Two songs into
Everything Will Be Alright in the End,
Rivers Cuomo sings "we belong in the rock world," a repudiation of the big beat experimentation of
Raditude, a 2009 record that found
Weezer working with such pop producers as
Dr. Luke and
Butch Walker.
Weezer fans eager for
Pinkerton, Pt. 2 are often quick to bristle at
Cuomo's experimentations, so when the guitarist sings that they're "rockin' out like it's '94," he's not only not lying -- they went so far as to once again hire
Ric Ocasek, the producer of the group's debut, to helm this ninth studio album -- but he's reassuring his audience that he's left all those pounding dance beats behind. The weird thing is,
Weezer already shook off the ghost of
Raditude via 2010's quickly released indie
Hurley, so the emphasis on the group returning to rock feels a little odd, but
Everything Will Be Alright in the End does trump its immediate predecessor by being bigger, bolder, slicker, and stickier than
Hurley. Some of this is indeed due to the presence of
Ocasek. His exacting production, anchored as much in pummeling arena rock as new wave pop, polishes and preserves
Cuomo's quirks, but it's also true that
Rivers has decided to indulge in his eccentricities once again. Take away the woolly mammoth-sized guitars and "Back to the Shack," with its overt references to "In the Garage," and
Everything Will Be Alright in the End doesn't feel especially like early
Weezer, not with the dexterous syncopation of "I've Had It Up to Here" providing a midpoint palate-cleanser and a neo-prog rock suite concluding the proceedings. By having the record follow these twisty detours,
Cuomo provides a counterpoint to the classicist pop
Weezer pursue elsewhere, but even such succinct, sculpted pop as "The British Are Coming," "Ain't Got Nobody," "Cleopatra," and "Go Away" (the latter a duet with
Best Coast's
Bethany Cosentino) never feels like a desperate scramble back home. Rather, a feeling of acceptance underpins
Everything Will Be Alright in the End: there's a sense that
Weezer made another record of massive, hooky rock not only because that's what the fans want but because they know it's what they do best. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine