Perennially-odd pop-rockers Weezer continue their tradition of unrelenting irony with their forthcoming eighth release, Hurley. Named after Jorge Garcia from the hit ABC show Lost, the band proves once again that no one ever knows what the hell they’re going to pull next.
Not to be out-done by their last album’s collaboration with Jermaine Dupri and bizarre choice of Raditude as the album title, they’ve covered their upcoming release with a close-up of the corpulent mug of actor-comedian Jorge Garcia. Cuomo explains the choice in an interview with spinner.com:
"I was coming up with all kinds of stuff, but ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn't really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn't want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as 'the Hurley record' even if we left it without that title, so we just called it 'Hurley.' No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face."
Amazing face. Whatever, Rivers.
This is the band’s first release on an indie label, which might bring a less mainstream-pleasing sound and could satisfy the cult group of fans who clamor for a comeback to the emotional frankness of 1996's Pinkerton. In any event, it'll be worth it to see Weezer's newest weirdness. Hurley is due out September 14 on Epitaph Records.
This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2010.