Stuff.co.nz, June 25, 2005, By: Matt Davey, Album Review

CD Review: Make Believe - Weezer Rating * * * *

Weezer, of course, should be held responsible for more than just making thick-rimmed glasses fashionable in the mid-90s. We're talking about the creation of some of the catchiest and hook-laden alt-pop tunes in the last 10 years – songs like Buddy Holly, Say it Ain't So.

More recent college anthems, such as Hash Pipe, are likely to have inspired many a student to drop out of high school and form his or her own garage band.

Where Weezer's mid-career albums, such as Pinkerton and Maladroit, illustrated a desire to retreat into the harsher noise of indiedom, Make Believe is, on the other hand, an unabashed attempt to make an album brim full of commercial and melodic rock hits.

This is best exemplified by the radio-friendly Beverly Hills – complete with chugging Cars guitars and self-mocking lyrics. Elsewhere there is an embarrassment of riches as far as hooky tunes goes – the fantastic This is Such a Pity shows off a chorus that somehow sounds a little like Take on Me without sounding absurd. Brilliant stuff.

Make Believe is out now through Universal.

Lost at Sea , Date: N/A, By: Natalie B. David, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

Rivers Cuomo may take all the writing credit for Weezer’s freshman and sophomore sets, but since the departure of original bassist Matt Sharp, the group has failed to recapture the youthful energy and spirited spunk of the blue album and Pinkerton. Later efforts have been less tongue-and-cheek, less raw, and ultimately, they feel less honest. Pinkerton may have been almost too personal, but, being such, pulled people to it. MORE...

Thunder Bay's Source , June 24, 2005, By: Brad Hilgers, Album Review

This CD ain’t like Buddy Holly Rating 3 of 5

It’s the fifth trip to the studio for Los Angeles’ Weezer. The band is back three years after their last album with Make Believe, another guitar heavy pop CD. Changes this time included recruiting producer Rick Ruben (sic) who gives the album more of a new wave sound than past producer, cars front-man Ric Ocasek.

The popular first single, Beverly Hills starts the disc with its contagious melody and lyrics about the wealthy. Perfect Situation is the perfect track to follow up and compliment Beverly Hills. The whole album has a retro eighties feel, which is especially evident in the upbeat, fast paced This Is Such A Pity. Other notable tracks include the hard edged We Are All On Drugs, the cheery My Best Friend, and Other Way. The disc has its down sides like the unpleasant power ballad Hold Me, and the overly simplistic lyrics of Freak Me Out. The CD also contains a handful of mediocre songs like Peace, Damage In Your Heart, Pardon Me, and Haunt You Everyday.Singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo and the crew sound better on the albums up-tempo tracks and should leave the slower songs to someone else. When the band sticks to their formula of pop songs with big guitars it works. Make Believe is a mixed bag, some great songs thrown in with some not so great songs.

Hershey Chronicle, June 16, 2005, By: Todd Thatcher, Album Review

Weezer's 'Make Believe' wasn't worth the wait

Another Weezer record, another small disappointment. Ever since the group returned from a five-year hiatus with the ultra-poppy, self-titled "green album," fans have been sifting through the dross to find glimmers of frontman Rivers Cuomo's former melodic genius.

That record featured 10 catchy songs capably delivered in under half an hour - all note-perfect, but emotionally-detached and somewhat lacking in creativity. 2001's Maladroit was an improvement, as it found Cuomo getting in touch with his inner metalhead to deliver fiery guitar leads and heavy riffs, but the songcraft suffered. MORE...

