EVERYTHING WILL BE A

DJ: Jake Fogelnest. Audio Mixer: Tom Lord-Alge. Recording information: The Village, Los Angeles (2014). Photographers: Brian Gallino; Richard Downie; Diego Torroija. Two songs into Everything Will Be Alright in the End, Rivers Cuomo sings "we belong in the rock world," a repudiation of the big beat experimentation of Raditude, a 2009 record that found Weezer working with such pop producers as Dr. Luke and Butch Walker. Weezer fans eager for Pinkerton, Pt. 2 are often quick to bristle at Cuomo's experimentations, so when the guitarist sings that they're "rockin' out like it's '94," he's not only not lying -- they went so far as to once again hire Ric Ocasek, the producer of the group's debut, to helm this ninth studio album -- but he's reassuring his audience that he's left all those pounding dance beats behind. The weird thing is, Weezer already shook off the ghost of Raditude via 2010's quickly released indie Hurley, so the emphasis on the group returning to rock feels a little odd, but Everything Will Be Alright in the End does trump its immediate predecessor by being bigger, bolder, slicker, and stickier than Hurley. Some of this is indeed due to the presence of Ocasek. His exacting production, anchored as much in pummeling arena rock as new wave pop, polishes and preserves Cuomo's quirks, but it's also true that Rivers has decided to indulge in his eccentricities once again. Take away the woolly mammoth-sized guitars and "Back to the Shack," with its overt references to "In the Garage," and Everything Will Be Alright in the End doesn't feel especially like early Weezer, not with the dexterous syncopation of "I've Had It Up to Here" providing a midpoint palate-cleanser and a neo-prog rock suite concluding the proceedings. By having the record follow these twisty detours, Cuomo provides a counterpoint to the classicist pop Weezer pursue elsewhere, but even such succinct, sculpted pop as "The British Are Coming," "Ain't Got Nobody," "Cleopatra," and "Go Away" (the latter a duet with Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino) never feels like a desperate scramble back home. Rather, a feeling of acceptance underpins Everything Will Be Alright in the End: there's a sense that Weezer made another record of massive, hooky rock not only because that's what the fans want but because they know it's what they do best. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine