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Can't believe the animosity that greeted this album upon its release, and it made a lot of "Worst of 2005" lists in the year-end polls. I confess I was one of the, duh, nonBELIEVEers when this first came out, but I find myself returning to this album often now and loving what I hear post-kneejerk response. I'm not big on popular pop, really, but I've always had a soft spot for Weezer. The melodies on "Make Believe" are rich and inventive, and the lyrics, which a lot of people have slammed for being "simplistic" are merely plainspoken -- a big difference -- and are deeply effective and affecting. I think there will be a belated fan awakening to this album similar to the slow-rolling response to "Pinkerton." It's the same kind of album, only it's one written by a guy in his 30s instead of his 20s, and, to my ears, it's the band's best, most mature album yet. Hopefully it won't be their last.

I'd have liked it better if Eric Carmen sang all the leads.
I don't think the album is really any different than the other album, it's just that 99% of Weezer fans are complaining little nerd bitches who like to complain and think their snide commentaries and rank snobbery are the height of coolness. It ain't. Please die. Now.
But there's a few cool Weezer fans, like you Monkey.

Well, that goes without saying, right?

I still think it stinks and I've followed this band since 1995. Kneejerk? nah. I loved Maladroit from Day One.

I've never liked Weezer, aside from an occasional melody here and there. So if an album is disliked...fine by me.

What stinks about it? Like Ian said, I don't think it's much of a radical departure from their previous outings. It still sounds like Weezer, only more so, and if you like Weezer then that would be a good thing, I think. This weird backlash has been building since the Green Album because most Weezer "fans" secretly hate the band for having outgrown the cultish appeal of "Pinkerton." But Weezer never has been a cult band; they're a radio-friendly pop band, and make no mistake about that. And for a radio-friendly pop band, they're a pretty good one when there aren't very many good ones. I simply don't here why "Make Believe" is so godawful to so many, to warrant a 0.6 out of 10 at Pitchfork among sundry other disses by critics and disappointed "fans." And *I've* been following this band since 1994, and I still have my original LP of "Pinkerton." (Whoop-de-sh*t ... )



Hey, I don't come to you with MY problems!

Sure you do: you posted that you like Weezer.

Maybe you and I need to form a support group for smug copy editors.

It's like this.
Weezer are the Cars of now. nd that's great. We need bands like the Cars.
It's when people try to push Rivers into being some voice of a foda generation that there's a proble. A regular songwriter and excellent pop toons can't live up to the hype and shouldn't. We need more pop bands than super-genius idol-martyrs.
And, if what I said was true and they ARE indeed the Cars, this new one was their Heartbeat City.
And that should be more than enough for the fans. If they don't dig, tough titty. You got what you originally got, a listenable album of poppy toons with memorable hooks. DEAL WITH IT!

Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to drop dead right now and not have to live in this sick world anymore, but while I don't think "Make Believe" stinks, it is a big disappointment for me.

Since we're not allowed to use absolute tenets of good and bad in this post-post relativistic era, I can't tell you why it's different than other things Weezer has released, other than the fact that it doesn't make me feel anything.  Weezer's first album really meant a lot to me, I cried many tears over it, and each subsequent album has meant a little less to me.  Probably my fault, which I why I'd love to die now, but obviously something is either present in or lacking from Make Believe that leads to an emotional disconnect for me.  To me I could care less if Rivers was a voice of a generation, or even a good lyricist at all.  But he used to speak to me, now he doesn't.  Maybe I don't care to listen, maybe he doesn't have anything left to say to me, who knows.

So yeah, tough titty.  One more reason to hate the world.

That's something I know I can agree on.

Yikes. Need a hug?

Boxer: I'm with you. I've probably returned to "Make Believe" more since its release than just about any of their albums. I couldn't tell you why that is. My gut instinct tells me its *less good* lyrically and melodically than Pinkerton and the first album and the Green album, but for some reason my brain calls me to spin the thing over and over again anyway. There's something so -- well, likeable about it. It has kind of an "aw-shucks" fecklessness to it that the other albums don't -- its not saying "HEY! LIKE ME!" quite so much, if that makes any sense.

