Great albums most often prick at you and provoke you. Great albums challenge you by not being exactly what you'd expected. Unfortunately, sometimes bad albums do exactly the same thing. Make Believe stumbles along between both extremes, but it does take some chances that occasionally pay off.
The problem with Make Believe isn't that it takes chances - it's that it takes them only occasionally, and then slips right back into safe-mode, regurgitating what Weezer has already done so well and so often better. Where the band has chosen to prick - such as the first single, "Beverly Hills," whose stomp seems infused directly from Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n Roll," or the infectious, new-wave inspired and keyboard-heavy "This is Such a Pity" - they do so with full gusto, making the kind of statement that shows they're not willing to offend a few fans with a new direction. And then they do something like "Hold Me," which is such a lethargic and overwrought ballad that its only point of existence would be to fill floors at a high school prom. It's truly terrible - easily the worst moment in the entire Weezer catalog.
Where past Weezer albums had contained a healthy dose of great material, Make Believe's worst offense is not just that it only contains a small number of great songs - it's that it is punctuated by simply "okay" material, among which are a couple really awful songs (the afforementioned "Hold Me" and album closer "Haunt You Every Day.") This lends the entire album the hit and miss feel of unreliability as a whole. However, isolating what registers as "good" and even "great," it's a satisfying listen. Weezer would probably have much better off releasing Make Believe as an EP consisting of the 6 or so most successful songs, leaving the rest in the vault to be developed more fully later or, more likely, simply forgotten. An EP, of course, wouldn't have the impact that an album does, but it might have been a lot more satisfying.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
tom,This work of yours now has another venue for success - and more eyes - at the Advance.net Web sites, a place affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
Also please let your contact know, if you had one, that this article, is published at one more place. That helps a lot.
Thank you.
Temple Stark
2 - Scrappy
Hold Me is not a prom song. Look at the lyrics. It's about a four year old missing his mother.
3 - Tom
Doesn't matter what the subject matter is, Scrappy, it's still a schmaltzy ballad that would fill prom dance floors. How many times have you seen people going doe-eyed at each other over the Police's "Every Breath You Take," one of the creepiest popular rock songs ever?
4 - DJRadiohead
Tom speaks the truth... the songwriters' intended meaning becomes irrelevant sometimes.
5 - DJRadiohead
Tom, I missed this review the first time out. Thank goodness for comments. You and I are pretty well in agreement. Weezer's album was a disappointment for me. It didn't make my best of 2005 (but The Wife to Whom I Am Married and I think "Beverly Hills" was one of the year's best songs).
6 - reggie von woic
Beverly hills was 'great', as you put it, when it came out and a few weeks after being played 7 times on the radio daily.
Now however, there's perfect situation which is just so OMFG good--especially the video with Elisha.
Does anyone know where i can get a "Weeze" T-shirt??