedback on the demos from fans on online message boards, which I think is really cool! they should've done that more often!dont mention the disneygay incidentthis song in particular always stood out to me, though. Maladroit is an album of grungy guitars and soaring solos, so a peaceful song like Acapulco is a bit unexpected amidst all the chaos. of the album tracks, Burndt Jamb is somewhat similar, but it still has a heavy breakdown in the middle to disrupt the beachy feeling. Acapulco sounds like you're about to fall asleep after an exciting day, and you're reminiscing on how it went... such a nice song. even though I compared it to Burndt Jamb earlier, it's really only similar on a surface level. there's almost a Latin flair to Acapulco, which makes sense considering both its final name and its original name (Puerto Vallarta) are cities in Mexico. my only nitpick is that they panned the solo hard into one ear, the whole time, and it's a long solo too, so that whole part is kinda uncomfortable to listen to :(. this was one of a few Maladroit outtakes (and a few SS2K songs, too) to be revisited for the A5 sessions in late 2002, but I never liked that version as much as the Maladroit one. there's a reason that the fifth album didn't show itself until 2005. enough negativity, though! I love Acapulco, and it's a song that I'd recommend even to non-Weezer fans. if you can find an MP3, that is...
line: told me things no one knew... now you're gone