Released: 2010

Genres: Power Pop, Alternative Rock, Pop Rock

The Musiquarium’s Hurley Review Score: 2.5/5

Even though it had only been a year since Weezer had released the critically-panned Raditude (one of the most embarrassing albums of all time), comes Hurley, named after the fact that Jorge Garcia (the man on the cover) plays Hurley on the television show Lost… Why? I don’t know, but I wish Rivers Cuomo would start putting more effort into Weezer’s music again.

The nostalgic opener and lead single Memories is probably the best song here, with a hint of what Weezer is capable of, though it’s still tacky and is forever associated with being in Jackass 3D. Unspoken sounds almost like it could be vintage Weezer, but this isn’t too surprising, considering it’s one of two songs on Hurley (the other being Memories) that was written solely by Rivers Cuomo. Why does Cuomo feel the need to rely on outside songwriters when he is more than capable on his own? Why does he try so hard to make Weezer not sound like Weezer?

The incredibly cringey Where’s My Sex? is apparently based around mishearing “Where’s my socks?”, which itself is grammatically incorrect and makes for a stretch of a joke — it’s unfortunate, because the instrumental is actually not half-bad, but the goofy lyrics make it sound more like Weird Al parodying Weezer than anything. Smart Girls is another “quirky” song, this time about… smart girls — the lyrics sound as if they were written by a 11 year old boy just discovering that girls don’t actually have cooties.

Rivers Cuomo once wrote like someone wise beyond his years, and 15 years later, he’s regressed to writing like someone more immature than even his younger self. Time Flies sounds like it was recorded inside of a toilet, and is shocking how it made the cut on the final album and even if it was a “stylistic” choice, it sounds horrid.

Hurley has two, maybe three decent (but not great) songs, but it’s still mostly a whole lot of nothing — it’s still better than Raditude though, but so is a pile of steaming dog shit.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Weezer on Discogs.

Back to the 2010 Album Guide or the Weezer Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard