ALBUM REVIEW: Weezer 'Everything Will Be Alright In The End'

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Oh, Weezer. It’s been one hell of a journey following these guys for the past couple of decades. From the teenage angst ridden tunes packed into “The Blue Album” and Pinkerton, through the pop rock years of “The Green Album” and Make Believe to the down right ridiculous Raditude, there’s been very few dull moments in this band’s career. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing.

On the one hand, the release of a new Weezer album is always an exciting affair. You can never quite tell whats going through the mind of River Cuomo and co. so there could literally be anything on an album. A genre spanning epic? Did that on ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’, a disco-rap track featuring Lil Wayne? Did that on ‘Can’t Stop Partying’ (this probably falls into the “bad thing” category).

On the other hand, there has been very little consistency of quality in the band’s output for some time now. Weezer are still stalked by the success of “Blue” and Pinkerton, and despite producing a string of hit singles in the following years, it can be argued they haven’t put a top album out since then. Harsh? Probably, but we’re talking about a band who tour around the Caribbean on a cruise ship. I think they’ll get over it.

Anyway, I digress, we have a new Weezer album and it’s called ‘Everything Will Be Alright in The End‘ (EWBAITE). The band have done a string of interviews during the build up of its release, the message behind them being that they’re going back to their roots, back to what the hardcore fans fell in love with in the first place. A message epitomised in the first single, ‘Back To The Shack’…

“Sorry guys I didn’t realise that I needed you so much, I thought I’d get a new audience, I forgot that disco sucks. / I ended up with nobody and I started feeling dumb, maybe I should play the lead guitar and Pat should play the drums “

Things start off promisingly enough, ‘Ain’t Got Nobody’ is vintage Weezer: Chugging riffs and a pop-tastic chorus combine to remind listeners exactly what this band is capable of when they’re on form. ‘I’ve Had it Up To Here’ delivers some swagger to proceedings, complete with indie-disco style guitar and flashes of falsetto vocals, whilst ‘The British Are Coming’ is the anthem the lads back in 1776 were waiting for, a rocked up ode to American independence.

Alas, like their recent efforts it’s not all gold in the hills of EWBAITE. ‘Eulogy For A Rock Band’ is riff rock by numbers and ‘Go Away’ trundles on by without causing much of a stir. At the end of the first ten tracks we’re left with a better than average Weezer album, but things take a dramatic twist when we delve into what is known as ‘The Futurescope Trilogy’.

Starting with ‘The Waste Land’, this is Weezer at their most flamboyant. Glam metal guitars fly around as if Guns N’ Roses had stepped in for a recording session. ‘Anonymous’ adds Elton John-esque piano to the mix, creating a number that could easily be featured on Broadway – I can almost see the show girls now. Finally we move into ‘Return to Ithacka’, the crescendo of ridiculousness to end both the trilogy and the album, after which you think to yourself, “what the hell did I just listen to!?”

EWBAITE is an identity crisis unlike any this band has had in the past. By going back to their roots they’ve discovered with more evidence than ever that they’re not the same band they were 20 years ago, and whilst the majority of the songs on this album keep up with the charade that they really have harked back to the good ol’ days, all that pent up frustration and yearning for new ideas comes spilling out into the last three ludicrous tracks.

This is a good album, and its well worth a listen, but the one thing worse than your favourite band going in a questionable direction, is a band going backwards, and at times EWBAITE does exactly that.

Don’t be afraid to embrace the madness, Rivers! Forwards ever, backwards never.