Hurley

Coming from the critical failure and disaster that was Raditude, Weezer just under a year later return with Hurley. Many things intrigued me about this album before listening to it, one being the strange cover art, two being the fact this came barely a year after Raditude and... the marketing campaign. If you guys didn't know, Weezer did a bunch of collaborations with popular YouTubers at the time, such as Schmoyoho, Ray William Johnson... Annoying Orange and possibly the most infamous... Fred Figglehorn. As well as spawning some glorious memes from the Weezer fanbase it was also to market the release of their new album Hurley, and being backed up by the masterpiece that was Fred And Weezer Go To The Moon, what was this album like?

Eh... it's fine.

Hurley's a pretty straightforward Weezer album, it's got your typical Weezer alt rock sound, it's rather short and it's front-loaded. However unlike Raditude, it isn't complete garbage. The instrumentation is much more solid, the lyrics, for the most part, aren't overly cheesy and cringe-worthy and this album houses quite a few great tracks. The first 4 tracks are actually pretty good, definitely on the level of some of the best material from Maladroit. Nothing absolutely amazing, but a pretty solid start. Then they follow it up with Where's My Sex?, filled with some pretty garbage lyrics and some of Rivers' most annoying and grating vocals to date. It's not a problem I have a lot, but on this track his vocals are truly at a low point. From that point on there's some pretty decent pop rock tracks, a pretty awful 8th track lyrically and vocally and... whatever the hell that last track is. Seriously, was it mastered on a rusty cheese grater or something? Intentional or not... you sure you guys didn't want to do a second take?

But overall, Hurley is a decent return from Raditude with quite a few great tracks, and a couple of their worst. It's not as hit or miss as the Red Album though as the instrumentation throughout is quite solid. Plus as a whole, it's a much more fun album. Good job Weezer?

favourite tracks: Memories, Unspoken, Trainwrecks, Ruling Me
least favourites: Where's My Sex?

Summary: Pretty Straightforward

"OHMYGOSH IT'S WEEZER AAIIIIIIIIIIIAHHHH" ~Fred Figglehorn, 2010