This was a really hard review to write. Although I’ve had ‘Make Believe’ for a long, long time now, I didn’t want to write about it. Like most of the PT staff I’m a huge Weezer fan and for a long time I was actually undecided as to what I really felt about this record. I guess in a sense I still am (as the score would suggest). On the one hand, my initial reaction was that this album was a pile of steaming horse poo, a collection of songs not fit to grace a Weezer album. But the more I listened and the more I forgot about Rivers’ back catalogue, the more I grew to like it. Sure, it’s no ‘Pinkerton’ or ‘Blue Album’ – hell, it’s no ‘Green’ either – but there are moments of genius here that I think the mainstream press may have missed out on. If you sit and listen and make constant comparisons to the Weezer of old then you will end up very disappointed. But open your mind and you may surprise yourself…
For me, Weezer will never, ever touch the heights they do on the first two albums, so there’s not point making comparisons there. ‘Green’ is good (not as good as when I first reviewed it), while ‘Maladroit’ was disappointing in my book, minus a few great songs. ‘Make Believe’ is the band’s worst album, although it’s still better than what many bands take 20 years to come up with. I guess that’s the problem when you have such a great back catalogue and expectations are so high! The initial hoo-hah over this wasn’t really warranted – but then I think you could put that down to the Playboy video… ‘Beverley Hills’ has split many down the middle. It’s an odd choice of single, certainly very catchy but it’s not Weezer. Infact if it wasn’t for Rivers’ distinctive vocals, you’d have thought it was one of those funny novelty songs by a one hit wonder. As it is, close your eyes and imagine some funny chap singing it and you’ll like it more. I do.
‘Perfect Situation’ is much more like it, featuring a trademark hook and Rivers Cuomo lead guitar riff which bends lovingly around his own vocals. It’s a trait Weezer have nailed over the years and is featured a lot on this record. Both ‘Hold Me’ and ‘Peace’ are good without being great, while ‘The Damage In Your Heart’ seems to show a side to the band that we’ve not really seen before. There’s strings and a quiver in Rivers’ vocal that he had perhaps only hinted at in tracks like ‘O Girlfriend’ from ‘Green’. ‘Pardon Me’ and ‘My Best Friend’ is a great double salvo, the latter picks up the pace and will no doubt have everyone pogo-ing along during their UK tour this summer.
Of course there are some dodgy songs, not really something that’s happened on Weezer albums in the past. ‘This Is Such A Pity’ comes straight out of the 80s and probably should have stayed there, while ‘We Are All On Drugs’ is absolute garbage – if a 12-year-old had penned lyrics like “When you’re out with your friends in your new Mercedes Benz and you’re on drugs / and you show up late for school ’cause you think you’re really cool when you’re on drugs” I’d have lambasted him too. However, as is typical with Weezer, the ‘Hash Pipe’-esque guitar riff will probably have us singing along all summer anyway, even if I do hate it.
Hardcore Weezer fans will still probably like this record, because it is the big W after all. Yes, if you compare it to the older records this is a disappointment, but let’s face it, could the band ever top the first couple of albums? Probably not. Take this for what it is, which is a pretty poppy record full of trademark Weezer hooks and singalong choruses, and you’ll enjoy it more. Rivers is never going to be as personal as he was on ‘Pinkerton’, nor as geeky as he was on ‘Blue’. But it does flow better than the darker ‘Maladroit’ and will certainly keep fans pleased over the summer months. Good but not great, it’s not quite the disaster it could so easily have been…
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Paul