Village Voice, June 10, 2005, By: Mikael Wood, Album Review

Keep Your Self Alive Narcissistic brothers of white whine try to regain our interest

Rob Thomas and Rivers Cuomo are gangsters of self-love. During the mid '90s, when a booming peacetime economy meant we could all listen to white guys whine on the radio without needing a reason why, the two were brothers from a different mother of invention: Thomas led Matchbox Twenty, who made tidy thinking-man's rock for culturally endangered fratpeople; Cuomo led Weezer, who made passive-aggressive alt-rock for culturally oblivious indie folk. Both men gave adenoidal voice to white-male narcissism, raging against the ruthless efficiency of the female machine. But what they really couldn't hack was the creeping suspicion that we were losing interest in their meticulously cultivated chamber dramas—that a sprawling nation of black rappers and brown immigrants and indigo girls was on its way to supplanting their God-given Billboard sovereignty. MORE...

L.A. Weekly, June 10-16, 2005, By: Kate Sullivan, Interview

I, Songwriter Rivers Cuomo and the search for the perfect hook

Eccentricity is a great rock tradition, and usually tolerated with some affection. Jack White can post his surgery photos online, John Frusciante can freely discuss talking to ghosts, and Ozzy can strangle his wife during a blackout — it’s all good. Somehow, though, Rivers Cuomo’s brand of eccentricity brings out the mean streak in journos, and overtakes almost everything that’s written about him. Most recently, Weezer’s Rolling Stone cover, marking the release of the band’s fifth album, Make Believe, followed the received template for Weezer articles: With the headline “Rivers Cuomo Hasn’t Had Sex in Two Years, and Boy, Is He Ready To Rock,” the article portrayed Cuomo as a nutjob who treats his band like shit, lives in a closet and doesn’t own a car in L.A. MORE...

Tucson Weekly , June 9, 2005, By: Annie Holub, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

Weezer's story is perhaps the saddest in recent rock history. Their first album (known as "the blue album," seeing as Weezer had the audacity to release another self-titled album in 2001) gleamed amid the angry growls on the record shelves in the mid-'90s; their Ric Ocasek-produced guitars had a delicious crunch; their lyrics were cute and sentimental.
Then Weezer started trying too hard, and instead of intelligent sweetness, Weezer has become a stupider version of themselves, trying to re-create their original sound and failing. Their more recent albums, self-titled take two (otherwise known as "the green album") and Maladroit (2002), were increasingly sugary boxes of fluff and marketing. MORE...

Toledo Blade , June 5, 2005, By: Rod Lockwood, Album Review

Weezer deftly balances pop and punk

Weezer is back after a three-year hiatus, and it's as if the band that helped define mainstream rock in the post-grunge mid-'90s never left.

The band's fifth disc in 10 years is a celebration of loud guitars and hook-heavy power pop arrangements with stronger dynamics than its predecessor, 2001's "Maladroit." The genius of Weezer, which includes Toledoan Scott Shriner on bass, is the four-piece group's ability to teeter on the line between sloppy punk and pristine pop without falling too far to one side. MORE...

Japan Times, June 5, 2005, By: Joe Kern, Album Review

Weezer, "Make Believe"

Four years ago, Weezer songwriter Rivers Cuomo decided that the meticulously documented angst beloved by his die-hard fans wasn't impressing enough people, so he stocked his next two albums with somewhat catchy yet largely meaningless pop songs instead. On their new effort, "Make Believe," he has returned -- for the most part -- to writing lyrics that matter. Unfortunately, he appears to have acquired social skills and the ability to care about the feelings of other people. MORE...

News.com.au, June 2, 2005, By: Stephen Downie, Interview

Wheezing it out

FOLLOWING in the neurotic footsteps of metal legends Metallica in their film Some Kind of Monster, indie rockers Weezer found they needed the calming touch of a therapist to record their latest album.

In the downtime between albums, each band member went their separate ways. Frontman Rivers Cuomo headed back home to the east coast to complete a degree at Harvard, drummer Pat Wilson and guitarist Brian Bell had solo projects, while bassist Scott Shriner did the great American road-trip thing.
Shriner found his way to a dusty, rocky place known as the Four Corners, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet. MORE...

Relish (North Carolina), June 2, 2005, By: Ed Bumgardner, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe: Grade: * * * 1/2

Label: Geffen
If you like: Weezer’s first album
Song to download: “Pardon Me”

Rivers Cuomo, the head honcho of Weezer, is a neurotic mess, a geek on a quest to sneak into normalcy. His cathartic vehicle is to write and sing some of the catchiest and most maladjusted pop songs ever committed to disc. The musical tenor of Weezer’s past albums, industrious all, has reflected the mind set and mood swings that make Cuomo so fascinating and frustrating. Every Weezer album was and is a fresh adventure, some easier to navigate than others. MORE...

Knoxville Metro Pulse, June 1, 2005, By: Ellen Mallernee, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe

Rivers Cuomo, frontman for nerd-rock outfit Weezer, lives in a one-car garage with all the walls painted black. He has a thing for meditation, a bizarre thing: he meditates fanatically inside a closet for up to 20 hours at a time. And, after taking a vow of celibacy, he's refrained from sex for the past two years, as was so brazenly scrawled across a recent Rolling Stone cover. The point is, with all that downtime, one would expect a listless Cuomo to come up with an inimitably mind-blowing album. But don't. The band's fifth release, Make Believe, is insufferably boring, droning on with an astonishing army of lyrical cliches. Take, for example, "When everything is wrong/ I come talk to you/You make things alright/when I'm feeling blue." MORE...

New Zealand Herald , May 29, 2005, By: Russell Baillie, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

Weezer, led by the bespectacled enigma that is Rivers Cuomo, might retain their position as the toughest, most enduring nerds of American rock, but something seems to have given out on this their fifth album, which comes with considerable expectation placed upon it by having Rick Rubin in the producer’s chair. MORE...

411Mania.com (3rd review) , May 28, 2005, By: Brandon Ratliff, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe

Part 2 of the Rubin Sandwich Special

After eating the superb 1st half of the Rubin Sandwich Special I am ready to bite into the 2nd half and call it a wrap on lunch. If you need to know what the Rubin Sandwich Special is all about please check out my review for System of a Down’s Mezmerize album and you will find the menu. MORE...

Daily Californian of UC Berkeley, May 26, 2005, By: Max Baumgarten, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe

Even though Weezer cynics (and the self-proclaimed “real fans”) claim that the band hasn’t put out anything decent since the Clinton era, the truth is Rivers Cuomo and company have musically faired better than most of their post-grunge colleagues. Between the brilliance of Blue, the cathartic pop of Pinkerton, the charm of Green, and the edginess of Maladroit, auteur Cuomo has endowed each album with its own uniquely addictive aura. MORE...

LTVNews.com, May 24, 2005, By: Lucas Punkari, Album Review

Weezer: "Make Believe"

In 1994 Weezer hit the music scene with their self-titled first album, or as it is more commonly known, The Blue Album. Thanks to three infectious singles, Buddy Holly, Undone-The Sweater Song and Say It Ain't So, the band had one of the top-selling debut albums of the year and one of the more popular bands in the United States. Two years later Weezer returned with Pinkerton, causing a shock for many people. Instead of the infectious poppy sound of The Blue Album that people expected, the band had instead gone to a harder more aggressive sound while singer and lead guitarist Rivers Cuomo's lyrics were more confessional than people wanted. Many critics gave the album poor reviews with the harshest being Rolling Stone's awarding of Pinkerton as the worse album of 1996. However over time, the album has become praised as one of the best albums of the 90's while Weezer fans have debated furiously over whether The Blue Album or Pinkerton was the best Weezer album. MORE...

Oklahoma Daily of the Univ. of Oklahoma, May 25, 2005, By: Danny Marroquin, Album Review

Weezer—Make Believe

Weezer has released its long-awaited fifth record “Make Believe” under the production wisdom of Rick Rubin. I have always been a proponent of Weezer, giving praises to not only The Green Album but also Maladroit. There were good tunes on those records. Then Rivers Cuomo started saying strange things to Rolling Stone like, “I have found the equation for the perfect song.” Right. Listening to “Make Believe,” we imagine we are in a better time, when Weezer was pumping out material from the heart like “Only in Dreams.” MORE...

Paste Magazine, Issue 16, By: Marc Weingarten, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe

Weezer’s main man Rivers Cuomo is a smart guy, so what’s he up to here? Hard to say, really. The band’s fifth record opens promisingly enough, leading us to believe that Make Believe is a refinement on the foursquare guitar pop of 2001’s self-titled record. “Beverly Hills,” Cuomo’s love song for L.A.’s embalmed city of the nipped and tucked, is a good smile. Over a big, two-chord guitar stomp that sounds like a Bud Light ad jingle, Cuomo, whose “fashion sense is a little wack” and whose “automobile is a piece of crap,” longs for the place where the “housemaids scrub the floors clean” and “get the spaces in between.”MORE...

FHM.com, May 24, 2005, By: Phillip Crandall, Interview

Weezer, Still Making Noise

May 10, 1994: The state of Illinois was executing mass-murderer John Wayne Gacy, the Milwaukee Brewers were beating up on the Boston Red Sox in what would be a strike-shortened season, 3 Ninjas Kick Back was enjoying its third-place spot in the box office, and four dudes from California put out the most beloved album of the decade. Exactly 11 years after that fateful day the world first started destroying sweaters, Weezer released its fifth and most verbosely titled record to date. To commemorate the occasion, drummer Pat Wilson spoke to FHMUS.com writer Phillip Crandall about the introspective process of making their latest album, Make Believe. And—oh yeah—"fag bags!" MORE...

Soundgenerator.com., May 21, 2005, By: Chris Watkeys, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe

Perhaps the secret of longevity in the music biz is to do what you do best, and stick to it through thick and thin. Weezer are a case in point - it has been eleven years now since their self-titled debut album announced their presence as college favourites, yet here they are, with another fistful of tunes which could have been recorded in '94. MORE...

Blogcritics.org., May 22, 2005, By: Crystal Erickson, Album Review

Make Believe, Weezer

Although Rivers Cuomo may not have been the first of his kind, geek rock wouldn’t quite be the same without Weezer. Having released four albums in a ten year stretch, Weezer definitely feels the pressure to constantly cultivate Cuomo’s repressed genius lyrics into a really put together album that fans can appreciate as much as the Blue album or Pinkerton. With Rick Rubin in as producer, Maladroit’s long awaited successor Make Believe is a much poppier album than its predecessors, recalling more simplistic themes and lyrics traditional to Weezer’s sound. MORE...

Daily Titan of Cal State Fullerton., May 19, 2005, By: Amanda Pennington, Album Review

Weezer's seen better days

During its 11 years of artistry, everyone’s favorite nerds-turned-rockers, Weezer, has released five albums that are distinctly different from one another. That being said, perhaps aside from Pinkerton, all of the albums have the distinct sound of the Weez. MORE...

Hartford Courant., May 22, 2005, By: Eric R. Danton, Album Review

‘Make Believe’, Weezer

Ouch, Rivers! So maybe Connecticut isn’t the most exciting place to grow up, but did you have to tell everyone? We refer, of course, to Rivers Cuomo, Weezer frontman and Mansfield, Conn., native, who opens his band’s new album with the line, “Where I come from isn’t all that great.” MORE...

PopJournalism.com, May 2a, 2005, By: Jason Gladu, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

Weezer has always gotten the bum rush when it comes to their releases: 2001’s comeback The Green Album was derided as being too poppy, and their roll licking, hard rock 2002 monster Maladroit was also universally panned. So with their fifth album, Make Believe, Weezer does what they do best — piss off critics and fans by creating a very personal, poppy, hard rock album that sometimes doesn't even sound like original Weezer material. Producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash) gives lead singer Rivers Cuomo and co. the passion to play with their pop-rock sound, especially on highlights like the infectious summer single "Beverly Hills" (which features an incredibly cheesy talking guitar effect), The Killers-influenced "This Is Such A Pity," the anti-drug statement "We Are All On Drugs," and the dreamy ballad "Freak Me Out." Just like Weezer's past records, Make Believe will slowly grow on you with each listen but don't expect anything innovative; Weezer are just a fun rock band with likable pop songs. (Geffen)

