Weezer, HURLEY

First, if you were wondering: The new Weezer album Hurley has nothing to do with the character Hurley from Lost, the actor Jorge Garcia who plays Hurley, or Lost in general. His presence starts and ends with the album's title and cover. The rest of Hurley is familiar territory for Weezer -- only somewhat disappointing.

This offering from Weezer has songs about nostalgia ("Memories"), rebellious losers ("Trainwrecks"), crushes on women (too many to list), and flat-out anger ("Unspoken"). But while The Red Album had lots of quirkiness and Raditude had a more flat-out rock feel, Hurley is all over the place -- and not in a good, experimental way. The album's closer "Time Flies" is a mess, both in lyrics ("time flies, when you're having fun/time flies, when you live on the run") and an oddly rough sound. "Where's My Sex?" is like an oddly unfunny version of King Missle's "Detachable Penis." And like the last album, the bonus tracks on the deluxe version aren't that good (except for "Represent (Rocked Out Mix").

There are some pretty good tracks on Hurley -- the opening two songs and "Smart Girls" -- but overall this album is very hit or miss. Weezer is good enough that a lesser offering from them isn't terrible, but I hope things improve from them next time.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch