Songs like "My Name Is Jonas," "Say It Ain't So," and "In the Garage" revealed a scrawny, needy jumble of neurosis, and the Spike Jonze directed videos for the album gave the band a retro-slacker style that thousands of lesser groups have tried to steal for decades. As a fan, you spend too much time asking, "Is this guy for real?" But, for one album, Weezer nailed it: this record is the perfect combination of irony, sincerity, and self-loathing.
If you hit your jokes (or the whammy pedal) too hard, you end up sounding like Weird Al. Personally, I think most of Hurley should've stayed on the island. Lines like "Pissing in plastic cups before we went on stage/Playing hacky sack back when Audioslave was still Rage" will either have you rolling your eyes or pining for the Lollapaloozas of yore. It's got the maxed out rawk guitars ( "Ruling Me"), the big melodies ( "Hang On"), and the ridiculous sex metaphors ( "Where's My Sex?") that Pinkerton loyalists crave, but it wouldn't be Rivers if there wasn't a smirk to go along with the nostalgia. Shedding the teenage dirtbag sneer of 2009's Raditude, this is still a slick affair, complete with tracks co-written with pros like Semisonic's Dan Wilson, No Doubt's Tony Kanal, Ryan Adams, Linda Perry, Mac Davis and more. Notable for being Weezer's first album for an independent label - the band made the jump to Epitaph after years cranking out records for Geffen and Interscope - it's not surprising that going "indie" doesn't really change Rivers' approach.
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