Released: 2017

Genres: Pop Rock

The Musiquarium’s Pacific Daydream Review Score: 4 out of 10

Starting with 2014’s better than expected Everything Will Be Alright in the End, Weezer was set for a long overdue comeback after nearly a decade of poor reviews and declining quality. This theory was reaffirmed when they released Weezer (White Album), which was easily their most memorable and sincere work in years, doing well with both fans and critics. It wasn’t as great as Weezer (Blue Album) or Pinkerton, but that’s also an impossible standard for the band to hold up to, 20 odd years later.

Pacific Daydream fails to match the standards set by White Album one year prior, with any of the goodwill that it had generated for the band completely destroyed. Pacific Daydream strips away any of White Album’s best traits and leaves only the Billboard-yearning pop elements and Rivers Cuomo’s “How do you do fellow kids?”, out-of-touch longing to be this cool musician who writes these perfect, Excel spreadsheet pop songs, and whom everyone loves. When you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

Mexican Fender, Beach Boys, Feels Like Summer and Happy Hour all sound like generic mid 2010s pop rock that you might hear from some garbage pop band like OneRepublic, not from the guys who wrote unforgettable classics like Say It Ain’t So, Buddy Holly, Undone – The Sweater Song and The Good Life.

Rivers Cuomo, for the love of god, ditch the Excel spreadsheets and start writing music with your balls again.

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

Back to the 2017 Album Guide or the Weezer Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard