Do You Know Hurley?

Hurley -Weezer

It is the one with face of that fat guy from “Lost” on the cover. Yes, that is Hurley, the new album by my  favorite band Weezer. This band got me through high school with out too much damage.

I did not know that Weezer was releasing any material this autumn. I think I got the news maybe as late as beginning of September that the album will be released on the 14^th. So two weeks ago when I was in France I picked the album up from a local record store and used it as soundtrack when I was wandering around Nantes.

That’s enough about that. What about the album itself? Is it any good and how does it compare to Raditude and Weezer's previous albums?

Well on the first listening you notice that the album rolls (and rocks) very smoothly. The track list is maybe not entirely “all killer, no filler” but there are no really weak songs and there every song could be a single. Actually the first single from the album “Memories”, compared to the other songs on the album, is not the best song on the album. One, I guess strange, feeling I got listening this album for the first time was that you do not need listen to it second time for you to start liking it. You do not have wait for it to grow on you.

Let’s admit it Maladroit, Make Believe and Red Album were not the best albums. Yes, there were good songs on those albums but something just was missing. Weezer started to experiment new styles on the Red Album and finally I think they have found what they have been looking for. The overall mood of the album is focused and relaxed. The songs, to me, reflect the mind of person who has had a done a lot of fighting with oneself and now is on clearer waters and has found some sort of a balance. Maybe this is more about my own experience the past few years I project to the songs.

What are the songs you should check out from this album? I think at the moment my favorite tracks are “Ruling Me”, “Unspoken” and “Hang On”. These are also the songs you should also give listen. There are two bonus songs on the album that are definitely worth a listen (or two). First one is the wonderfully hilarious, but still a song with meaning, “All My Friends Are Insects”, the second one is the cover of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”, which has violins and bells ringing in the back ground.

I am happy to see Weezer put out such a good album. They have moved on and have a new voice and style of doing music that has some familiar elements from the past but also a lot of new attitude and ideas to keep you interested.

Track list:

1.      Memories

2.      Ruling Me

3.      Trainwrecks

4.      Unspoken

5.      Where’s My Sex?

6.      Run Away

7.      Hang On

8.      Smart Girls

9.      Brave New World

10.  Time Flies

11.  All My Friends Are Insects

12.  Viva La Vida

13.  I Want To Be Somebody

14.  Represent (Rocked Out Mix)

I want to leave you with track from the album. This one is "Unspoken".