"Perfect Situation" is getting mucho radio spins these days, too, which makes me happy.

oh and:


That's because Pitchfork are the KINGS of whiny bitches. Their reviewers are pretentious, snobby, indie-obssed morons who resent the crap out of just about any band with any kind of success. I almost always feel the exact *opposite* about records that they do, and on the rare occasions that our tastes do jibe, you can tell Pitchfork are riding the crest of some hype they don't wanna feel left behind on (see: Sufjan Stevens). I guarantee you if Sufjan had a radio hit tomorrow, Pitchfork would give his subsequent record .06 out of 10. In fact, the mere fact that so many people put him on their top 5 of 2005 list leads me to believe that they will do just that on his very next album. And like I said: there isn't a universe where a 3rd Strokes record would get anything BUT a low review at Pitchfork REGARDLESS of quality.

I get lots of hugs.  It's not enough.

Anyhow, I'm glad Weezer put out Perfect Situation as a single.  It's easily the best song song on the album, it at least connects with me on some level, mainly because of the nice melody, one of Rivers' best over the last two albums, I think.  Not deserving of a "Grammy" but moreso than Beverly Hills, which is inexplicably up for one...

Still listen to it quite a lot, and I connect with it more than some of Green, but I still think it's very subpar for Weezer, musically, and very subpar lyrically. My ten year old brother could've written those, and I don't have a brother.

But I like it a lot. Just like twinkies.

I agree with all of the good things said about the album here.  Great topic.  I don't like "Beverly Hills," but I like the rest.  There are certain albums like this which I catergorize as "simple pleasures."  They're aren't great albums in that they knock you over the head, but they're pretty subtle and make you want to listen, usually, more than you do to the "great" albums.  I probably like Pinkerton more, but that album works a lot better when you're single and vulnerable.  Make Believe is emotional, but it can probably work almost any time.


Your fake ten year-old brother used to see hookers and then turned to meditation?

All I'll say about this album is that 'We Are All On Drugs' is a huge pile of sh*t that I'd like to flush down the toilet. I haven't heard anything but the singles, so I can't comment on the album as a whole. I can't stand 'Beverly Hills' either, but it inspired me to write a tune that I particularly enjoy so I have to give it props for that.

Even though the song was written as an 'Anti-Beverly Hills' type of song.

I like "Perfect Situation" a lot. I'm glad it's on the radio. I think "Damage in Your Heart" is great, too: great melody, great sentiment. They are among a few of the tracks on "Make Believe" that I think have the emotional heft of the much-touted "Pinkerton" material. And I don't really mind "Beverly Hills" at all. It's just a silly bit of California mythmaking, self-conscious to be sure, and that guitar solo cribbed from a Peter Frampton record is practically winking at you. What's not to like? It's fun pop music, a spoof. God, if this band came out with "The Sweater Song" now instead of 10 years ago, people would rake them over the coals for it!

Exactly, Boxer. Exactly.

Haha!  Maybe.  I love "Damage in Your Heart," too.  That's probably my favorite song on there.  And I like "We Are All On Drugs."

I see your point about "Beverly Hills."  I don't think it quite fits the album, though.  I guess they put it first because they realized it was a little different, so you could argue that he's making fun of that culture and then talking about some answers to it.

Yeah, that one takes a lot of heat for being "a ripoff of 'The Diarrhea Song,"' which, y'know -- I kinda thought that was a pretty brilliant idea, myself, an inspired choice of source material. But there's a lot more to the song than that -- the lyric is about epidemic overstimulation as opposed to the sanctimonious rant about mere drug use a lot of people ascribe it to being, and there's some really stellar guitar work.

