Over the years Weezer’s greatest skill has surely been to stimulate the inner schoolboy in us. Who, for instance, could deny hits like “Beverley Hills” paint a charming and cheeky picture of being young and nerdy? The thing is, though, Rivers Cuomo and friends are now in their forties with little sign of growing up. How then should they continue? The press release says that Everything will Be Alright in the End is more “complex and layered”. But unfortunately it sounds like a paler version of business as usual.
Only the lead single “Back to the Shack” reasonably approximates their earlier magic. Once you get over that you’re listening to middle-aged men still singing about garage bands and their dads
At least, the crunchy guitars are punchy and pleasing. “Go Away”, featuring twenty-something Beth Cosentino, is better still – the Best Coast singer lends an almost Avril Lavigne appeal. The rest, though, is mainly uninspired. After four long years of introspection Cuomo has, apparently, come up with three lyrical themes and none of them seem to justify the assertion that an “album just gets better the longer you let it grow”.
The three song types are his “relationship with others, his relationship with girls, and his relationship with his dad.” The last is presumably dealt with in the rather bland “Foolish Father”. The rocky “Cleopatra” could have something to do with the second “type” – he sings about a woman’s looks fading as she gets older. And category one is so nebulous that it’s just a catch all.
It's not that Everything Will Be Alright in the End is a particularly bad album, more that it's the latest in a series of disappointing ones. Given the band’s erstwhile knack for a good tune and sunny sound, surely they could have come up with something a little more witty and interesting – songs that, musically, match the brilliant album cover.
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