Leaping from the majors to the indies,
Weezer misses not a beat, choosing to continue the co-writing craze
Rivers Cuomo kicked off on 2009’s
Raditude.
Hurley -- named after Jorge Garcia’s beloved Lost character for no particular reason, but anybody with three eponymous albums in an eight-LP career doesn’t care much for titles in the first place -- is marginally louder and rougher than the clean sheen of
Raditude, but not enough to fool anybody into thinking this is a punk rebirth. For
Cuomo, independence means he can follow whatever notion seizes his fancy, and in this case he’s capitalizing on collaborations, penning eight of
Hurley’s ten songs (the album runs four longer on a Deluxe Edition that includes a strong cover of
Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”) with a roster so diverse it borders on the nonsensical.
Rivers is open to writing with anybody: he’ll construct slick modern pop with professional songsmiths
Desmond Child and
Linda Perry; sharpen up his power pop with the assistance of fellow former college rockers
Dan Wilson and
Ryan Adams, whose respective “Ruling Me” and “Run Away” are among the album’s highlights; and craft his sweetest, smartest tunes with
No Doubt’s
Tony Kanal (the crisp “Smart Girls”) and
Rick Nowels, who co-wrote the classic “You Get What You Give” with
Gregg Alexander and collaborates on “Hang On” here -- then, of all people,
Cuomo gets old pro
Mac Davis to work on the closer, “Time Flies.” Nothing on paper ties all these writers together but
Rivers is the common denominator, so there’s a consistency of sound -- his co-writers amplify quirks and help him hone his craft, turning the songs tight and efficient. Sometimes, the quirks become overwhelming -- the one-note joke “Where’s My Sex?” wears out its welcome by the second verse -- but usually the melodies and riffs are clean, simple, and powerful, hooking immediately and sticking around for a while. Again,
Cuomo doesn’t suppress his emotion; he just prefers sentiment (albeit delivered somewhat ironically as on lead single “Memories”), but what he loves most of all is a pure pop song and
Hurley offers up its fair share. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine