By Matt De Marco, Staff Writer
Everyone loves a fat guy, especially when it comes to Television characters (think Peter Griffin of “Family Guy”), so it’s no wonder why Weezer dedicated its eighth studio album, “Hurley,” after Hugo “Hurley” Reyes of ABC’s “Lost;” it’s impossible to hate this fat guy!
Picking up the pieces after committing musical suicide with their last studio album release, “Raditude,” Weezer has bounced back and proven, once again, why they are America’s favorite indie band. The band’s employed its trademark usage of ridiculous, meaningful lyrics and strange chord progressions to create a fun album, chock filled with good music.
“Hurley’s” success is owed, principally, to Rivers Cuomo, the band’s front man and primary songwriter. He writes songs that most people can relate to, and that’s important for the success of any album. In “Memories,” the album’s lead single, Cuomo sings “Memories make me want to go back there/ back there.” Simple? Sure, but it’s relatable to all who listen to it. Who doesn’t have at least one memory that they wish they could go back to?
Another contributing factor to the album’s success is the musicianship that went into it. One thing that Weezer is famous for is keeping its listeners on their toes by using unique musical arrangements; essentially, they just threw out the book on “how to make a hit record,” and came up with their own method…and this time it works. Where you expect them to go up, they go down. Where you expect a chorus, a guitar solo emerges. Their tactics are strange, unorthodox and unexpected, but that’s Weezer in a nutshell.
One of the best tracks on the album is “Trainwrecks,” a song about two people who are completely wrong for each other, yet they love each other, so they keep at it—a situation that many can relate to. The song starts with a simple, catchy guitar riff that plays through most of the song. Cuomo then comes in with the vocals, and he absolutely tears it apart, showing his full range and singing his heart out, releasing pure frustration and emotion: “We fall, but then we rise/ We are trainwrecks.”
This album’s flaws can be found on its four “deluxe edition bonus tracks,” so if you buy the regular edition, you’ll be fine. For whatever reason, the band decided to include a live cover of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida.” Sure, it was all well and good, but it just didn’t belong on the album; its melodramatic, depressing feel took away from the sense of fun that the rest of the album promoted. Plus, there was just nothing original about it, minus a few violin solos which were okay, at best.
Flaw number two is “All My Friends Are Insects,” the only song on the album that Cuomo took no part in writing—take that for what it’s worth. The song’s just weird. One minute he’s talking about hanging out with his friend the earthworm, then he’s on about how his friend the butterfly sleeps in the trees.
Aside from those blunders, Hurley is Weezer’s best album in recent years. Die-hard Weezer fans still yearning for “Pinkerton” can stop yelling at them for “The Red Album” now. This makes up for it.