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Hurley (album)

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Untitled

Hurley is the name of eighth studio album by American alternative rock band Weezer. It was released on September 10, 2010 by Epitaph Records exclusively at PacSun stores, and at other retail stores on September 14, 2010. The album was produced by Rivers Cuomo and Shawn Everett and, like Raditude, features songs co-written with songwriters outside of the band.

Background

In late 2009, Weezer revealed their seventh album, Raditude. The record was released on November 3, 2009, where it debuted as the seventh best-selling album of the week on the Billboard 200 chart. The band scheduled tour dates in December 2009 extending into early 2010 to coincide with the new album's release. Compared to other Weezer albums, Raditude received a lukewarm response. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave Raditude an average score of 57 ("mixed or average reviews"), based on 22 reviews.[4]

In December 2009, it was revealed that the band was no longer with Geffen Records. The band stated that they would still release new material, but they were unsure of the means, whether it be self-released, released online, or getting signed by another label.[5] Eventually, the band was signed to the independent label Epitaph.[2]

Music and lyrics

In July of 2010, Weezer began recording their follow-up to Raditude. Rivers Cuomo said of the album, "There's definitely going to be more raw rock energy on this one."[6] In August of 2010, the tracklist was revealed.

The first track and single from the album is "Memories", [3] also featured in a Guitar Hero (iOS) 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 14th. [7]

The video track also features members of Jackass on backing vocals, and clips from the upcoming movie Jackass 3-D.[8] AP magazine described the high energy track as "Andrew W.K. covering The Killers".[9]

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. [10]

"Hang On", co-written by Rick Nowels, features Canadian actor Michael Cera on backing vocals and rhythm guitar.[9]

The album's closer, "Time Flies", co-written by country singer and songwriter Mac Davis,[11] features a lo-fi, folk-country sound.

Artwork and title

The album's cover is a picture of Chilean-American actor Jorge Garcia, who portrayed Hugo "Hurley" Reyes on the television series Lost from 2004 to 2010.[12]

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 with Hurley cover as the "Hurley" album.[8] Guitarist Brian Bell erroneously stated publicly that the record was named after clothing company Hurley International, whose bosses he said funded the recording (not Garcia's Lost character).[13] Bell later claimed that he was mistaken and that the album was in fact named after the Lost character and not the clothing company.[8]

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." They have used many of the popular channels to promote themself, such as Barely Political, Dave Days, Key of Awesome, Fred Figglehorn and Ray William Johnson. 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 calls the promotion "The YouTube Invasion".[14]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(70%)[15]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[16]
Alternative Press[9]
BLARE[17]
Boston Globe(favorable)[18]
Consequence of Sound[19]
New York Times(favorable)[20]
Rock Sound8/10[21]
Rolling Stone[22]
Spin7/10[23]
Sputnikmusic[24]
Ultimate Guitar[25]

Hurley has, thus far, been well received by music critics. Collating ten reviews, the review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 70%, which indicates "generally favourable reviews".[15] After the album was leaked to the internet, the band made it available for free streaming on their MySpace page.[26] Many reputable music sites and magazines used this as an opportunity to review the album before it was tangibly released to the public.

Many critics favorably compared the songs on Hurley to Weezer's first three albums. Alternative Press and 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"[9] 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."[21]

Rolling Stone also compared the song "Where's My Sex" to various songs from Pinkerton. "'Where's My Sex?' is a Pinkerton-esque song about, um, sox [sic], with the word 'sex' sung in the place of 'sox' [sic] — like, 'I can't go out without my sex/It's cold outside and my toes get wet.'"[22]

