Rivers Cuomo and co have been talking the talk ahead of the release of their ninth studio album, promising a return to the guitar crunch of their first, and best, album, the Blue one.
If you enjoy the heavier end of Weezer's spectrum, Everything has plenty to please you: the hash pipe-style rawk of Back to the Shack, the rowdy hooks and fast-paced gallop of Lonely Girl, the air guitar riffage of Foolish Father and the opening beers-in-the-air party starter Ain't Got Nobody.
But Weezer struggle to keep that pace up for a full album, with the dodgy pop-rock of I've Had It Up to Here sounding like a Fall Out Boy ripoff, and The British Are Coming and Da Vinci delivering nothing more than mid-album filler.
It doesn't help that Cuomo is still mining the same lyrical themes of 20 years ago: isolation and abandonment ("ain't got no one to really love me") and problems with the opposite sex ("cold hearted girl / don't hurt me like this anymore") despite the fact he's a happily married father-of-two. Even with its complete ignorance of current musical trends, and tongue-in-cheek predictions of rock's downfall on Eulogy for a Rock Band, Weezer never quite come through with the edge needed here to make this a fully fledged return to form.
One thing's for sure: 20 years from now Weezer fans won't be demanding an Everything full album tour.
