Twenty years since their paradigm-shifting “Blue Album,” Rivers Cuomo and company present us with “Everything Will Be Alright In The End,” their ninth studio album. This retrospective and all-the-while forward-looking record grants both the casual listener and die-hard fan alike a refreshing embodiment of pure Weezer and Rivers Cuomo at his best.
Fans and critics alike construct their narratives of decay within the band’s history. Some maintain that albums post “Pinkerton” reek. Others blame “Beverly Hills” and the monstrous pop-rock of “Make Believe.” I, a fanboy since the release of “Make Believe” and the “Red Album,” condemn “Raditude.” “Raditude” rejected Weezer’s ‘90s punk rock beginnings, tragically featuring ‘Lil Wayne alongside an excruciating Hindu pop song. While “Hurley” featured the single “Memories” and an overall yearning for a return to their forsaken roots, it failed in presenting unadulterated Weezer; the band couldn’t rebuke their Great Apostasy for ancient renown. New songs shadowed the previous greatness of an ineffable, musical force. I recognized Weezer’s downfall. I believe frontman Rivers Cuomo noticed this too. And he revivified Weezer’s holy, dormant excellence in this year’s release.
Rivers brought back Ric Ocasek, the producer Weezer’s “Blue” and “Green” albums, for this new record, a work focused on the reconciliation with and returning to your roots within the existential wasteland of modern rock ‘n’ roll. It begins with the seven words “everything will be alright in the end.” A new hope pervades the entire work; Rivers recognizes historic sources of his anguish before breaking off, reconciling with his past, and returning home.
In the first song, “Ain’t Got Nobody,” Rivers despairs at the death of rock, being forsaken by both his father and lover, and the insatiable nature of human desire. It sets the scene for the entire record, further explained in the following “Back to the Shack.” Here, Rivers apologizes to us, the audience, for his band’s debilitating errors, explaining how he aims to “[rock] out like its ‘94” whilst struggling with the damage of his familial and romantic relationships. The third song, “Eulogy for a Rock Band,” speaks to the transient nature of all great rock n roll, for though musicians speak “for the world with their songs,” “time marches on/ [and] words come and go.” Weezer recognizes here, with the wizard Gandalf, that “all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
In “Lonely Girl,” Rivers calls his woman over to him, melodramatically imploring for her return. He likewise opens up to his audience in the next song, emotively titled “I’ve Had It Up To Here.” Rivers sings: I “don’t wanna be the boy next door/ [I] don’t wanna pander to the masses anymore.” Weezer continues in this vein with their eschatological rock anthem “The British Are Coming.” The historical reconditioning of this piece recreates the metanarrative of the American Revolution in their own terms. Weezer is calling us to fight against the liberty-crushing music industry. Will we heed their call and transcend this post-industrial bourgeois mass-conditioning?
Their next piece, the light and upbeat “Da Vinci” captures the inexplicable nature of the Other within the context of unrequited, amorous love. Rivers notes his “loss for words” in describing his nonexistent sweetheart. He cries, “ I wish that I could explain who you are/ But when I try to I never get far.” But the night is darkest just before the dawn; Rivers’ predicament worsens yet. In “Go Away,” his lover absconds him forever, despite numerous appeals and apologies. In my personal favorite song,“Cleopatra,” Rivers finally annihilates his nonexistent emotional union, chanting number sets of fives and shouting “you can’t control me no more.” This blockbuster piece culminates the entire work; Weezer achieves self-consciousness. In the denouement, “Foolish Father,” Rivers calls for forgiveness and reconciliation with his estranged father, singing, “he did the best that he could do” and “everything will be alright in the end.”
The end is the future. The record concludes with a dramatic three-part suite, “The Futurescope Trilogy.” The historic Weezer hooks and solos present themselves here amongst hyper-intellectualized literary references. From “The Wasteland” to “Return to Ithaca,” Weezer recognizes what Eliot recognized, and goes where Odysseus went. “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” is the consummation of our Western Heritage. After a hard journey, Weezer embraces homecoming. Come with me.
Final verdict: 10/10, will listen again.
