 Weezer: "Make Believe" Rating: 4 out of 5
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.
In 2001 Weezer returned with another self-titled album, which led to its more common name, The Green Album. This was followed a year later by Maladroit. Many of Weezer's long-time fans have had complaints over those two albums. According to them, The Green Album was a bit too poppy compared to The Blue Album and Pinkerton, while many were worried about the guitar solos used on Maladroit sounding too much like a 1980's Hair Metal band. After touring for most of the last two years, Weezer returns with their newest album Make Believe.
The album starts off with the new single, Beverly Hills. With a circus drum roll to start off, incredibly simple guitar and bass, some really odd lyrics for Weezer and a talk box, it's hard to believe that this song actually fits into one package and works. The next song however, returns to a more traditional Weezer sound, with Perfect Situation. The guitar work is good while Cuomo's lyrics are great. As the album goes along some interesting sounds come along especially on This Is Such A Pity, which feels like a 1980's New Wave song, and Hold Me, which reminded me of something Dashboard Confessional would do. One of the highlights of the album for me is the lyrics. Cuomo's vocal style also suits his style of writing especially on My Best Friend and The Other Way, with the latter featuring the time-honored Weezer tradition of using handclaps. The only real disappointing songs on the album are We Are All On Drugs and Freak Me Out. Both songs lyrically are not as strong as other songs on the album, while Freak Me Out musically just stays at a stagnant slow pace.
Overall the album is a good one with a return to a traditional sound for Weezer for the most part, and once again great lyrics from Rivers Cuomo. It doesn't match Pinkerton or The Blue Album in terms of quality but is close in some places. |
