New WEEZER Album Sounds Like...

Since I started listening to the "Blue" album when i was in fifth grade, I have been a die hard WEEZER fan. I was with them all the way up to and including Maladroit. That in itself is a great and very underrated album in my opinion. It had the most honest feel since Pinkerton as it was produced by the band themselves and captured Rivers at a time when he just could not deny his power rock roots, not to mention it contains some great tunes (Death and Destruction, Take Control, Possibilities, Space Rock, Slave, December). Even the universally despised "Make Believe" had "Hold Me" and "Peace", two of my favorite Weezer songs ever, placed directly in the middle of an otherwise terrible Rick Ruben produced fuck up of an album. What followed were the "Red" album and "Raditude", both containing one decent song respectively and the Red album clearly showed how horrible Weezer can be when all the band decides to chip in an write a song. Sorry but that is not Weezer. Weezer IS Rivers Cuomo in all his fucked up genius never thought he could write a bad song but turns out he can and does but its still ok sometimes glory. For me, Weezer is his vocal melodies over his guitar melody. But following this then we're led by his tortured midlife crisis into the cringe inducing Raditude. Cant stop Partying lost all of its assumed "irony" when it was converted to a polished song. like the first 5 songs on Red, these Raditude songs seemed mailed in and bland.

Enter the New Record "Hurley". Much hype over the cover though there is really not much to it. They liked his smile and decided to put it on the cover. But its funny how the art and look of the album can influence the feel it gives. Imagine Pinkerton without the eerie and beautiful Japanese painting for the cover. It was like the album fit the art perfectly and when i think of those songs, i think of the haunting beauty behind the dark and gloomy cover. Though Hurley actually recovers some and has some songs that will not leave my head, i dont think im going to be thinking about Jorge Garcia every time i listen to it.

"Hang On" is the best song on the album and sounds like a bizzarro b side from the green album sessions. Dont be fooled. This is not the return to be Blue album because there will never be one, yet there are some moments of melodies that are similar to those earlier songs, most notably in the last minute of "Unspoken" which seems to blend some of the make believe demo accoustic sounds with a classic early 90s nirvana-esque climax. "Smart Girls" is also really catchy and would be one of my favorites, but suffers from being way too over produced. I really don't like how Pat Wilson has seemingly been replaced by a drum machine on many of the songs.

WEEZER has changed from the band i once loved. Pat Wilson plays guitar now? and There is some fool I don't know or care about on drums, and Rivers is no longer playing guitar and doing bad boy band posturing while Brian Bell gets high and still cant sing. At one point I declared in amazement that Cuomo could never write a bad song. I was eventually proven wrong. But there will always be those little moments of divine weezer inspiration that i cannot deny.