The Singles Jukebox

So it would appear we have issues with these…

[Website]
[4.91]

Anthony Easton: 90s nostalgia, sigh.
[3]

Martin Skidmore: I’ve always hated Weezer. This skips along brightly enough, but the dead voice saps most of that liveliness, and the self-conscious college-boy lyrics irritate. Mostly I am just particularly sick right now of rock acts without a remotely new idea, without even the aspiration to come up with one.
[1]

Ian Mathers: “So make a move, ’cause I ain’t got all night.” Or, you know, you could make a move yourself, you colossal failure of a human being. You’re the one holding the ring, stop being so passive aggressive.
[2]

Hillary Brown: Hey! This mostly doesn’t suck. It’s not awesome, but it’s kind of okay, and the hand claps are good, and small blessings, you know? There’s only one bit I find actively annoying, and, on the whole, there’s the promise that Weezer might someday write a good song again.
[6]

Alfred Soto: Sure, Cuomo still sings like a frat guy doing an imitation of a cerebral palsy victim, and the title isn’t even a funny Shania Twain parody, but his anti-nostalgia nostalgia isn’t so offensive. Still, he saw Titanic, and it didn’t make him sad! Here’s a cookie.
[6]

Pete Baran: If this had been the follow up to Buddy Holly then it would have been a medium sized hit in the UK. Momentum has somewhat faltered in the intervening fifteen years, though.
[4]

Michaelangelo Matos: I admit the briskness of the tempo gives me more reason to care than… geez, ever before, but that still doesn’t mean he’s got shit to say, either lyrically or in tweaking the musical basics. In that sense, his loyal cadre can rest assured, nothing whatsoever has changed.
[5]

Al Shipley: The cult of Weezer has always utterly mystified me, so I take some perverse pleasure in watching them continue to be a spotty but enjoyable singles act as the superfans continue to howl with protest at every new album. Hopefully someday a best-of full of snappy later singles like “Perfect Situation,” “Troublemaker” and this will show them how much fun it can be to not care about living up to the legacy of Pinkerton.
[6]

Anthony Miccio: Weezer fans who spout lines like “I only ever liked the singles, anyway” love to throw the complaints of frustrated Pinkerton devotees back in their faces: Rivers Cuomo’s lyrics were always full of corny slang, they’re just as diaristic as ever and his songs were always meant for The Kids. But the biggest difference between the self-helped thirty-something thumbsucker of today and the ’90s post-adolescent wrestling with his indie brain and metal dick is the differing degrees of sympathy they inspire. While the swinging drums distract from Rivers’ drool, this single won’t change anyone’s mind.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: Though a tale of ostensibly young love might seem silly coming from the pen of the no-longer-young Rivers Cuomo, he sings it with the glee of a teenager and the wisdom of a new-wave kid grown up and made good. The “woo” at the end is irresistibly cheeky as well. Simultaneously the best tribute to The Cars (melody), “A Town Called Malice” (rhythm) and “Ballroom Blitz” (pre-chorus) imaginable, and the best Weezer single since “The Good Life” to boot. That’s a welcome surprise, given how sludgy and weary (and often hookless) they’d been in the preceding decade.
[8]

Jonathan Bradley: Weezer’s most straightforwardly power-pop moment to date is successful for the same reason it is not stunning: the song is breezy and quite unambitious, a refreshing change from the determinedly stupid records the band has put out in the latter half of its career. A nice tune, a nice rhythm and a nice hook are, yes, nice enough, and it’s unobtrusive and unobjectionable in the best way pop music can be. But even considering the depths Rivers Cuomo has plumbed in his time, it still seems wrong to celebrate him for writing what is, in effect, a quite decent OK Go song.
[6]