Send "Weezer " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Well shit, just when it seemed like the final nail in Weezer's career was about to be hammered into the the glossy, fat dude from Lost laden cover of their new album Hurley, it appears that the band, who spent the last decade releasing exceedingly worse and worse records under the guise of self-parody and irony, have remembered that having a quality album is more than suckering in people with massive singles like “Pork and Beans” and “ (If You're Wondering If I Want To) I Want To”. Make Believe, The Red Album, and Raditude made it seem like the mid-nineties glory days of Weezer were a thing of the past. Rivers Cuomo had eschewed everything that made millions of kids fall in love him in the first place for one dimensional, piss poor party anthems and awkward hymns of teenage baggage – really the last thing that was expected from the socially awkward, middle aged Harvard alumnus. Hurley proves that Rivers still has some gas left in the tank. At the same time it was announced that Weezer were jumping ship from the major label home that they had been residing at since their explosion on to the alternative rock landscape with the Blue Album in favor of the punk mega-indie label Epitaph records, Rivers also let it be known that his creative impetus for Hurley was 1960's pop music. Trading in hitting the clubs with Jermaine Dupri for holing himself up with Beach Boys and Love vinyls has rendered the best in Weezer's output since Rivers decided to open up to his love of Asian girls. The influence isn't always apparent, as Weezer still hold fast to their trademark crunchy guitars and songs like “Ruling Me” and “Brave New World” come off as the classic Weezer sound of the 90's being reworked into the semi-electronic modern pop side that has dominated the latter half of their career, but with the lo-fi analog hum of the folky “Time Flies” and the gentle flute flourishes that elevate the emotionally bare “Unspoken” from acoustic rocker, to one of the band's all time best songs it is impossible to overlook. Unfortunately some of the eccentric, tongue and cheek bullshit that bogged down every Weezer CD starting with Make Believe still rears its ugly head now and again with the cringe inducing cacophony of “Where's My Sex” and the bland repetition of “Smart Girls”, making Hurley not quite a total return to form, but a solid step back in the right direction....full text |
| Nme |
| Weezer have announced the tracklisting of their new album 'Hurley', set for release on September 13. 'Memories', the first single from the album, is streaming now at the band's MySpace page, Myspace.com/weezer, and is available as a download now. The album was produced by frontman Rivers Cuomo, along with Shawn Everett, who produced the band's last album, 'Raditude'. The artwork features the Hurley character from the Lost TV series, who the record is named after. A deluxe edition of the album, featuring three extra songs – 'All My Friends Are Insects', 'Viva La Vida' and 'I Want To Be Something' – will be released alongside the standard edition....full text |
| Popmatters |
| In this music industry age of falling sales and constant searching for new business models, is it still possible for bands to be considered sellouts? In some circles, apparently so. Weezer raised a lot of questions by naming its upcoming album “Hurley” and its cover featuring only a picture of actor Jorge Garcia — yes, Hurley, from “Lost.” “We struggled super hard trying to come up with an album title, trying to find some kind of phrase that summed up the whole aesthetic behind the album — ‘Heavy Mental,’ ‘Smaller Than Life,’” singer Rivers Cuomo told Spinner.com. “I was coming up with all kinds of stuff, but ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if left without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.”“ However, the band has since signed a deal with the Hurley clothing company to launch a Weezer fashion line of T-shirts and hoodies, available starting Sept. 10 in PacSun stores. That has led some to question the “Hurley” story. “Weezer misleads fans, sells out to Hurley International,” declares Hypebot.com, while other blogs call it product placement....full text |
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