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Weezer
Make Believe

Weezer’s new record: a masterpiece or a piece of crap? The critics are divided!

It’s been interesting to read the different reactions and reviews about Make Believe. Rock dinosaurs Rolling Stone magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars (translation: basically the best thing out there) and hipster website Pitchfork gave it a rating of 0.4 out of 10 (translation: worse than the worst). Whom should we trust?

Let me take a stab at it. It’s easy for anyone who’s heard the first single, “Beverly Hills,” to know that the Rolling Stone review is still trying to make up for the fact that they gave Pinkerton such bad reviews when it first came out. “Beverly Hills” was a bad idea. You could hear Weezer fans everywhere were screaming, “We waited three years for this?” I think Pitchfork personally got their feelings hurt by the song’s crappiness.

However, if you can get past that song, and more importantly (and more difficult to do), you can get past what you think a Weezer album is supposed to sound like, you’ll be okay with this record. It’s mostly a collection of soft, mid-tempo songs about heartbreaks. It is most comparable to the Green Album in that on paper the lyrics may seem blue, but the sincerity and emotion seem to be missing. “The Damage in Your Heart” seems to be the closest thing to heartfelt.

At times however, it seems like Rivers Cuomo can’t even fake interest in the words. The chorus of “Best Friend"

“You are my best friend
And I love you, and I love you”
Yes I do”

From “Pardon me”

"I may not be a perfect soul
But I can learn self control"

After 12 years in the game, is this the best Rivers can do?

Despite a few slip-ups, (and since this album has 12 tracks instead of the usual 10, maybe that’s okay) this is a decent album. Between Pitchfork’s 0.4 and Rolling Stones 4, I'll give Make Believe 2.5 stars out of 5.

Weezer Album Ranking (Best to worst)

1. Pinkerton
2. Blue Album
3. Green Album
4. Make Believe
5. Maladroit (Who ever listens to this record?)

Ben Folds
Songs For Silverman

"The old bastard left his ties and a suit…Pretty soon you'll be an old bastard too." Well, an album can't start out much better than that. Unfortunately "Bastard," much like the the rest of Songs for Silverman, Ben Folds' second full album since the Ben Folds Five disbanded, can't quite hold the momentum.

It's often hit and miss with Ben Folds. It seems like every-other record he puts out is good. The Unauthorized Biography was a dud, Rockin the Suburbs was a classic and Songs for Silverman struggles. The album alternates between beautiful quiet numbers like "Jesusland" (the records' best track) and b-side worthy 70s throwback numbers like "Give Judy My Notice" and "Sentimental Guy" that I swear I heard on that Sesame Street skit where the little boy learns to brush his teeth.

The album is void of any solid upbeat tracks and all of the good soft tracks ("Trusted," "Late") seem to be sandwiched between songs better skipped over. My money's on Ben's next album being a knockout.