Weezer Comesback For Hurley

I'll be the first to admit that I fell off the Weezer bandwagon, somewhere after the Green Album. This once legendary band seemed to have lost the plot and it kind of made sense...three albums in and things like that were bound to happen. By the time they put Green Album behind them, the world had moved on and kind of left them behind and yet Weezer were a persistent bunch they kept recording and plugging away. Now, ages after their last officially good record, they stumbled upon Hurley. Featuring a huge picture of Jorge Garcia aka Hurley from LOST, the record is a return to form for the band and a loving tribute to one of the quirkiest characters to be on TV.

Hurley isn't necessarily anything new or different, but it seems as though front man Rivers Cuomo found his mojo again and has come up with a whole batch of songs that you'll want to listen to more than once. Weezer have really made a play at being the great band they were here and if there's such a thing as a comeback for indie bands I would say that Hurley is one heck of an attempt at one. With enough power pop guitar fireworks, soaring melodies, humor, cynicism, and a strange feeling of getting old Weezer are on the mark throughout this record. Hurley is a melodic treat that speeds along faster than Ben from LOST could ever hope to move the island and before you know it the whole thing has vanished...just like the island.

Anyway, time shifts aside, the gang might look older (except Rivers "Richard" Cuomo oddly enough) but it hasn't gotten them down, instead they seem to have channeled that wisdom into each and every song here and truly made something special. I would say that over half of the songs on Hurley are easily better than anything they've written in the last five years and the album as a whole it's amongst their four best. This is a band that's re-focused, sharp, sarcastic, and back on their game and to think it all came about because of Hurley. I have thoroughly enjoyed this stupendously good power pop record; it's energy and songs are infectious and sound as fresh as their Blue Album did 16 years ago. Weezer are back and they don't look a day over 5 albums old.