Oh Weezer. Like most people, the first Weezer album I got was the Blue Album. What a way to start. I was pretty late to the Weezer party and they'd already released a couple of dubious albums by this time. I picked up a few more albums although, rather embarrassingly, I never got round to Pinkerton. I like that I still have that as a treat for one day in the future.
Make Believe is firmly from the dubious years and I think I knew that when I bought it. I remember people commenting on how bad Beverly Hills was at the time. However, for €5 (from the epic Virgin Megastore January sale) I figured I should chance it, despite knowing the odds of actually getting much out of it was slim. In truth, Beverly Hills isn't a terrible Weezer song - it has all the makings of a good Weezer song but Rivers' couldn't-give-a-shit lyrics really rub it in your face that this isn't early 90's Weezer anymore. My Best Friend and Freak Me Out are some of the worst Weezer songs I've ever heard; in fact, My Best Friend is just one of the worst songs I've ever heard. Perfect Situation, We Are All on Drugs and The Other Way all sound like crappy pop-punk songs by some mid-2000's band who achieved moderate fame with one album then faded away. If this was, indeed, a record by such a band, I wouldn't be inclined to defend it as much as I want to because it's Weezer. Since this is the vinyl version, it contains the "wrong" version of We Are All on Drugs with a different closing two lines to the intended release version.
There are three very positive quotes from reviews on the front, which feels like it must have been a hard job to select. On the back there is a sticker with the original price Virgin were selling it for - €25 - I'm not too surprised that Make Believe found its way to the bargain bin in that case.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
