Review Summary: Weezer makes it obvious once again that trying anything new is not what they have in mind.
If there was any adjective to describe the last five years of Weezer's career, "serious" most certainly would not be it. Since the release of their 2005 LP,
Make Believe, lead man Rivers Cuomo took his writing into a strikingly strange and completely out of left-field tangent. The spectrum of his music went from a witty, easy-going rock to a progressively immature and campy (or "self-parody" as some wish to see it) mess. After releasing two lackluster-at-best records, all within or just over a year of each other, the fan base had stopped scratching their head, and began turning their backs. And following the nearly unbearable mid-life-crisis that was 2009's
Raditude, it was hard to imagine that there was any life left in Weezer. However they return once again, unsurprisingly within just a year of their previous record, sporting only a slightly more bearable approach to how they make music.
To showcase the positive aspects of
Hurley would be to highlight everything that Weezer has done well before. There are the catchy melodies on tracks like
Memories and
Brave New World, and the somber moods of numbers like
Unspoken. However, it's those familiar styles that also severely hinder this record. Saying that Weezer are simply going back to their roots here is an understatement, a majority of this record begins to feel utterly recycled from the moment it begins -- And therein lies its killer. The guitar pattern on
Ruling Me could easily be swapped for every generic lick on radio rock hits, and with lyrics to only accentuate that statement. The bland and sometimes embarrassingly bad lyrics on
Smart Girls and
Trainwrecks continue to portray everything that has gone with Weezer since 2005. If a line such as, "I wanna be a bad boy right now" being sung by a forty year old man isn't enough to warrant a laugh, then I don't know what is.
While
Hurley doesn't quite reach the lows that Weezer's previous outing achieved, it's still a prime example of what
not to do when you're attempting a comeback. However for the fans who thought that the spark in Rivers Cuomo died with 2005's
Make Believe, there may be a slight glimmer yet. There are definite signs of potential within the small successful moments of this record; however they are unfortunately overshadowed by the utterly dry musicianship and lyricism in all that remains. If there are any final words to say about Hurley, it's that the cover almost makes up for every misdeed throughout it. Almost.