With myself it's not a matter of that. I didn't like Sweater when it first came out. The seeds of Green Day had already been planeted in my immature 7th grade mind and I wanted no part of silly pop/rock. The only tunes I liked on Blue when it first came out were 'Say it ain't So' and 'Holiday.' However, Pinkerton totally blew me away when I first heard it. I don't care if Rivers doesn't write in that fashion anymore or not. That band just sounds incredible with that producion. I find every Weezer record after it to sound very sterile & compressed. It all just feels very empty to me. No one will probably agree with me on that, but it just really turns me off.

And for the record, I have since grown to enjoy Blue very much so.

That's perfect.  I'm putting this album on next.


I realize you like the albu more now, but "Holiday" is one of their silliest pop songs!  Why did you like that one back then?

With Holiday, it was the opening lick on the guitar and the guitar solo. All in all, it was just a fun song to learn for a beginner on the guitar. I remember those melodies really reminding me of The Beatles back when I first heard it, and that pleased me as I was all about The Beatles at that age.

Sounds like you were all about silly pop to me, freak.  I think you should give Nez the blowjob.

Well since you made the damn thing for me, I guess I have no choice but to comply with your request.

I was a 13 year old at that time when Blue came out. I listened to plenty of silly pop music sure. Green Day is plenty silly at times. But Green Day packed a serious punch that Weezer completely lacked. I wanted to 'rock out with my c*ck out,' and Weezer just kind of 'swayed from side to side' to me.

Rock with my c*ck out...I was listening to, uh, Beat Happening at 13...

I don't even know what the hell 'Beat Happening' even is.

Your also talking to a guy who enjoyed 'Master Of Puppets' at the age of 4. The benefits of having an older sister were endless.

Alright, let's keep this clean and on-topic.

Dammit Chris, I'm too tipsy to have you making comments like that. Next thing I know, you'll be trying to get me into your bed.


Not like that would be anything new though

Do you like top bunk or bottom?

Boxer, I think the simplicity of the way Rivers expresses himself on this album is perfect, in its way.  It's funny that he's being so sensitive and vulnerable, but celibate.  If any of his music would get him laid, it would be this.

HAHAHAHAHA! On that note, I must take my leave as I have things to do before bed.

I'll end by saying this: American Idiot rules, and Make Believe drools.

Some things just never change I guess.

Have yourself a good night broseph.

Sleep tight.

"Silly pop" as opposed to... "not silly pop"? 

I don't see what's silly about Holiday.  I wasn't 3 when I fell for that song, I was probably 21. 

Neither did I, because it is a virtually exact rewrite of "I Bleed" by the Pixies. I had to get over my pissed-offedness at their rip-off before I could get behind the band at all.

As a weezer fan I have to say that I like Green a lot more than the typical fan, I enjoy Maladroit, and I don't mind Make Believe. I swear by Pinkerton and most of Blue (I like all of it but I love MNIJ, NOE, and Holiday especially). Songs from the Black Hole is my weak spot, as well. It's probably the reason I still care as much as I do.

Weezer's latest sounds very "Blink 182" on their vocals - that white boy suburbia whiny yip-yap vocal production.

Pinkerton's nothing to sneeze at.   

It's nice to see them on the mainstream scene again because their first one was a damn fine album; now in Deluxe Edition.  You know you're getting old when there's "Deluxe Editions" of albums of your late teens are coming out.

But something about the vocals on the latest one...just sounds like something you'd see Abercrombie and Fitch wearing kids listening too.  Very milquetoast suburbia sounding.   The music is very good, but the vox just kill it for me. 

Funny thing is, he sounds better on this album than on Green and Maladroit. He sounds especially good on This Is Such a Pity.

Well, a lot of escapism is silly.  It's also more complex than that, but it's a funny song.

CTA, have you ever had to hear a Blink 182 album?  They can't sing for sh*t.

Can't speak for everyone, but I definitely wouldn't. I didn't get into Weezer until 2001, and honestly it was Only In Dreams that got most of my attention the first month I had the Blue Album. And that song, lyrically, is close to the same level as the lyrics on MB. BUT, the big difference between the two albums is the level of attention put into the arrangements. OID is musically orgasmo, and the dynamics of that song and Undone (plus Undone's incredible metaphor) definitely make up for whatever is missing.

