Weezer “Make Believe”

Music is a strange thing. I can sit in my bedroom and play the opening riff from “Sad But True” by Metallica over and over, but it’s never going to compare to the power of the riff when they play it. That’s my take on this album, but this time it’s Weezer playing Weezer songs in their bedroom. The plane is on autopilot here and while I didn’t necessarily like some of their recent albums, at least there was personality and feeling put into them. Make Believe feels like the worst kind of album; the “let’s recreate what made us popular in the first place album”.

We’re treated to a much more open and honest, thoughtful and emotional line of lyrics here. What doesn’t help is that they’re wrapped up in such a recycled and insincere sound. There are nice moments hidden in some of these tracks. The last minute or so of “Perfect Situation” is very bare and honest. “Hold Me” comes close to being meaningful if only it felt sincere. “Pardon Me” fits in that category as well, another track that just fell short of being sincere enough to mean anything. There are some weird moments in here too. The track “This is Such a Pity” sounds like it would’ve been more at home on a 1980’s Billy Idol record than on this album. It’s a big departure from the type of songs Weezer usually does and to be honest, I think it would’ve been a much better album if they had taken a chance and written more songs like this one. If anything, at least it’s unique. “Freak Me Out” is like this as well. Mostly only backed by a surreal sounding sequence of harmonics, this is one of the few songs that sound original and meaningful on the album. The album closes with “Haunt You Every Day”, probably the strongest track on the album. It represents a natural progression in Weezer music and sounds like what I had hoped this entire album would sound like. I can’t decide if I like it as the album’s closer though. On one hand it gets me excited that perhaps near the end of the recording session they came across this sound and it represents where they are going musically. On the other hand, it just makes it all the more obvious how lacking most of the other tracks on this album are.

Weezer is a lot like me. They are so nerdy that they’ve actually come to be regarded as cool. You can’t walk through a mall in America without seeing some “twentysomething” guy with a scruffy beard wearing a Weezer t-shirt. And it’s my guess that he and most of the other Weezer fans in the world won’t necessarily be let down with this record. It’s not bad music, but it’s certainly not new or good music either. I love watching bands evolve and grow and mature and get better with time. Listening to this album is like listening to Weezer taking a few steps back, consciously trying to cater to a wide and popular audience. It may not lose them many fans, and it just might win them some new listeners via TRL, but it certainly clocks in as one of the more disappointing and unremarkable albums of their career.

Two and a half out of Five Stars

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