<\/p>\n
The boys of Weezer, headed up by smart-alecky and ubiquitous Rivers Cuomo, have had their hits and misses throughout their nearly twenty year career. They\u2019ve hit the \u201cHash Pipe,\u201d penned a cheesy ode to \u201cBeverly\u00a0 Hills,\u201d and an excellently pained post-breakup album, Pinkerton.<\/i><\/p>\n
The resounding attitude towards the Weezer of the aughts is that they haven\u2019t had a good album since Pinkerton, <\/i>which is strange in itself, since critics and fans alike reviled that album when it was released in 1996. True, the latest incarnation of Weezer has had its share of weirdness: pairing up with Lil Wayne on 2009\u2019s Raditude, <\/i>the fact that this disc\u2019s cover boasts Hurley from Lost<\/i>, and the aforementioned \u201cBeverly Hills,\u201d which was just terrible, no matter what Rivers says. But amidst all that showboating, the band has moved to an indie label, Epitaph, and released one of their more consistent albums in a long time. Even though the album cover itself is all sorts of ridiculous, the material contained within is a return to a gentler (but still rocking), more accessible version of the California boys.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cMemories\u201d is a capsule of what Weezer can do best: churning guitars, Cuomo\u2019s charmingly off-kilter lyrics, and choruses that subtly pull on the heartstrings. When he sings of \u201cPlaying hacky sack back when Audioslave were still Rage\u201d among a backdrop of relentless drums and power chords, it\u2019s just good rock; but it\u2019s the chorus (\u201cMemories make me want to go back there \/ all the memories, how can we make it back there?\u201d) that is explosive in its universality, touching without being too cloying. <\/p>\n
Say what you will about Weezer\u2019s lapses in taste, but they can pull out some catchy songs when it comes down to it. \u201cRuling Me\u201d is a delightfully nerdy tale of crushing and connection (\u201cWhen we first met in the lunch room \/ My ocular nerve went *POP* *ZOOM*!\u201d), full of seamless harmonies and rich guitar hooks, while \u201cWhere\u2019s My Sex?\u201d \u2013 inspired by Cuomo\u2019s daughter accidentally saying \u201csex\u201d instead of \u201csocks\u201d \u2013 is hilarious, with Cuomo lamenting that he\u2019s got no sex on his feet and the band chipping in with earnest harmonies and thudding slabs of instrumentation.<\/p>\n
There may be no \u201cBuddy Holly\u201d or \u201cSay It Ain\u2019t So\u201d on this disc, enduring pop-rock gems that typified the absolute awesomeness of their 1994 self-titled debut, but it isn\u2019t exactly fair to keep taking Cuomo and Co. to task for peaks they hit a decade ago, especially when the material here has its own independent charms. <\/p>\n
Sure, there are some dips into clich\u00e9.\u00a0 \u201cTime Flies\u201d is downbeat and predictable, and \u201cBrave New World\u201d is kind of a throwaway as well. Meanwhile, I\u2019m on the fence about \u201cSmart Girls\u201d \u2013 I\u2019m sure Rivers really does love him some smart girls, but it\u2019s a bit too cringe-inducing to stand up to repeated listens.\u00a0 But overall, Hurley <\/i>is a small-scale success for Weezer, and not necessarily because of low standards.\u00a0 These songs may not end up being classics, but they\u2019re enjoyable and well-crafted with some stray moments of brilliance, which is pretty great for a band that apparently has just been churning out schlock since 1996. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":30449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5738],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-42113","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-weezer","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42113"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}