Back to 9th Grade

When I saw that Weezer’s album Hurley (with an unexplained picture of Hurley from Lost on the cover) was coming out three days before my birthday, I took it as a sign that I should buy it for myself for my birthday.  During my first listen-to, I started reminiscing about my life with the band and realized that I have been listening to Weezer for literally half of my life.  Half of my life.

I listened to the blue album on repeat until I started having nightmares about standing naked in front of my English class, my wool sweater hanging on by a thread (pun intended) around my neck, a pile of yarn on the floor beside me.  Weezer was, from the beginning, the little band that could, taking chances with their unconventional love songs and brilliant videos (some skillfully directed by ♥Spike Jonze♥) in an age when the Spice Girls ruined the radio and The Real World ushered out an era that ended our weekends of lying on the couch watching videos all day (because, of course, MTV stopped playing videos all day).  

So, here they are sixteen years later, putting out another solid/weird album that will still appeal to those of us who keep waiting for the second season of My So-Called Life to air.  (Remember when Jared Leto was normal?)

Here are some of the brightest spots of Hurley:

1) “Trainwrecks”: This is the best self-deprecating anthem for our generation since we stopped head-banging to Smells Like Teen Spirit with lines like: You don't keep house and I'm a slob/ You're freakin' out cause I can't keep a job/ We don't update our blogs/ We are trainwrecks.  We would be mad about this criticism, but we’re too tired from staying up late playing the video games our parents bought us for our 29th birthdays to do anything about it.

2) “Smart Girls”: I’m going to choose to listen to this song without any sense of irony and believe that Rivers Cuomo really does want to sleep with smart girls.  It’s nice to have a pop rock love song about girls that doesn’t mention boobs or booties even once.  (Plus, I’m a sucker for songs with girls’ names, and this one is not nearly as annoying as that effing Lou Bega “Mambo #5” and way more respectful than Too Short’s “Cocktales.”  I’m still waiting for the song with my name.)

3) “All My Friends Are Insects”: If you purchase the deluxe version on Itunes (Who doesn’t do this?), you get the bonus track of Weezer's appearance on the LSD-trip-inspired kids’ show, Yo Gabba Gabba.  As a mom who has been subjected to this ridiculous DJ Lance nightmare (without the benefit of actually being on hallucinogens), I appreciate that with this addition, I can consider Hurley a children’s album, which means I can play it any time my kids are in my car (unlike other albums like Eminem’s Recovery, which unfortunately has no Yo Gabba Gabba tunes).

I think the reason we all still love Weezer is that when we see them, it’s like seeing those four guys that had a garage band from our high school, and we think, “Hey, I know those guys!  We had Algebra 2 together.”  And we’re all just so glad that they made it.