Hurley (album)

Hurley

Cover of Hurley, featuring Jorge García
Studio album by Weezer
Released September 10, 2010[1]
October 27, 2010 (JPN)[2]
Genre Alternative rock, power pop
Length 34:16 (Standard), 47:05 (Deluxe)
Label Epitaph[3]
Epic/Sony[2]
Producer Rivers Cuomo, Shawn Everett[4]
Weezer chronology
Raditude
(2009)		 Hurley
(2010)		 Death to False Metal
(2010)
Singles from Hurley
  1. "Memories"
    Released: August 10, 2010
  2. "Hang On"
    Released: February 15, 2011

Hurley is the eighth studio album by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on September 10, 2010 on Epitaph Records. The album was produced by Rivers Cuomo and Shawn Everett, and, similar to the band's previous studio album, Raditude, features songs co-written with songwriters outside of the band.

Preceded by the single "Memories," Hurley debuted at number six on the US Billboard 200 with 45,000 units sold.[5][5]

Background

In late 2009, Weezer revealed the group's seventh album, Raditude. Compared to the band's other albums, it received a lukewarm response. In December, it was revealed that the band was no longer with Geffen Records. The band stated that new material would still be released, but the band members were unsure of the means, whether it be self-released, released online, or released via another label.[6] Eventually, the band was signed to the independent label Epitaph.[3]

Music and lyrics

In July 2010, Weezer began recording the follow-up to Raditude. Rivers Cuomo said of the album, "There's definitely going to be more raw rock energy on this one."[7] In August 2010, the tracklist was revealed.

The first track and single from the album was "Memories,"[4] also featured in a Guitar Hero 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 14.[8] The second single released was "Hang On" on February 15 to U.S. Alternative radio.[9]

The music video for "Memories" also features members of Jackass on backing vocals, and clips from the upcoming movie Jackass 3-D.[10] AP magazine described the high-energy track as "Andrew W.K. covering The Killers."[11]

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.[12]

"Hang On," co-written by Rick Nowels, features Canadian actor Michael Cera on backing vocals and mandolin.[11]

The album's closer, "Time Flies," co-written by country singer and songwriter Mac Davis,[13] features a lo-fi, folk-country sound, which has been compared to music of Led Zeppelin.[11]

Artwork and title

The album's cover is simply a picture of the American actor Jorge Garcia, who portrayed Hugo "Hurley" Reyes on the television series Lost from 2004 to 2010. The photo itself is a small cropping of an original picture of Cuomo being embraced by Garcia, taken in the green room of Lopez Tonight while Weezer and Jorge Garcia were taping segments for separate shows on the same day.[14]

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 as the "Hurley" album.[10] Guitarist Brian Bell stated publicly that the record was named after clothing company Hurley International, whose bosses he said funded the recording and provided a studio for recording sessions.[15] Bell later claimed that he was mistaken and that the album was in fact named after the Lost character and not the clothing company.[10] However, the group subsequently worked with the clothing manufacturer to create a Weezer-branded clothing line.[16]

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." The band used many of the popular channels to promote themselves, such as Barely Political, Tay Zonday, Dave Days, Magic Hugs, Fred Figglehorn, Ray William Johnson, and The Annoying Orange. 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 called the promotion "The YouTube Invasion".[17]

Reception

Critical response

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic68/100[18]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[19]
Alternative Press[11]
Consequence of Sound[20]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[21]
The New York Timesfavorable[22]
NME8/10[23]
Rock Sound8/10[24]
Rolling Stone[25]
Spin7/10[26]
Sputnikmusic[27]

The review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 68%, which indicates "generally favourable reviews."[18] After the album was leaked to the internet, Weezer made it available for free streaming on the band's MySpace page.[28][29] Many music sites and magazines used this as an opportunity to review the album before it was tangibly released to the public.

Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound says "From the get-go, Hurley feels more personal and at heart than anything on Raditude"[20] NME's Rob Parker comments "...it’s got the charm and spark of the Weezer of old, and that’s a quality you just can’t fake."[23] The New York Times writer Jon Caramanica regards it as "the group’s strongest album in recent years."[22] Adam Thomas at Sputnikmusic considered it an improvement over the band's previous three albums, saying "Hurley proves that Rivers still has some gas left in the tank."[27] Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly regarded it as a "...terrific rebound, a blast of sonic sweetness that finds the band integrating '60s pop influences".[21] At AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted "Sometimes, the quirks become overwhelming...but usually the melodies and riffs are clean, simple, and powerful, hooking immediately and sticking around for a while.[19]

Many critics favorably compared the songs on Hurley to the songs from Weezer's first three albums. Scott Heisel at Alternative Press and Ben Patashnik of 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."[11] 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."[24] Rolling Stone's Jon Dolan called the song "Where's My Sex" "Pinkerton-esque".[25]

Commercial performance

Hurley debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with 45,000 units sold, making it Weezer's sixth top 10 album, as well as the band's sixth top 10 album in a row.[5][5] Despite peaking higher than Raditude, Hurley sold 21,000 fewer units in its first week than the former.[5] During its second week of release, the album fell to number 24, selling 11,235 copies.[30]

Credits

Accolades

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Drowned in Sound UK Albums of the Year 2010 13[32]

Charts

Chart Peak position
Canadian Albums Chart 11
French Albums Chart[33] 131
Japanese Albums Chart[34] 24
New Zealand 34
UK Albums Chart 49
U.S. Billboard 200 6
Rock Albums 3
Independent Albums 1

