Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 2.5/5 Released: May 10, 2005 Reviewer: Connor Turner |
In mid-February I wasted 2 valuable hours watching a Happy Days reunion special. At the time it didn’t make any sense. Sure the Fonz was cool shit (Well, until he jumped over the shark) but the show didn’t warrant my full attention. Then it dawned on me; for some obsessive reason I was hoping the cast would talk about “Buddy Holly.†I wanted to know how they had felt about the video; did it do as much for them as if did for me as scraggly teenager.
It is this nostalgic hopefulness that accompanies and plagues every new Weezer release. Does Rivers have another Say It Ain’t So or maybe Tired of Sex? Not on Make Believe. This album continues Weezer’s arch towards a straight-ahead arena-pop-melody machine. Perfect Situation, My Best Friend and the Rik Ocasek homage – This is Such a Pity are the better songs on the album. With the anthem Beverly Hills taking the crown as best track, becoming a Johnny Depp-ish revamp of Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag. Lyrically River’s has undone his introverted shell, with painfully simple lyrics, making some songs feel brutally honest, but others frustratingly cheesy. At points Make Believe feels uncomfortably like a sneak peek into a friend’s self-help exercise book.
Many will have already disregarded Make Believe as it is not the second coming of the Blue Album or Pinkerton. Still, as its own entity, this album is a step in a very personal direction for Rivers. Unfortunately unlike the absolute genius of Maladroit it is an evolution towards an awkward and less satisfying version of Weezer.