My biggest criticism of MB outside of the lyrics are the very basic arrangements. The arrangements aren't that great on the Green Album, but it's hard to question them because they perfectly fit the song structures. Make Believe has no excuse, especially considering the amount of work and time that 'supposedly' went into the album. Lazy arrangements, lazy songwriting, lazy lyric writing.... All from someone who has the potential to write Holiday. All the circumstances don't make sense when listening to the final product, but I still like MB for what it is.

Speaking of Holiday, I don't know what's silly about it (maybe you can explain more of what you mean, Chris). Maybe it is, but the lyrics are beautifully imaginative. And the melody is one of the most articulate and well-built melodies in the history of rock music. You may hate weezer, but you cannot deny the brilliance in that song.



I agree with Mitch. Rivers easily sounds better on this album than he has in years. Maybe even better than Pinkerton. Probably the most pleasant surprise for me.

Here...


It's silly because he uses language more formal than most people would.  Unless you constantly brag about writing emails to your friends in free verse, of course.  He also throws in cliches ("We're goin' where the wind is blowin'") and goofy rhymes (Kerouac/Bivouac) to constrast the more formal stuff.  Everyone can relate to what he's saying -- you just want to get away.  It's the way he tries to make a myth out of this trip he hasn't even been on that's funny.


I don't know, I think it's one of the weaker songs on the album.  I always thought that this, "Undone," "Surf Wax," and "In Dreams" were a little trying.

Another example of why I'm glad I don't care about lyrics.  I mean, I happen to love Holiday's lyrics, but he could be singing "penis vagina penis vagina watermelon" for all the syllables and it's still a classic melody and powerful performance for mine.

Why does that make you glad that you don't care about lyrics?  I'm not saying silly is bad.

Don't be posting mine and Chris D's lyrics without express written permission.

That was one of your more inspired bridges, Ian.  I still get misty eyed when I listen to our Songs From the Porcelain Throne.

You said it was one of the weaker songs on the album.  You're saying that it's weak not because of the lyrics but some other facet?

Yeah, sorry for being confusing.  I think the lyrics are funny in a silly way.  Overall I don't think the song is that great, though.  It's grown on me, but I never connected much to the music or the lyrics, even though I don't think either are terrible.  Too sing-songy, I guess.  If it were done in the style of something like Phil Spector or Pet Sounds, I'd like it more.  I think the performance pulls the song down.

It is a very simple arrangement, but I think it works well for the song. Sometimes a Pet Sounds-esque arrangement can put a shadow on a great melody..how Brian got away with it is amazing. I can see how the arrangement brings it down for you Chris, because it is the weak spot (if there is one). I'm surprised the performance doesn't do it for you. I think it's his best vocal, ever, easily.

I see what you mean about the lyrics being silly.

The performance of Holiday is the highlight of the album for me. Great vocals there, especially at the last part where he goes up, and the sheer joy at the end with the "wahoo" is worth noting. It's definitely sing-songy, but I love that aspect of it and much of weezer's output in general. My voice is almost matched with Rivers' range, so I can belt those songs out to my heart's content.

I think maybe it feels sing-songy because, at least to me, the melody seems so familiar.  The first time I heard it in 1994, I thought...that sounds exactly like another song.  And I'm still trying to place it twelve years later.  Anyway, what good is a song if it's not sing-songy?  Such strange terminology.  I mean, you wouldn't go up to a Picasso and say, "It's kind of paint-paintingy, isn't it?"

Aw come on, Aeij, don't semantic out. You know what sing-songy means. Nursery rhyme-niscent.

Yes, I understand that.  I'm not semanticing out, I'm just wondering the what the strange etymology of that phrase must involve.

Yeah, "singsong" is a pretty stupid phrase.

You know what else is an amazing weezer song? You Gave Your Love to Me Softly.