Return Of (The Rentals)
Encyclopedia
Return of the Rentals is the debut album by post-New Wave
band The Rentals
, released on October 24, 1995 through Maverick Records
, a subsidiary of Reprise Records
. The album features Matt Sharp
- Weezer
's bassist at the time - on vocals and bass, as well as Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson
. Other contributors include Tom Grimley (Moog
, production
), Petra Haden
(violin
, vocals), Rachel Haden
(vocals), Guy Oseary
(album artwork), and Stephen Marcussen
(mastering), among others.
Return of the Rentals was well received by critics and produced the successful single "Friends of P." which peaked at number 7 on Billboard's Modern Rock Chart and received significant airplay on MTV's 120 Minutes
. Despite this, the album never charted.
"Waiting" is featured in the 1996 film Joe's Apartment
.
The explanation behind the "P" in the track "Friends of P." has had multiple theories presented as to its meaning. The actual "p" in the song refers to Paulina Porizkova
, the wife of Cars guitarist Ric Ocasek
who produced the first Weezer
album, known as The Blue Album. Paulina made a claim that no one had ever written a song about her, therefore Matt took on the task. Ric Ocasek noted that he found the subject matter of the song a bit odd. Fictitious theories suggest that the subject deals with psychics or the Psychic Friends Network
. Finally, some think the "P" is for Patrick Wilson, drummer on the album and also drummer for Weezer.
"Please Let That Be You" was originally written by Sharp and Rivers Cuomo as a song called "Mrs.Young", a spiritual counterpart to Weezer's song "Jamie". On one demo, Rivers Cuomo helps Sharp, doing extra instrumentation and backup vocals. At one point, Weezer considered recording both "Jamie" with "Mrs.Young"(later written as please let that be you without rivers cuomo but instead with rachel haden) as its B-side for a single, but this never happened.
In 2006, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
covered "The Love I'm Searching For" on an AOL The Interface podcast.
In March 2008, Ash covered "Please Let That Be You" for the album Friends of P. -- Tribute to The Rentals.
Tokyo Police Club
did a cover of "Friends of P." that appears on their album Elephant Shell Remixes.
Girl Talk
sampled "Friends of P." on his 2006 album Night Ripper
.
gave the album a "B" and claimed, "Its winsome love songs make for good, clean, disposable fun." Q magazine gave the album 3 stars and compare their work to the early work of the Cars
, "The Rentals root themselves in the sound of late-`70s US new wave; the result is in many senses reminiscent of The Cars' earlier material." NME
also praised the album giving it a 7 out of 10. They complimented that "despite its pretensions to [be] meaningless electro-pop, it can't help but have depth..." Pitchfork Media
's Ryan Schreiber also highly praised the album and enjoyed the band's attempt of bringing back Moog synthesizer
s. Peter D'Angelo of Allmusic praised the album as well, saying "Return of the Rentals is a real benchmark of carefree pop from the '90s, and shouldn't be forgotten anytime soon."
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band The Rentals
The Rentals
The Rentals are an American rock band fronted by vocalist Matt Sharp, best known as the former bass player for rock group Weezer. The band is best known for their mid-1990s hit single, "Friends of P.". The group has released two albums, Return of the Rentals and Seven More Minutes on Maverick...
, released on October 24, 1995 through Maverick Records
Maverick Records
Maverick Recording Company is an American record label owned and operated by Warner Music Group, and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:...
, a subsidiary of Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
. The album features Matt Sharp
Matt Sharp
Matthew Kelly Sharp is a founding member and former bassist for the band Weezer. In 1994, he started a band called The Rentals and released their debut album shortly after Weezer's first release, their second album in 1999, and an EP in 2007...
- Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
's bassist at the time - on vocals and bass, as well as Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (musician)
Patrick "Pat" George Wilson is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band Weezer. He joined the band in 1992. In addition to his work in Weezer, he also fronts his own band, The Special Goodness....
. Other contributors include Tom Grimley (Moog
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
, production
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
), Petra Haden
Petra Haden
Petra Haden is an American violinist and singer. She is or has been a member of several bands, including That Dog, Tito & Tarantula, and The Decemberists; has contributed to recordings by The Twilight Singers, Beck, Mike Watt, Luscious Jackson, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age,...
(violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, vocals), Rachel Haden
Rachel Haden
Rachel Haden is the current bass guitarist for Todd Rundgren on his "Arena Rock" tour, and one of the triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden....
(vocals), Guy Oseary
Guy Oseary
Guy Oseary is an Israeli-American expert businessman who began his career in entertainment at 17 at what was to become Maverick Records. He is Madonna's manager.-Maverick:...
(album artwork), and Stephen Marcussen
Stephen Marcussen
Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer of Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California. Marcussen is one of the most sought-after mastering engineers in the music industry and his expertise has been coveted by a wide range of artists over the years...
(mastering), among others.
Return of the Rentals was well received by critics and produced the successful single "Friends of P." which peaked at number 7 on Billboard's Modern Rock Chart and received significant airplay on MTV's 120 Minutes
120 Minutes
120 Minutes is a television show in the United States dedicated to alternative music, originally airing on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then on MTV's sister channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003....
. Despite this, the album never charted.