Track listing

Standard edition[27]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Memories"Rivers Cuomo3:16
2."Ruling Me"Cuomo, Dan Wilson[28]3:30
3."Trainwrecks"Cuomo, Desmond Child3:21
4."Unspoken"Cuomo3:01
5."Where's My Sex?"Cuomo, Greg Wells3:28
6."Run Away"Cuomo, Ryan Adams[29]2:55
7."Hang On"Cuomo, Rick Nowels3:33
8."Smart Girls"Cuomo, Tony Kanal, Jimmy Harry3:11
9."Brave New World"Cuomo, Linda Perry[30]3:57
10."Time Flies"Cuomo, Mac Davis[11]3:42
Deluxe edition bonus tracks[27]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
11."All My Friends Are Insects"Adam Deibert1:53
12."Viva la Vida" (Coldplay cover)Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin4:06
13."I Want to Be Something"Cuomo2:56
14."Represent" (Rocked Out mix)Cuomo, Nowels4:13

References

  1. ^ Koch, Karl (2010-9-10). "2010/09/10 Sirius-XM Radio Hurley in PacSun Memories Video Atlanta". Interscope. Retrieved 2010-09-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Weezer Signs To Epitaph, New Album in September". Drivenfaroff.com. 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
  3. ^ a b "Epitath Record: Weezer - Hurley". Epitaph. Retrieved 2010-08-14. Cite error: The named reference "epitathpage" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Raditude reviews at Metacritic.com". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  5. ^ Lindsay, Andrew (2009/12/17). "Weezer become free agents". Stereo Kill. Retrieved 2010/09/09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  6. ^ Wawzenak, Bryan (2010-07-16). Weezer’s New Album to Be Released September 13 Gibson.com. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  7. ^ Citizen, Jessica (2010-09-15). "Weezer graces Guitar Hero on iPhone". MusicPron. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  8. ^ a b c Koch, Karl (2010-09-09). "Memories video premiere (for real)". Weezer.com. Retrieved 2010-09-09. Cite error: The named reference "forum" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c d Heisel, Scott. "Alt Press: Weezer - Hurley". Alt Press. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
  10. ^ "Weezer's connection to Banff". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-15. {{cite web}}: Text "author Sperounes, Sandra" ignored (help)
  11. ^ a b "Weezer Return To Indie-Rock Roots With New Album". Guitar World. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  12. ^ Phipps, Keith (2010-08-09). "Weezer reveals new album cover that looks like, but apparently isn't, a joke". The AV Club. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
  13. ^ WENN.COM. (2010-08-27). Weezer explains 'Lost' album title jam.canoe.ca. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  14. ^ Smith, Ethan. (2010-09-13). Weezer: The “YouTube Invasion” Begins Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  15. ^ a b "Critic Reviews for Hurley by Weezer". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  16. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: Hurley". Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  17. ^ Rankin, Dan. "REVIEW: Weezer - "Hurley"". BLARE. Retrieved 2010-09-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Rodman, Sarah. "Album Review: Weezer looks back, and watches girls". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-09-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ Roffman, Michael. "Album Review: Weezer – Hurley". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  20. ^ Caramanica, Jon. "Critics' Choice - New Albums - Weezer, The Drums and Ryan Bingham". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-09-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ a b Patashnik, Ben. "Weezer - Hurley. It feels great to have Weezer back". Rock Sound. Retrieved 2010-09-14. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  22. ^ a b Dolan, Jon. "Hurley by Weezer". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2010-09-14. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ Marchese, David. "Weezer, 'Hurley' (Epitaph) Rivers and Co. rebound from Raditude". Spin. Retrieved 2010-08-24. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Adam, Thomas. "Weezer - Hurley (Staff Review)". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  25. ^ UG team. Ultimate Guitar (Staff Review) http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/weezer/hurley/index.html (Staff Review). Retrieved 2010-09-14. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ^ "Facebook.com - Weezer official page". Facebook. Retrieved 2010-9-6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  27. ^ a b Shotwell, James (2010-08-11). "Weezer release Hurley track list". Alternative Press. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  28. ^ "Semisonic's Dan Wilson Releases Live Album, Pens New Weezer Song". Antimusic.com. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  29. ^ Reilly, Dan (2010-08-11). "Weezer Get 'Crazy' With Ryan Adams, Johnny Knoxville on 'Hurley'". Spinner. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  30. ^ "Banff puts its mark on Weezer album". Edmonton Journal. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
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