Weezer: Make Believe

(Herald rating: * *)

Weezer, led by the bespectacled enigma that is Rivers Cuomo, might retain their position as the toughest, most enduring nerds of American rock, but something seems to have given out on this their fifth album, which comes with considerable expectation placed upon it by having Rick Rubin in the producer's chair.

It starts with a familiarly fuzzpop perkiness on the single of Beverly Hills - with its Joan Jett I Love Rock'N'Roll beat - and We Are All on Drugs is funnier than it sounds and should really get a clause all its own in this week's party pill legislation.

But the 12 songs soon start sounding like the ones that came before and the charm of Cuomo's earnest literal-mindedness in the lyrics of Pardon Me (Rivers says sorry), Freak Me Out (Rivers gets freaked), My Best Friend (Rivers declares his feelings of love to said person) sure wears off quick.

Sound-wise - care of Rubin and the band's way with a fuzzpedal and those ol' soft-loud, whoah-oah choruses - it promises to be yet another bumper bag of Weezer fireworks.

But the songs soon reveal themselves to be nothing but one damp sparkler after another.

Label: Geffen