Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 05/10/2005
As a
Rolling Stone cover story on newsstands the week before the release of
Make Believe made clear,
Weezer leader
Rivers Cuomo is an odd, ornery sort. He's a genuine
rock & roll maverick, at once attracted and repelled by his star status, disappearing for long stretches at a time, often to return to college. He writes and records far more songs than whatever winds up on a final
Weezer record, which are often whittled down to just 30 or 40 minutes, leaving untold numbers of songs in the vaults. What makes the situation even stranger is for as obstinate and unpredictable as he is,
Cuomo does not make odd music: he's a
pop songwriter fronting a
hard rock band, equally enamored with big choruses and loud guitars. While each of
Weezer's records has a defining characteristic -- whether it's a sound, a lyrical theme, or simply an emotional feel -- that separates it from its predecessor, each album is clearly written from the same perspective: that of a brainy misfit raised on cheap
metal and
new wave, whose nerdiness always kept him on the outside looking in. This was true even after
Cuomo became a star, thanks in large part to how he had a gift for articulating how very awkward he felt within the constructs of a catchy, melodic, concise
pop song. But as
rock stars since
Elvis have learned, fans are a demanding lot, especially when they identify so heavily with a specific work, as
Weezer's cult did with
Pinkerton, the band's second album. It flopped upon its 1996 release but became a word-of-mouth hit over the next five years, leading up to their eagerly awaited comeback,
Weezer, their second eponymous album that is otherwise known as
The Green Album. Appropriately for a self-titled affair,
Weezer functioned as an introduction to a new incarnation of a band, one that sounded similar but had a different outlook: namely, one that was deliberately
notintrospective, a conscious shift away from plaintive introspection of
Pinkerton.
The Green Album and its quickly released 2002 follow-up,
Maladroit, were both sharply written, tightly constructed, quite excellent, and popular
rock records, but that didn't stop some fans from grumbling that neither album was as affecting as
Pinkerton.
Those same fans will likely not be happy with
Cuomo's return to musical, emotional bloodletting with 2005's
Make Believe. It may be a spiritual cousin to
Pinkerton, yet it's far removed from the raw, nervy immediacy of that album. Nearly ten years separate the two records, a long time by any measure, so it shouldn't be a surprise that
Cuomo has a far different emotional outlook here. On
Make Believe he purposely avoids the pain and torture of
Pinkerton, where the guitars exploded and scraped, complementing the torment in his lyrics. Here,
Cuomo is trying to sort things out, sometimes beating himself up over past mistakes, sometimes looking at his surroundings sardonically, but something separates
Make Believe from previous
Weezer albums: a palpable sense of optimism, a feeling of hope, a new positivity. That's not really what the legions of
Pinkerton fans are looking for. They're likely going to find some of his lyrics perilously close to a self-help manual, particularly when
Cuomo writes a sappy ode to his best friend -- and it's pretty much a given that they won't respond to
Rick Rubin's sleek, layered, propulsive production, which makes
Weezer sound far more
new wave than
Ric Ocasek ever did. (
Rubin also keeps the band far away from the pseudo-
new wave of
the Killers and
the Bravery, which is why he's a highly paid pro.) But let those fans pine for the past, because the very things that they'll find irritating about
Make Believe are what make it yet another first-rate
Weezer record. Part of the band's appeal is that
Cuomo not only skirts the edge of embarrassment, he frequently passes far beyond it, and while that very trait is irritating in the hands of lesser-talented
emo bands, in
Rivers, it's quite ingratiating and endearing because he has the musical skills to back up his self-analysis. He never overwrites, either in his words or melodies, his songs are carefully, precisely crafted
pop, and his love of
metal and
rock gives his music muscle and balls. These gifts are as evident on
Make Believe as they had been on every other
Weezer record -- the only difference is this has a lighter, brighter feel than any of its predecessors, not just in the music but in its outlook. It might not be what
Weezer fans want, but as that aforementioned
Rolling Stone article made clear,
Cuomo never cared much about that in the first place. If they're not immediately taken with
Make Believe, give it time. After all,
Pinkerton didn't win fans immediately.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
;)
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