Call it a comeback.
After frustrating their fans with unnecessary band-member chime-ins, weird collaborations, and just plain dumb songs, Weezer is listenable again. On Hurley, the band reprises what made them famous in the first place — cavity-causing power-pop with a twinge of the bizarre.
Which is better than a megadose of the bizarre, which is what has been going on in Weezerdom since 2005's Make Believe. The trilogy of records since 2005 seem to exist solely to amuse enigmatic lead singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo. Just try to take seriously lyrics such as "I eat my candy with the pork and beans/excuse my manners if I make a scene." from 2008's Weezer. Or, for God's sake, the title of their last album, Raditude, whose name alone suggests flippancy.
Cuomo addresses his staggering heights of weirdness in lead-off track and single "Memories," where he sings "Messing with the journalists and telling stupid lies/They had a feeling that something was up/Because of the look in our eyes/In fact we didn't know what we were doing half of the time." Sonically, he's not messing with anyone, with the sound of the cut hearkening back to 1992's triple-platinum Weezer. Think the latter, killer climax to "Only in Dreams" mixed with a synthier "Surf Wax America."
"Ruling Me" brings back memories of the anthemic breeziness of "The Good Life" from Pinkerton. Working with Semisonic's Dan Wilson, it's the girls again who have got to Cuomo. The song is about being in the thrall of someone who isn't that into him. What's nice about the song is that it is identifiable. Try as you might, it's very hard to resonate with a song about Rivers' appreciation of pork and beans.
Granted, pop musicians appeal more to the hips and heart than head. As hard as she works, the lyrical genius Mirah is never going to sell as many records as ass-mover Lady GaGa. Cuomo knows and understands this. On Hurley, Weezer again appeal to everyone who liked that blue album with the dorky guys on the front, the dudes who wrote those catchy songs about sweaters and Buddy Holly.
Even if Hurley isn't perfect, it's distinct from recent albums in its lack of painfully bad tracks. As a Buddhist, Cuomo would probably agree that the absence of pain is more important than the presence of pleasure. In this sense, Weezer's latest output is a step in the right direction. Let's hope it's the first step of a long walk.
This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2010.