Everything is (Almost) Alright in the End With Weezer's Latest

There aren't any bands quite like Weezer.  Whether that is a compliment or not purely depends on your opinion of the group, especially their latest output.  Weezer has always been in the unique position of having peaked with their first two albums.  Their debut, 1994's self-titled album often referred to as the “Blue Album”, is considered by many to be their best effort and is still the best mainstream representation of “nerd-rock” since Devo.  The group’s second album, 1996's Pinkerton, is equally impressive but divisive nonetheless. 

From then on however, Weezer has been on a steady decline in quality.  While Maladroit and The Green Album had some bright spots and The Red Album was an underrated diversion into more experimental territory, the group has never quite hit the high notes their first two LP's reached.  To be fair though, the band didn't truly fall into its creative slump until front man, Rivers Cuomo's return from studying at Harvard, with 2005's Make Believe sounding like a parody of a children's record and 2009's Raditute being nearly unlistenable.

Everything Will be Alright in the End, Weezer's ninth and latest album is as close of a return to their eccentric pop-rock roots as we're probably ever going to get.  “Back to the Shack”, the album's first single, and “Eulogy for a Rock Band” sound like an open letter apology from Cuomo and company to their fans, “sorry guys I didn't realize that I needed you so much. I thought I'd get a new audience, I forgot that disco sucks,” Cuomo confesses over the opening guitar riff.  He even goes so far as to claim they’re “rockin’ out like it's 94” in the chorus.  While none of the songs exactly scream “Blue Album”, opening track “Ain't Got Nobody” may be as close as the band is willing to get morose loneliness of Pinkerton, a record Cuomo himself has publicly disowned.  Most of the record has some of that Pinkerton-era sentiment hidden under the surface however, glossed over with slick production and Weezer's more typical upbeat trappings.

When you get down to the brass tacks, Everything Will be Alright in the End feels like Weezer celebrating who they are as a band.  Every song on the album sounds like a representation of the tone of each of their past albums, even ones that were never released (the three part instrumental that closes out the record is reminiscent of Songs from the Black Hole, their unreleased album intended to follow up “Blue Album”).

If you're really itching for a Weezer fix and haven't checked out their 2010 compilation record Death to False Metal or Cuomo's solo acoustic works Alone, you should give those a listen first.  Everything Will be Alright in the End is a worthy effort from the group.  Some may criticize the songs for sounding too light and homogenous, but for better or worse, that's always been Weezer's best default setting.