You hate to rip a band that once defined your life, but sometimes they force you to.
So much has been written about the Blue Album and Pinkerton, Weezer's milestone records from the '90s, that it's almost not worth getting into. But Make Believe, among other things, demands a look back into the band's past. How did things get so terrible ? or were they ever that good to begin with?
When you reach a certain age, you recognize that many of your favorite records from your youth sucked. Don't think so? Give the Offspring's Americana, which you certainly own, a spin, and then evaluate. Embarrassing, is it not? What's made Weezer so appealing as the years go on, however, and the reason they're more popular now than ever, is their unwillingness to decay with age. Throw as much postmodern, anti-emo cynicism as you will at Pinkerton, but if you can get through "Across the Sea" without still being awed, you're lying to yourself.
Unfortunately, Make Believe, the Los Angeles quartet's first disc in three years, threatens to ruin Weezer's entire back catalog and destroys Rivers Cuomo's hagiographic songwriting reputation. Certain of Weezer v.2005's problems were expected, notably that it's hard for them to be relevant outside of the mid-'90s alt-rock context that birthed them. But the album fails so drastically by accentuating the worst aspects of the Green Album and Maladroit, their last two albums. The production is too clean, the lyrics too uninspired and the music too bland.
As usual, Rivers informs us of his past and present failures, but for the first time it's fully transparent. The guy's fine! He has more money than God, an almost unmatched cult following and will soon be a Harvard graduate. To his credit, Cuomo does know good business; whining did get him where he is, and Make Believe will probably sell like hotcakes as a result. But even the least critical listener, upon hearing the lyrics "I am/ I am/ Cold" ("Hold Me") will realize what a waste of $15.99 the album was.
If you're a Weezer fan, don't listen to this album. It will make you question whether Weezer ever had any talent to begin with.
