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
.
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,
already shook off the ghost of
via 2010's quickly released indie
Hurley
, so the emphasis on the group returning to rock feels a little odd, but
does trump its immediate predecessor by being bigger, bolder, slicker, and stickier than
. 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
'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
doesn't feel especially like early
, 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,
provides a counterpoint to the classicist pop
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
: there's a sense that
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. [
was also released on LP.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine