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Weezer ‘Hurley’ - World Exclusive Track By Track Review

Praise be! The eagerly anticipated album from Rivers Cuomo and co has just landed on Rock Sound’s desk. Unfortunately, we can’t come to all of your houses and play it to you, but we can tell you what it sounds like…

Hopes are high for Weezer's eighth album. After stunning performances at last month's Reading and Leeds festivals, and a wave of pre-release chatter that suggests they're back to their best, we were extremely interested to hear what they'd actually come up with. A return to the uncomfortable intimacy of 'Pinkerton', the pop-rock megatunes of The Green Album, the anthemica of The Blue Album or more of The Red Album's experimental mentalism? Well, it's a mixture of all of them... and an extremely good one, too.

To read the full review of ‘Hurley’, and an interview with Rivers Cuomo about the record, buy next month’s Rock Sound, onsale September 15.

Memories
Chances are you’ve heard this one before, as it was released upfront of the album, and it’s not hard to see why: it's a slice of prime pop-rock. Overwhelmingly positive, as Rivers remembers “Playing hacky sac back when Audioslave were still Rage… watching all the freaky Dutch kids vomit and then have sex” it’s a hymn to all the fun stuff Weezer have been up to in 16 years. Lyrically, it shows just how in control Rivers always is, even when he appears not to be - “Messing with the journalists and telling stupid lies / They had a feeling that something was up because of the look in our eyes” – and the middle eight, where he flies into a frenzy while recounting just how much he misses the old days, is brilliantly energetic. A strong start. The message being 'We're Weezer, we rule, we decide what we do - and it's a total blast being us."

Ruling Me
An instant classic, if that’s not too ridiculous to say. The chugging guitars of the verse hearken back to Green-era Weezer, which is all very pleasant, but it’s the chorus that rockets ‘Ruling Me’ into a different league. It’s exuberant in a way that’s impossible to fake – huge melodies playing off each other as doo-wop rock ‘n’ roll harmonies swim around the chunky guitars – and is an old-fashioned love song sprinkled with some textbook Cuomoisms: “We met in the lunch room / My ocular nerve went pop zoom” is one such treat. This sounds utterly perfect walking in the sun hammered loud through some fat headphones, and isn’t that the point of Weezer? For best results, raise your arms in the air as if you've just scored a goal in the World Cup Final and play this, it sounds pretty apt.

Trainwrecks
A brief orchestral intro slides into some head-nod guitars which bear testament to just how creative the band can be with two chords and a lot of distortion. The sort of song that was built to be played at a festival while the sun goes down – hey, Reading and Leeds organisers, can Weezer headline next year please? – and is something of a call to arms for everyone who’s a bit of a misfit: “We sleep all day and rock the night… we kiss and then we bite, we are trainwrecks”. A slowburn after the immediate joy of ‘Ruling Me’.

Unspoken
First it’s just Rivers, his acoustic guitar and a sweet vocal line – “Every chance that I get I am placing a bet on the sun in the sky” – but then some backing vocals come in, then a flute, a darker lyrical turn, some brushed percussion, a dab of strings, some harder drums, louder strings and finally a massive crash of guitars turn this from intimate into something much, much bigger. In the hands of a lesser band the build would be signposted more obviously but here the lift is like a gathering storm, and only when it hits do you realise quite how powerful it is.

Where’s My Sex?
“Sex-making is a family tradition / Going back to the caveman days, they were walking around in a haze until they figured it out and said ‘Gosh, dang this is great!’” – Ah, some more of Rivers’ musings on shagging? Well, not quite. With the fat guitars and a middle section that, quite frankly, feels like an entirely different song bolted on while no one was looking (but not in a bad way we hasten to add) is this the band deliberately referencing ‘Tired Of Sex’ because they know the fans will pick up on it or a stonking great pop-rock sound played by a band who sound like they feel genuinely liberated, perhaps because of the success of ‘The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived’’s success? You decide. When you hear it, that is.

Run Away
Breathy and intimate, like it’s torn right from the pages of Rivers’ diary – “When I’m looking at the night sky I can see my soul” is a line that particularly stands out – this is a charming tune with all sorts of harmonies washing over each other. Check out the “ooooh”s in the chorus and try not to swoon away into the distance.

Hang On
Massive. Just massive. How have they managed to make a bittersweet tale of possible love into a rock song this big? Simple (well, ish): a skip-load of strings and a chorus so big you could put a baguette under its arm and call it France. Granted, there’s nothing particularly memorable here but it’s a typically buoyant and joyous Weezer tune that shows that even when they’re not firing on all cylinders, the band’s songwriting prowess is sharper than it’s been in years.

Smart Girls
The first time I heard this, I burst out laughing – in a good way. Hearing the Harvard-educated Rivers asking “Where did all these smart girls come from? Someone tell me how to get me some / On the floor, in a car, on a seat at the bar / Wherever I go, that’s where they are!” while slabs of guitar come hammering down is just hilarious, because while Rivers then says “I wanna be a bad boy right now” there’s no real let-up. A future rock disco classic – trust us on this – this is both ammunition for everyone who says Weezer don’t write serious songs any more and a typically sly slice of good humour rendered in the brightest punk rock terms.

Brave New World
The only real low point on the album, a plodding, by-numbers rock number that adds nothing to ‘Hurley’ and which keeps threatening to turn into ‘The Age Of Aquarius’ (seriously). Eminently skippable – but one bum note out of 10 songs is pretty good going, right? Right.

Time Flies
A weird little anomaly, this, as it sounds like it was recorded on a broken-down Dictaphone. Rustic and lo-fi, with Rivers cheerfully straining to hit the high notes, when put next to the slamming, Technicolour guitars that dominate the record it feels very out of place, but gives us a look at a more on-the-fly Weezer, who can string together a decent song in five minutes and still make it good enough for an album. Granted, this might not be anyone’s favourite song on the record but the quality of ‘Hurley’ is such that even when not firing on all cylinders they’re still streets ahead of most bands.


Summary: A solid return to form dusted with some moments of true greatness, ‘Hurley’ is the sound of a reinvigorated band keen to not only reconnect with their fans from over a decade and a half ago, but also show why they’re considered such a major force. Welcome back, chaps.

Ben Patashnik