Weezer's Make Believe Remains the Band's Most Balanced and Diverse Album: Includes "Beverly Hills," "Perfect Situation," "This Is Such a Pity," and "We Are All on Drugs"

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes on Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition 180g 33RPM LP: Rick Rubin's Sleek, Layered Production Reveals More Details and Subtle Cues

Digital clone of original digital master to analog console to lathe

Following four acclaimed albums filled with power-pop, Weezer swings for the fences on Make Believe. Expanding its ambitions, arrangements, and diversity, and helmed by mega-producer Rick Rubin, the 2005 record ranks as the band’s most diverse and balanced effort. It’s also the group’s longest set distinguished by more personal lyrics inspired by leader Rivers Cuomo’s meditation sessions. Anchored by four radio-charting singles, and streaked with cautious optimism, Make Believe remains a compelling intersection of sleek, new wave and big, meaty arena-rock bluster.

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g LP at RTI, Mobile Fidelity’s reissue affirms Make Believe as the best-sounding record of Weezer’s career by allowing Rubin’s finessed sonics to showcase the instrumentation and subtle cues embedded in the layers of production. Previously buried or obscured, strings and pianos give extra body and shape to certain songs, while the quartet—buttressed by the brawnier, richer studio techniques—comes across as bigger than ever before. Drums, in particular, strongly benefit from Rubin’s experience and ear.

Opening with “Beverly Hills,” a chant-a-long anthem that immediately hypnotizing the senses with bleacher-stomping momentum and dorky talk-box solo, Make Believe takes amusing aim at haute-couture culture and fickle materialism here and on the farcical “We Are All On Drugs,” each song informed by Cuomo’s observations while living in California. Silly, witty, quirky—it’s requisite Weezer, and uses a sense of humor to counteract the more serious sides of the album.

As he did on Pinkerton, Cuomo revisits intimate feelings and fears of loneliness, drawing from his break-up with his girlfriend to themes of forgiveness. Make Believe represents both a musical and emotional evolution, wherein Weezer embraces different styles (new wave, harder-edged rock, irony-free ballads) and hints at sincere hopefulness. Two of the effort’s biggest singles (“This Is Such a Pity,” “Perfect Situation”) breathe with an endearing sympathy that steers clear of cynicism or sarcasm. Where the quartet previously opted for self-flagellation when it came to romance, songs here indicate Cuomo and Co. content to move on and let go.

Similarly, Cuomo wrote the nerves-exposed “The Other Way” for his ex-girlfriend after her boyfriend passed away. Undercurrents of self-analysis, apology, and resolution run throughout the material and affirm a maturation that nevertheless avoids sacrificing Weezer’s hallmark hooks and melodies. As Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield noted in his review of Make Believe, “Not since Brian Wilson has an L.A.-pop mastermind gotten such musical mileage out of wanting to be an ordinary guy, not realizing that his psychosexual freakitude is exactly what makes him one.”