Jakarta Post., May 22, 2005, By: M. Taufiqurrahman, Album Review

On the Record
Artist : Weezer
Album : Make Believe (Geffen)

Weezer's singer-guitarist Rivers Cuomo may have the most tortured soul in rock, but thanks to that bitter gift he is also one of rock's most consistent voices. Cuomo is also among the few talents in rock with a Midas touch, who can turn even the rawest material into a pop gem. MORE...

CDReviews.com, May 21, 2005, By: Ben Montgomery, Album Review

Weezer - Make Believe

I’ve heard movie critics mention that if they don’t see a movie before its actual release date, that this typically means that the studio has little faith in the movie. In other words, the studio thinks that the movie is crap and wants to at least sell a few tickets to the gullible youth who will see anything that promises a little T & A or for those who feel that anything that Troma films produces is pure genius. MORE...

Prefix Magazine , May 20, 2005, By: Matt Liebowitz, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

With emo now a worn-out MTV pop item, it's hard to tell when people are truly putting their hearts on the line. Judging a band like Weezer -- and a songwriter like Rivers Cuomo -- is even harder. The band followed up two superb albums -- the self-titled debut (the Blue Album) in 1994 and Pinkerton in 1996 -- with two more -- the Green Album in 2001 and Maladroit in 2002 -- that contained scattered, sometimes great songs but were released to neutral reviews and moderate success. So expectations surrounding the band's fifth album, Make Believe, were naturally high. Would it be another Pinkerton, an album of such intense catharsis that its critical fallout -- however undeserved -- sent Rivers into self-imposed seclusion? Or will it rehash the solid, polished geek-rock on which they've seemingly cornered the market? Never playing the expected card, Make Believe offers no answers, only suggestions. MORE...

The Spectator of Seattle Univ., May 20, 2005, By: Megan Peter, Album Review

Weezer CD Well Done

I had been waiting three years for this CD, counting down the days until Rivers graduated Harvard and finished the album. On May 10, it happened, and the CD was released. I was driving during spring break and I heard “Beverly Hills,” the new Weezer song I had been longing to hear. It was the first single off of their new CD, Make Believe; a CD that had come out exactly three years after the debut of Maladroit. Upon my first listen of the CD I was hooked, it was everything I could have hoped for in a Weezer CD. The best part about it is that there was a mix of new and old, but you could still tell that it was Weezer. MORE...

The Lantern of Ohio St. Univ., May 11, 2005, By: Adam Jardy, Album Review

Weezer's new album a hit

When Rivers Cuomo began writing 1994's self-titled "Blue Album," he borrowed extensively from two popular albums of the time: "Nevermind" by Nirvana, and "Definitely Maybe" by Oasis. MORE...

The Easterner of Eastern Washington Univ. , May 10, 2005, By: Brian Baer, Album Review

You don't have to pretend 'Make Believe' is good

Make Believe, the newest CD from alternative rockers Weezer hit stores yesterday.

While I recommend this disc for all fans of the genre, I must caution that, thanks to the production by rock n’ roll legend Rick Rubin, it is different from their previous poppy radio-friendly hits from the Green Album and Maladroit. MORE...

The Daily Bruin of UCLA, May 12, 2005, By: Mark Humphrey, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

The following are Pop Up Video-worthy factoids about Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo:

• After the initially panned album "Pinkerton," Cuomo holed up in a Los Angeles apartment for a year, disconnecting the phone, painting the walls black, and putting black sheets and fiberglass insulation over the windows. MORE...

Los Angeles Daily News, May 19, 2005, By: Sandra Barera, Album Review

WEEZER: "Make Believe"

Rivers Cuomo taps into feelings of inadequacy and heartbreak on this latest round of hooky pop anthems that recalls Weezer circa the '90s. Think "Undone: The Sweater Song" or "Buddy Holly" when listening to the opener "Beverly Hills," a rock stomper that lapses into a blistering blues guitar riff. Other songs like "This Is Such a Pity" throws back to '80s new wave, while "My Best Friend" conjures '60s psychedelic rock. These songs are so melodic, you can't help but love - or at the very least, like - this gem.

Pipe Dream of Binghamton Univ., May 19, 2005, By: Dan Lyons, Album Review

MUSIC REVIEW - Weezer!

As soon as the first power chord is struck, it hits you: This album is going to rock... and sure enough, it does.

The opening track of “Beverly Hills” is a song that unfortunately could be used in a Hillary Duff movie. One can almost picture the plot where, despite having less talent than the other girls, Duff makes it through an audition for a Hollywood movie starring her present man crush. MORE...

The Daily Nexus of UC Santa Barbara , May 19, 2005, By: Aly Comingore, Album Review

CD Review: Weezer | Make Believe | Geffen

There is something to be said for Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, who has taken his band to the top of the charts and quite possibly become the most admired nerd of the past two decades. With that, it seems ironically fitting that the band has placed their tongue-in-cheek ’70s rock ballad about celebrity “Beverly Hills” as the lead off track to their latest album. Make Believe marks the band’s return to catchy-yet-meaningful songwriting that many had dismissed as but a memory following the release of 2001’s Green Album and 2002’s Maladroit. MORE...

The Providence Phoenix, May 19, 2005, By: Nick Sylvester, Album Review

Coveting Cuomo On Make Believe, Rivers reaches out beyond Weezer’s core audience. PLEASURE MANDATE: people love familiarity dressed up as something new, and Rivers Cuomo knows it.

Weezer have almost everything to do with why I care about indie rock. And I don’t imagine I’m alone in this sentiment. There must be a whole segment of my twentysomething peers who feel the same way — kids from the suburbs too demure to dig metal, too fat for grunge to fit, and too parentally advised to buy Wu-Tang on the sneak. MORE...

New York Magazine , May 18, 2005, By: Jon Caramanica, Album Review

Tickle Me, Emo Weezer plays peekaboo with songwriting formulas and the new pop earnestness.

Just over a decade ago, Weezer proposed the question: Can the arch be pop? In the wake of Nirvana’s tortured engagement with mass acceptance, Weezer and its self-conscious lyrics and impossibly outsize hooks became a sort of epic, snide rebuke to indie-rock navel-gazing. Outsiders, the band contended, were just as capable of doping the masses as the popular kids were. MORE...

cokemachinglow.com, May 18, 2005, By: Clayton Purdom, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

CMG Editor-in-chief “Massa” Scott Reid called me early on Sunday. “Clay, listen, Amir had some stuff come up, he's gonna have to pass on that Weezer review. We need you.”

My trembling, hungover hand gripped the cell phone pressed against my head; I coughed into it, and my breath reeked of cheap cigarette smoke. I was still fully clothed. “Scott, I’ve got a lot of shit to do this week,” I said. “You can’t find someone else?” MORE...

Spin.com, May 19, 2005, By: Henry Bowles, Show Review

Weezer live in NYC

Despite the band’s post-Pinkerton pretensions to the contrary, Weezer finally seems resigned to its role as the Godfather of Emo. As with any show put on by one of the band’s derivatives, chanting along is not reserved for a few hooks on the singles: Every word that comes off the stage must be sung by every member of the crowd, and in dead earnestness. But most emo bands’ fixation with fear and social anxiety is missing when it comes to Weezer. Instead, the band demonstrates the painful self-consciousness of those smart enough to know they’re not cool. Weezer is about defiantly lamenting whiteboy un-hipness. And this could hardly have been lost on a crowd white enough to be cheering for Cake. MORE...

