Released: October 27, 2017
Label: Atlantic, Crush
Duration: 34 Minutes
At this point in Weezer's nearly twenty-five year career, their arc in quality has become almost legendary. After their fantastic self-titled debut and the raw power of 1996's Pinkerton, the band turned towards pop rock and the critical reaction to their music began to drop... and drop... and drop. Rivers Cuomo, the band's rhythm guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter, pushed the band further away from their quirky charm and further towards a generic pop sound.
Then, in 2014, things started to turn around. Cuomo gained some self-awareness as shown through the significantly improved Everything Will Be Alright in the End.
And then there was The White Album, which dropped in the spring of 2016.
Though it by no means received universal acclaim, the White Album was considered by many to be a major return to form for Weezer, and in my humble opinion, is a masterpiece of pop rock (even topping my favourite albums of 2016!). The White Album took Cuomo's love of the Beach Boys, his affection for the summer, his penchant for quirky, honest lyrics, and the occasional heavier side of old Weezer, and blended these elements together perfectly.
A year and a half later, Weezer's eleventh studio album Pacific Daydream combines these ingredients once more. This time, however, it shows how to use them in the worst way possible. The above context makes the low quality of this latest album even more painful; Weezer was set for redemption, and they blew it.
On Pacific Daydream the respect shown for the pop acts of the late 1960s turns derivative and unoriginal, and goes against the more modern pop structure of the tracks. The track listing is still very much "summer oriented" (as the faux-bombastic "Feels Like Summer" clearly shows), but now in a much less fun or memorable way. The charm of Weezer on their last album has dried up; River's lyrics fall into the category of cringe far more often, and the album feels like the sort of pop rock any four losers with guitars and a record deal could pump out. There is no tight musicianship here; the drums and bass follow simple rhythms and the guitars show no playing or solos of note.
Few of the songs here even stand out in how bad they are, besides the incredibly generic and obnoxious sounding "Happy Hour". It is impossible to imagine where such lazy, mediocre song-writing came from. It feels almost as though Cuomo wanted to make sure his pockets were full with some "radio-friendly" tracks before he wrote another, more "challenging" album. Except, as radio songs, many of the choruses lack well-structured melodies, and the whole thing just falls flat on its face.
It must be restated that I find some of Cuomo's writing here to be truly painful. One of his biggest strengths, his dorky honesty, becomes one of his biggest weaknesses with lines like "Turn it up it's the beach boys/singing out in a sweet voice" making a clumsy melody in a song also containing the phrase "it's a hip-hop world". When Rivers isn't just sounding out of touch, he instead writes generic lyrics that mean nothing, just like any easy-to-swallow pop singer would Other terrible examples include;
"I'm like Stevie Ray Vaughan on the stage, high on music
Teeth grindin', sweatin' under the lights
But then my boss calls and she's crushin' me with a 20 ton weight
Just like in Monty Python
Somebody left on the sink, it's still running
My eyes are gonna overflow"
And;
"Behind a bolted door
Times a-wastin'
Times a-wastin'
And now the clock keeps ticking on
It's like my own private time zone
But then you came along
And now we're famous"
The first half of the album is an unbearable mess, and the back half is forgettable. Right in the middle of these two sections is a single moment of respite: the acoustic driven song "QB Blitz", which would have sounded right at home on The White Album. The song sounds more unique and emotionally honest than anything else on the record; it's the only song that feels like any effort was put into its creation. The rest of the album feels like it was finished to fulfill a contract requirement.
I can state, without hesitation, that this is my least favourite Weezer album to date (though the fact I still haven't heard Raditude should be noted). It's lifeless; it feels empty and hollow. One great track can't save it from nine disasters. Weezer fans, Weezer haters, pop music lovers, everyone; avoid this one at all costs.
Then, in 2014, things started to turn around. Cuomo gained some self-awareness as shown through the significantly improved Everything Will Be Alright in the End.
And then there was The White Album, which dropped in the spring of 2016.
Though it by no means received universal acclaim, the White Album was considered by many to be a major return to form for Weezer, and in my humble opinion, is a masterpiece of pop rock (even topping my favourite albums of 2016!). The White Album took Cuomo's love of the Beach Boys, his affection for the summer, his penchant for quirky, honest lyrics, and the occasional heavier side of old Weezer, and blended these elements together perfectly.
A year and a half later, Weezer's eleventh studio album Pacific Daydream combines these ingredients once more. This time, however, it shows how to use them in the worst way possible. The above context makes the low quality of this latest album even more painful; Weezer was set for redemption, and they blew it.
On Pacific Daydream the respect shown for the pop acts of the late 1960s turns derivative and unoriginal, and goes against the more modern pop structure of the tracks. The track listing is still very much "summer oriented" (as the faux-bombastic "Feels Like Summer" clearly shows), but now in a much less fun or memorable way. The charm of Weezer on their last album has dried up; River's lyrics fall into the category of cringe far more often, and the album feels like the sort of pop rock any four losers with guitars and a record deal could pump out. There is no tight musicianship here; the drums and bass follow simple rhythms and the guitars show no playing or solos of note.
Few of the songs here even stand out in how bad they are, besides the incredibly generic and obnoxious sounding "Happy Hour". It is impossible to imagine where such lazy, mediocre song-writing came from. It feels almost as though Cuomo wanted to make sure his pockets were full with some "radio-friendly" tracks before he wrote another, more "challenging" album. Except, as radio songs, many of the choruses lack well-structured melodies, and the whole thing just falls flat on its face.
It must be restated that I find some of Cuomo's writing here to be truly painful. One of his biggest strengths, his dorky honesty, becomes one of his biggest weaknesses with lines like "Turn it up it's the beach boys/singing out in a sweet voice" making a clumsy melody in a song also containing the phrase "it's a hip-hop world". When Rivers isn't just sounding out of touch, he instead writes generic lyrics that mean nothing, just like any easy-to-swallow pop singer would Other terrible examples include;
"I'm like Stevie Ray Vaughan on the stage, high on music
Teeth grindin', sweatin' under the lights
But then my boss calls and she's crushin' me with a 20 ton weight
Just like in Monty Python
Somebody left on the sink, it's still running
My eyes are gonna overflow"
And;
"Behind a bolted door
Times a-wastin'
Times a-wastin'
And now the clock keeps ticking on
It's like my own private time zone
But then you came along
And now we're famous"
The first half of the album is an unbearable mess, and the back half is forgettable. Right in the middle of these two sections is a single moment of respite: the acoustic driven song "QB Blitz", which would have sounded right at home on The White Album. The song sounds more unique and emotionally honest than anything else on the record; it's the only song that feels like any effort was put into its creation. The rest of the album feels like it was finished to fulfill a contract requirement.
I can state, without hesitation, that this is my least favourite Weezer album to date (though the fact I still haven't heard Raditude should be noted). It's lifeless; it feels empty and hollow. One great track can't save it from nine disasters. Weezer fans, Weezer haters, pop music lovers, everyone; avoid this one at all costs.
Score: 2.8/10
Best Track: QB Blitz
Worst Tracks: Happy Hour, Beach Boys, La Mancha Screwjob
