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Nov 12, 2010 Web Exclusive By Aaron Passman

Another year, another new Weezer album, another…well, not disappointment, really, since we all know what to expect by now, but another dumbing down from one of America’s once-great rock bands.

By now there are no real surprises with a new Weezer album: most of the usual ingredients are present, but little (if any) of the magic. Whereas 2008’s Weezer (aka The Red Album) and 2009’s Raditude played around with the formula by adding in expansive song-structures (The Red Album’s “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)”) and hiphop (Raditude’s “Can’t Stop Partyin’”), Hurley plays it straight, the standard 10 tracks of Weezer-by-numbers. Opener “Memories,” all big choruses and blazing buzz-saw guitars, is the album’s best moment, and about as close to classic Weezer as Hurley gets, although the song feels truncated, in part because if there’s one track here crying out for a guitar solo, it’s this one, but frontman Rivers Cuomo plays it safe, keeping “Memories” in power chord-only territory.

“Smart Girls” is radio-ready pop and the ode to bespectacled ladies that Cuomo’s always had in him, though longtime listeners might have hoped it would have come with a little bit more soul. “Where’s My Sex?” stands alongside Make Believe’s “We Are All on Drugs” as a career low for the band. The acoustic guitar-driven “Time Flies” closes out the album, and bookended with “Memories,” the pair of songs seems to be Cuomo’s attempt to look back and reflect, although his personal reflections fall flat.

Eight years ago this might have been a decent debut for a Weezer-rip-off pop-punk band, but now, even at their best, Weezer too often come off now as self-parody. But, for those who’ve been listening, that’s old news. Rivers Cuomo continues to seem more interested in gaining new fans than maintaining old ones. (www.weezer.com)

Author rating: 5/10