Hurley (album)

Background

In late 2009, Weezer revealed the group's seventh album, Raditude. Compared to the band's other albums, it received a lukewarm response. In December, it was revealed that the band was no longer with Geffen Records. The band stated that new material would still be released, but the band members were unsure of the means, whether it be self-released, released online, or released via another label. Eventually, the band was signed to the independent label Epitaph.

Music and lyrics

In July 2010, Weezer began recording the follow-up to Raditude. Rivers Cuomo said of the album, "There's definitely going to be more raw rock energy on this one." In August 2010, the track list was revealed.

The first track and single from the album was "Memories," also featured in a Guitar Hero track pack alongside "Buddy Holly" and "(If You're Wondering If I Want You to) I Want You to," released simultaneously with the album on September 14. The second single released was "Hang On" on February 15 to U.S. Alternative radio.

The music video for "Memories" also features members of Jackass on backing vocals, and clips from the upcoming movie Jackass 3-D. AP magazine described the high-energy track as "Andrew W.K. covering The Killers."

The string tracks in "Memories," "Unspoken," as well as bonus tracks "All My Friends Are Insects" and "Represent" were recorded at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

"Hang On," co-written by Rick Nowels, features Canadian actor Michael Cera on backing vocals and mandolin.

The album's closer, "Time Flies," co-written by country singer and songwriter Mac Davis, features a lo-fi, folk-country sound, which has been compared to music of Led Zeppelin.

Artwork and title

The album's cover is simply a picture of the American actor Jorge Garcia, who portrayed Hugo "Hurley" Reyes on the television series Lost from 2004 to 2010. The photo itself is a small cropping of an original picture of Cuomo being embraced by Garcia, taken in the green room of Lopez Tonight while Weezer and Jorge Garcia were taping segments for separate shows on the same day.

Originally, the band was going to self title the album for a fourth time, but decided against it, since the band figured most fans would simply refer to the album as the "Hurley" album. Guitarist Brian Bell stated publicly that the record was named after clothing company Hurley International, whose bosses he said funded the recording and provided a studio for recording sessions. Bell later claimed that he was mistaken and that the album was in fact named after the Lost character and not the clothing company. However, the group subsequently worked with the clothing manufacturer to create a Weezer-branded clothing line.

Promotion

Weezer used internet streaming service YouTube as a way to promote the album. Weezer loaned itself to 15 amateur online video producers, "going along with whatever plans the creator could execute in about 30 minutes." The band used many of the popular channels to promote themselves, such as Barely Political, Tay Zonday, Dave Days, Magic Hugs, Fred Figglehorn, Ray William Johnson, and The Annoying Orange. The Gregory Brothers solicited musical and vocal contributions from the band on one of its signature topical compositions—built around melodically enhanced speeches by Rep. Charles Rangel and President Obama. Weezer called the promotion "The YouTube Invasion".

Critical reception

The review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 68%, which indicates "generally favourable reviews." After the album was leaked to the internet, Weezer made it available for free streaming on the band's MySpace page. Many music sites and magazines used this as an opportunity to review the album before it was tangibly released to the public.

Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound says "From the get-go, Hurley feels more personal and at heart than anything on Raditude" NME's Rob Parker comments "...it’s got the charm and spark of the Weezer of old, and that’s a quality you just can’t fake." The New York Times writer Jon Caramanica regards it as "the group’s strongest album in recent years." Adam Thomas at Sputnikmusic considered it an improvement over the band's previous three albums, saying "Hurley proves that Rivers still has some gas left in the tank." Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly regarded it as a "...terrific rebound, a blast of sonic sweetness that finds the band integrating '60s pop influences". At AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted "Sometimes, the quirks become overwhelming...but usually the melodies and riffs are clean, simple, and powerful, hooking immediately and sticking around for a while.

Many critics favorably compared the songs on Hurley to the songs from Weezer's first three albums. Scott Heisel at Alternative Press and Ben Patashnik of Rock Sound compared the song "Ruling Me" to the songs from the band's self-titled debut and second self-titled album. Alternative Press said that the song "is a distant cousin of both the Blue Album's "No One Else" and the Green Album's "Don't Let Go", serving as a straight-ahead slab of power-pop." Rock Sound said that "The chugging guitars of the verse [of "Ruling Me"] hearken back to Green-era Weezer, which is all very pleasant, but it's the chorus that rockets "Ruling Me" into a different league." Rolling Stone's Jon Dolan called the song "Where's My Sex" "Pinkerton-esque".

Commercial performance

Hurley debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with 45,000 units sold, making it Weezer's sixth top 10 album, as well as the band's sixth top 10 album in a row. Despite peaking higher than Raditude, Hurley sold 21,000 fewer units in its first week than the former. During its second week of release, the album fell to number 24, selling 11,235 copies.

Personnel