Weezer - Back to the Shack review • DIY Magazine

If the internet had a collective voice, it would talk about two things: cats, and how Weezer were better back in the day. See, the hive mind seems to have come to a strange conclusion. That Weezer aren’t self aware. Apparently, they’re this bumbling entity that stumbles forwards constantly unable to rediscover the formula that made them darlings twenty years ago.

But here’s the thing. Weezer are brilliant. Weezer have always been brilliant. Sometimes, if we’re going to address the ‘Raditude’ incident, it’s been harder to justify, but underneath it all there’s always those chords, those harmonies - the things other bands can’t match. When was the last time you heard an act described as ‘the new Weezer’ and didn’t feel massively let down? Exactly.

But now, finally, we’ve got evidence that they do get it after all. ‘Back To The Shack’, the first cut from the band’s latest album ‘Everything Will Be Alright In The End’ is the confessional that the high priests of snark have been waiting for. “I thought I’d get a new audience, I forgot that disco sucks,” Rivers Cuomo shrugs in the opening lines. The chorus promises to go “back to the Strat with the lightning strap”; “we belong in the rock world” the middle eight chimes, “if we die in obscurity, oh well, at least we raised some hell.”

And it’s not just the words. Yes, ‘Back To The Shack’ still has more shiny sheen than either Blue or ‘Pinkerton’ ever did, but nor is it something from the darker days where we’d clutch to any chunky riff going. Somewhere between Red and Green, with Rivers’ heart back on his sleeve, it’s time to bury the hatchet. Those who retained the faith should be able to stand proud, the rest should prepare for a ceasefire. It’s time that we gave Weezer a chance. On this evidence, they’ll never let us down again.

Tags: Reviews, Listen, Weezer