“Troublemaker” by Weezer

"Troublemaker" comes off Weezer's 2008 self-titled record, their sixth album and the one fans call the Red Album, and it very nearly led the charge: it was lined up as the first single before "Pork and Beans" got the nod instead. Rivers Cuomo wrote it, sings it, plays guitar and stacks up his own backing vocals, with Patrick Wilson thumping away and Jacknife Lee producing, and the result is power pop with its chest puffed out. Cuomo has said Eminem's playful way with a rhyme rubbed off on this batch of songs, and you can hear it in the cocky, tumbling lines.

Sent out in the end as the album's fourth single, it climbed to No. 2 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and it later showed up in Rock Band and in TV ads for The Mentalist.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.