Let's get this out of the way first: This is a bad album. It's really, really, irredeemably bad and having to listen through it for this review was almost painful. I was trying to listen to it with an open mind and fresh ears but the first minute of 'Beverly hills' reminded me why I hadn't listened to 'Make Believe' in over a year.
And now some history. 'Make Believe' was released in 2005, just under 3 years since 'Maladroit' dropped. Fans were hopeful that the album would be incredible - Cuomo had been going through a period of depression, which is usually gold dust for songs. Plus the band were being produced by the legendary Rick Rubin! Then 'Beverly Hills' dropped.
I'll confess that the first time I ever heard any song by Weezer it was indeed 'Beverly Hills' and it was on a compilation about 5 years ago. I liked it as well, although my music taste was about as bad as it could get at the time. Since I've now listened to some legitimately good music and heard how brilliant Weezer can be, 'Beverly Hills' stands as one of their all-time worst songs. Maybe even their worst. It's ploddingly slow, Cuomo sounds like he's doing a bad impression of the stereotypical 'Cool celebrity' and the lyrics are complete garbage. The saddest thing abut the song though is it's success. It reached the top 10 on Billboard, Weezer's biggest hit by miles in terms of sales. Not only has this had some real impact on Weezer's view in the public eye (I know several people who have only heard this song out of Weezer's catalogue.) but it seemingly gave Cuomo the idea that the more braindead and conventional a song is the more popular it will be - which is true in fairness.
Track 2, 'Perfect situation' is easily the best song on 'Make Believe' and is still pretty crap. I've never been a fan of 'Wa-oh'ing acting as the main hook to a song Cough*KingsofLeon*Cough and that's exactly what the chorus to this tune is. Nonetheless, the piano at least makes the song interesting which is more than can be said of the rest of the album.
'This is such a pity' starts off OK and then gets gradually worse until you just want to skip it. 'Hold me' is generic and boring and contains way too many extended syllables to not get annoying- even the guitar solo sounds slowed down. This is identical with a large portion of 'Peace' and across all 3 songs there isn't a single lyric you'll remember.
When 'We are all on drugs' comes through it feels refreshing - it's entertainingly terrible through each lyric being cringingly edgy and Cuomo sounding like he's taking it all entirely seriously. Plus, these days it just reminds me I could be listening to the million-times-better 'Do you wanna get high?' - but we'll get to that in due time.
'The Damage in your Heart' and 'Pardon me' are whimpering apologetic songs that seemed to be aimed at nobody and so affect nobody and are needless to say, sludgy, meandering pieces of garbage. 'My Best Friend' is decent compared to the rest of the album but the chorus has incredibly annoying instrumentation with slippy hi-hats and headache-inducing guitars.
'The Other Way' is the most inoffensive way of tackling a potentially interesting theme and 'Freak me out' has the best instrumental of the album but is unsurprisingly ruined by Cuomo whimpering through the lyrics and the lyrics being rubbish. 'Haunt you every day' ends the album with the slow blandness that the preceding songs were full of.
If you like this album, good for you, but I cannot stand it. It's boring, the worst possible crime for a Weezer album. It has no song that I enjoy more than 4/10 and if you haven't listened to it yet I would say DON'T LISTEN TO IT.
1/10
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