Track listing
All songs written by Matt Sharp and performed by The Rentals.- "The Love I'm Searching For" - 3:36
- "Waiting" - 3:13
- "Friends of P." - 3:32
- "Move On" - 4:21
- "Please Let That Be You" - 3:34
- "My Summer Girl" - 3:13
- "Brilliant Boy" - 4:16
- "Naive" - 2:20
- "These Days" - 3:00
- "Sweetness and Tenderness" - 4:22
"Waiting" is featured in the 1996 film Joe's Apartment
Joe's Apartment
Joe's Apartment is a 1996 musical-serio-comedy film starring Jerry O'Connell and Megan Ward and the first film produced by MTV Films. It was based on a 1992 short film first made for MTV , but was also inspired by both the 1987 Japanese film Gokiburi-tachi No Tasogare and...
.
The explanation behind the "P" in the track "Friends of P." has had multiple theories presented as to its meaning. The actual "p" in the song refers to Paulina Porizkova
Paulina Porizkova
Pavlína Pořízková-Ocasek is a Czech model and actress. At the age of eighteen years, she became the first woman from Central Europe to grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated swim-suit issue. She was the second woman to be featured on the swim-suit issue's front cover consecutive times...
, the wife of Cars guitarist Ric Ocasek
Ric Ocasek
Ric Ocasek is an American musician and music producer. He is best known as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band, The Cars....
who produced the first Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
album, known as The Blue Album. Paulina made a claim that no one had ever written a song about her, therefore Matt took on the task. Ric Ocasek noted that he found the subject matter of the song a bit odd. Fictitious theories suggest that the subject deals with psychics or the Psychic Friends Network
Psychic Friends Network
The Psychic Friends Network was a telephone psychic service operating in the United States in the 1990s. The company's infomercials were aired frequently on late night television.-History:...
. Finally, some think the "P" is for Patrick Wilson, drummer on the album and also drummer for Weezer.
"Please Let That Be You" was originally written by Sharp and Rivers Cuomo as a song called "Mrs.Young", a spiritual counterpart to Weezer's song "Jamie". On one demo, Rivers Cuomo helps Sharp, doing extra instrumentation and backup vocals. At one point, Weezer considered recording both "Jamie" with "Mrs.Young"(later written as please let that be you without rivers cuomo but instead with rachel haden) as its B-side for a single, but this never happened.
In 2006, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...
covered "The Love I'm Searching For" on an AOL The Interface podcast.
In March 2008, Ash covered "Please Let That Be You" for the album Friends of P. -- Tribute to The Rentals.
Tokyo Police Club
Tokyo Police Club
Tokyo Police Club is an indie rock band from Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. It consists of vocalist and bassist David Monks , keyboardist Graham Wright, guitarist Josh Hook , and drummer Greg Alsop ....
did a cover of "Friends of P." that appears on their album Elephant Shell Remixes.
Girl Talk
Girl Talk (musician)
Gregg Michael Gillis , better known by his stage name Girl Talk, is an American musician specializing in mashups and digital sampling. Gillis has released five LPs on the record label Illegal Art and EPs on 333 and 12 Apostles....
sampled "Friends of P." on his 2006 album Night Ripper
Night Ripper
Night Ripper is the third album by Girl Talk. It was released on Illegal Art in 2006 and re-released as a pay-what-you-want download on Illegal Art's website in June 2009. It is composed almost entirely of samples taken from other artists' songs, with minor original material by Gillis...
.
Reception
Return of the Rentals received generally favorable reviews from critics. Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the album a "B" and claimed, "Its winsome love songs make for good, clean, disposable fun." Q magazine gave the album 3 stars and compare their work to the early work of the Cars
The Cars
The Cars are an American rock band that emerged from the early New Wave music scene in the late 1970s. The band consisted of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Ric Ocasek, lead singer and bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson...
, "The Rentals root themselves in the sound of late-`70s US new wave; the result is in many senses reminiscent of The Cars' earlier material." NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
also praised the album giving it a 7 out of 10. They complimented that "despite its pretensions to [be] meaningless electro-pop, it can't help but have depth..." Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Ryan Schreiber also highly praised the album and enjoyed the band's attempt of bringing back Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
s. Peter D'Angelo of Allmusic praised the album as well, saying "Return of the Rentals is a real benchmark of carefree pop from the '90s, and shouldn't be forgotten anytime soon."
Performers
- Matt SharpMatt SharpMatthew Kelly Sharp is a founding member and former bassist for the band Weezer. In 1994, he started a band called The Rentals and released their debut album shortly after Weezer's first release, their second album in 1999, and an EP in 2007...
(vocals, bass, moog, extra guitars) - Cherielynn Westrich (female lead vocals)
- Patrick WilsonPatrick Wilson (musician)Patrick "Pat" George Wilson is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band Weezer. He joined the band in 1992. In addition to his work in Weezer, he also fronts his own band, The Special Goodness....
(drums) - Petra HadenPetra HadenPetra Haden is an American violinist and singer. She is or has been a member of several bands, including That Dog, Tito & Tarantula, and The Decemberists; has contributed to recordings by The Twilight Singers, Beck, Mike Watt, Luscious Jackson, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age,...
(viola, harmony vocals) - Rod Cervera (main guitars)
- Tom Grimley (main moog synthesizers)
- Jim Richards (moog on "Please Let That Be You")
- Rachel HadenRachel HadenRachel Haden is the current bass guitarist for Todd Rundgren on his "Arena Rock" tour, and one of the triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden....
(vocals on "Move On")