Track listing

Standard edition[35]
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Memories"  Rivers Cuomo 3:16
2. "Ruling Me"  Cuomo, Dan Wilson[36] 3:30
3. "Trainwrecks"  Cuomo, Desmond Child 3:21
4. "Unspoken"  Cuomo 3:01
5. "Where's My Sex?"  Cuomo, Greg Wells 3:28
6. "Run Away"  Cuomo, Ryan Adams[37] 2:55
7. "Hang On"  Cuomo, Rick Nowels 3:33
8. "Smart Girls"  Cuomo, Tony Kanal, Jimmy Harry 3:11
9. "Brave New World"  Cuomo, Linda Perry[38] 3:57
10. "Time Flies"  Cuomo, Mac Davis[13] 3:42
UK + Deluxe edition bonus tracks[35]
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
11. "All My Friends Are Insects"  Adam Deibert 1:53
12. "Viva la Vida" (Coldplay cover)Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin 4:06
13. "I Want to Be Something"  Cuomo 2:56
14. "Represent" (Rocked Out mix)Cuomo, Nowels 4:13
Japanese edition bonus tracks[2][35]
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
15. "Unspoken" (Sam Farrar Remix)Rivers Cuomo 3:09
16. "Memories" (Instrumental)Rivers Cuomo 3:15

References

  1. ↑ Koch, Karl (2010-09-10). "2010/09/10 Sirius-XM Radio Hurley in PacSun Memories Video Atlanta". Interscope. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  2. 1 2 3 "Hurley (album)". Epic/Sony. Sony Music Japan. 2010-10-27. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  3. 1 2 "Weezer Signs To Epitaph, New Album in September". Drivenfaroff.com. 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
  4. 1 2 "Epitath Record: Weezer - Hurley". Epitaph. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Caulfield, Keith Linkin Park and Trey Songz Debut At Nos. 1 & 2 on Billboard 200 Billboard.com Retrieved 2010-09-23
  6. ↑ Lindsay, Andrew (2009-12-17). "Weezer become free agents". Stereo Kill. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  7. ↑ Wawzenak, Bryan (2010-07-16). Weezer’s New Album to Be Released September 13 Gibson.com. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  8. ↑ Citizen, Jessica (2010-09-15). "Weezer graces Guitar Hero on iPhone". MusicPron. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  9. ↑ "Future Releases on Alternative Radio Stations, Independent Artist Song Releases |". Allaccess.com. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
  10. 1 2 3 Koch, Karl (2010-09-09). "Memories video premiere (for real)". Weezer.com. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Heisel, Scott. "Alt Press: Weezer - Hurley". Alt Press. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
  12. ↑ Sperounes, Sandra. "Weezer's connection to Banff". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  13. 1 2 "Weezer Return To Indie-Rock Roots With New Album". Guitar World. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  14. ↑ Reilly, Dan (2010-08-09). "Weezer Reveal 'Hurley' Album Cover -- Exclusive". Spinner.com. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  15. ↑ WENN.COM. (2010-08-27). Weezer explains 'Lost' album title jam.canoe.ca. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  16. ↑ Suarez, Jessica (2010-09-08). "Browse Weezer's Hurley Clothing Line". stereogum.com. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
  17. ↑ Smith, Ethan. (2010-09-13). Weezer: The “YouTube Invasion” Begins Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  18. 1 2 "Critic Reviews for Hurley by Weezer". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  19. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: Hurley". Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  20. 1 2 Roffman, Michael. "Album Review: Weezer – Hurley". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  21. 1 2 Jensen, Jeff (2010-09-16). "Hurley Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  22. 1 2 Caramanica, Jon (2010-09-12). "Critics' Choice - New Albums - Weezer, The Drums and Ryan Bingham". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  23. 1 2 Parker, Rob. "Album Review: Weezer - Hurley (Epitaph)". NME. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
  24. 1 2 Patashnik, Ben. "Weezer - Hurley. It feels great to have Weezer back". Rock Sound. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  25. 1 2 Dolan, Jon. "Hurley by Weezer". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  26. ↑ Marchese, David. "Weezer, 'Hurley' (Epitaph) Rivers and Co. rebound from Raditude". Spin. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  27. 1 2 Adam, Thomas. "Weezer - Hurley (Staff Review)". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  28. ↑ "Facebook.com - Weezer official page". Facebook. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  29. ↑ "Weezer's Hurley - Album Review". UpVenue. 13 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  30. ↑ HITS Daily Double: Building Album Sales Chart HitsDailyDouble.com Retrieved 2010-09-30
  31. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Weezer-Hurley/release/2522118. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help);
  32. ↑ Adams, Sean (2010-12-02). "Drowned in Sound's albums of the year 2010: 50-11 / In Depth // Drowned In Sound". Drownedinsound.com. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
  33. ↑ "Tops : Noah et Sardou toujours en tête" (in French). Chartsinfrance.net. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
  34. ↑ Hurley (album) on Oricon
  35. 1 2 3 Shotwell, James (2010-08-11). "Weezer release Hurley track list". Alternative Press. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  36. ↑ "Semisonic's Dan Wilson Releases Live Album, Pens New Weezer Song". Antimusic.com. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  37. ↑ Reilly, Dan (2010-08-11). "Weezer Get 'Crazy' With Ryan Adams, Johnny Knoxville on 'Hurley'". Spinner. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  38. ↑ "Banff puts its mark on Weezer album". Edmonton Journal. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-29.

External links

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