WEEZER: Pacific Daydream
Rivers Cuomo is a gifted songwriter. The guy who penned Say It Ain't So and Undone (The Sweater Song) can never be discounted as a creative force. But there's a disconnect between the serious artist that comes through in the press, and the guy behind the last couple of Weezer albums. Rivers Cuomo is a Harvard graduate who routinely practices Vipassana meditation and occasionally experiments with celibacy and fasting to facilitate his creative process. So after all that high-minded soul-searching, how does this guy regularly crank out songs as banal as Happy Hour?
Happy Hour is the new single from Weezer's eleventh album Pacific Daydream. "I need happy hour on sad days," goes the chorus. "I need happy hour, I can't wait." And sure, there are thousands upon thousands of great songs with completely mindless lyrics behind them. I Wanna Hold Your Hand is one of them, by the most ground-breaking rock band of all time. But Rivers Cuomo has somehow devolved from writing songs as honest and evocative as Say It Ain't So to a seemingly endless series of tossed-off half-jokey pop songs. Most of Pacific Daydream fits this description, unfortunately.
Is Cuomo presenting these songs ironically, as tongue-in-cheek pop deconstructions? He's suggested as much in the past, with songs that skewer the record business like Pork and Beans and Back to the Shack. But if that's the case, he's been doing it for too long. You can only write songs like Can't Stop Partying and Where's My Sex? so many time before you become the guy you're lampooning.
Occasionally, Weezer still manages to sound effortless and unironic. Feels Like Summer is an obvious attempt at a hit, but it holds up and sinks in after a few listens. Get Right is earnest enough to resemble Weezer's first two records, and it stands out above the other, more polished tracks. Maybe Rivers doesn't even need to fast or abstain or even meditate to write a great song. These days, it only seems to happen when he's not trying quite so hard. C
