Weezer Make Believe

 Weezer

Make Believe

Weezer’s new record: a masterpiece or a piece of crap? The critics are divided!

It’s been interesting to read the different reactions and reviews about Make Believe. Rock dinosaurs Rolling Stone magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars (translation: basically the best thing out there) and hipster website Pitchfork gave it a rating of 0.4 out of 10 (translation: worse than the worst). Whom should we trust?

Let me take a stab at it. It’s easy for anyone who’s heard the first single, “Beverly Hills,” to know that the Rolling Stone review is still trying to make up for the fact that they gave Pinkerton such bad reviews when it first came out. “Beverly Hills” was a bad idea. You could hear Weezer fans everywhere were screaming, “We waited three years for this?” I think Pitchfork personally got their feelings hurt by the song’s crappiness.

However, if you can get past that song, and more importantly (and more difficult to do), you can get past what you think a Weezer album is supposed to sound like, you’ll be okay with this record. It’s mostly a collection of soft, mid-tempo songs about heartbreaks. It is most comparable to the Green Album in that on paper the lyrics may seem blue, but the sincerity and emotion seem to be missing. “The Damage in Your Heart” seems to be the closest thing to heartfelt.

At times however, it seems like Rivers Cuomo can’t even fake interest in the words. The chorus of “Best Friend"

“You are my best friend
And I love you, and I love you”
Yes I do”

From “Pardon me”

"I may not be a perfect soul
But I can learn self control"

After 12 years in the game, is this the best Rivers can do?

Despite a few slip-ups, (and since this album has 12 tracks instead of the usual 10, maybe that’s okay) this is a decent album. Between Pitchfork’s 0.4 and Rolling Stones 4, I'll give Make Believe 2.5 stars out of 5.

Weezer Album Ranking (Best to worst)

1. Pinkerton
2. Blue Album
3. Green Album
4. Make Believe
5. Maladroit (Who ever listens to this record?)