The Daily Emerald of the Univ. of Oregon, May 19, 2005, By: Amy Lichty, Album Review

NEW CD Review: Weezer, "Make Believe"

Let's face it: Weezer will never again match the colossal genius that was "The Blue Album" and "Pinkerton." So if you can accept that, you can definitely accept "Make Believe," Weezer's much-anticipated fifth album. This is the band's first album since "Pinkerton" that can stand on its own, and it marks a new era for the fabulous four. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Weezer is back, sticking with the sound that brought them success and admiration, with instantly appealing hooks and beautiful guitar solos, but the band has tweaked and grown with its sound. Even though the album is reminiscent of the Weezer from a decade ago, "Make Believe" is destined to be a classic all it's own. MORE...

herts24 The Advertiser, May 19, 2005, By: N/A, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe (Polydor) Rating * * *

MORE than a decade after Weezer's first release, the geeky-cool LA rockers mark their straight-down-the-line US college rock territory again with their fifth album. The hook-laden, MTV2-friendly anthems here signify a band that brings very little new to the table. This is disposable rock - but not at its best. It's hard to believe that this yields such mediocre fruit after a four-year break. Not one track, even current single Beverley Hills, has the impetus of their 2001 hit Hash Pipe, which now seems edgy in comparison. But the boys' stab at success will likely take a sizeable slice of teens' pocket money across the land nevertheless.

The Daily Pennsylvanian, May 19, 2005, By: Jim Newell, Album Review

The Worst Album of the Year Weezer's latest is shockingly bad

You hate to rip a band that once defined your life, but sometimes they force you to.
So much has been written about the Blue Album and Pinkerton, Weezer's milestone records from the '90s, that it's almost not worth getting into. But Make Believe, among other things, demands a look back into the band's past. How did things get so terrible ? or were they ever that good to begin with? MORE...

The Onion , May 17, 2005, By: Keith Phipps, Album Review

The Awakened Conscience

Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has spent a lot of time lately talking about his intense new interest in meditation. Good for him, but if he ever really finds inner peace, he may as well pull the plug on his band. Weezer lives or dies on Cuomo's ability to turn his particular hang-ups, neuroses, and obsessions into catchy, fast-paced, emotionally intense songs that everyone with problems can turn into their personal soundtrack for a few minutes. (Or a whole summer.) MORE...

New York Times, May 16, 2005, By: Kelefah Sanneh, Album Review

Weezer, Make Believe

Weezer's current single is "Beverly Hills," a guitar-rock song even thinner than the movie stars it sneers at: over a rudimentary chord progression, the band's leader, Rivers Cuomo, caricatures a place full of caricatures ("Beverly Hills/That's where I want to be" goes the sarcastic refrain), and if the hook and hand claps weren't so catchy the song would be intolerable. Unfortunately the new Weezer album, "Make Believe" (Geffen), is just as thin as its lead single and much less infectious. In the 1990's, Mr. Cuomo became an unlikely rock star by perfecting bedroom-friendly arena rock: his best songs are big and deceptively simple, with sunny choruses to undermine the cloudy-day lyrics. But these new batch is infuriatingly plain, and while a couple of them succeed ("This Is Such a Pity" is three minutes of hummable hopelessness), too many are blandly confessional: "I want to hold you, but I am afraid," Mr. Cuomo sings, and you wait in vain for a killer chorus to save him (or swallow him up).

dotmusic, May 16, 2005, By: Chris Heath, Album Review

Weezer - 'Make Believe'

Weezer chieftain Rivers Cuomo has his own pace. Slow. It's over a decade since their debut struck platinum but you could never call him a "workaholic". The emotional investment leaves him constantly on the brink once promo duties cease. Cue lengthy sabbaticals between albums. Either that or he's just plain lazy. MORE...

Slant Magazine, May 17, 2005, By: Sal Cinquemani, Album Review

Weezer, "Make Believe" (Geffen)

There's a recurring debate among music critics and aficionados alike concerning the reasons we deem certain records "classics" and others simply "personal favorites." There's general consensus, of course: If you're told repeatedly that so-and-so's debut is a critics' darling, the stuff of legend, the kind of record that changed rock/rap/country music forever... MORE...