Grade: 88/100
Weezer hasn’t released a universally well-received album in a while, but “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” will end that streak.
“Everything Will Be Alright in the End” is teeming with catchy melodies and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, forged together to form a style more similar to “The Green Album” and “The Blue Album” than Weezer’s more recent records. Perhaps not coincidentally, Weezer reunited with the producer of “Weezer (Green Album)” and “Weezer (Blue Album)” Ric Ocasek to produce “Everything Will Be Alright in the End.”
As a whole, the album encapsulates Weezer’s sound with a diverse set of 13 songs. The heavy guitar and almost doo-wop elements Weezer often dabbles with are especially clear in “Go Away,” complete with a duet with Bethany Cosentino, guitarist and vocalist for the band Best Coast. Tracks such as “Foolish Father” continue Weezer’s pattern of combining bright sounds with heavier, darker themes.
“I’ve Had It Up To Here” reminds listeners of the band’s uncompromising sense of individuality, with a message reminiscent of their 2008 hit, “Pork and Beans.” The lyrics in “I’ve Had It Up To Here” are exceptionally straightforward — “Don’t wanna be mass consumed, I’m not a happy meal,” for example. It expresses anger toward pop culture, clarifying that Weezer will not contort its music or themes to better fit a larger, more mainstream audience.
Weezer’s song “Da Vinci” is similar to “Island in the Sun” in that it starts with a softer, catchy rhythm in the verses to emphasize the words and the beat, only to escalate into heavy guitar sounds in the chorus. While “Da Vinci” isn’t one of the strongest songs in the album, its lyrics are some of the cleverest, with “Even Da Vinci couldn’t paint you, Stephen Hawking can’t explain you, Rosetta Stone could not translate you… I couldn’t put it in a novel, I wrote a page, but it was awful.”
“Everything Will Be Alright in the End” is overall a good album. Weezer returns to its original sound, making it very obvious in “Back to the Shack,” as they rock out “like it’s ’94,” which will please any Weezer fan and anyone who enjoys alternative rock.
While Weezer draws on its older themes and produces a very familiar sound, it does so knowingly. The band makes a point through this album that it can make something new and diverse while staying true to original themes. “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” is bright, strong and witty. It’s a very Weezer album.