Weezer is going "Back to the Shack" and back to form in its new song. Today (July 21), the "Beverly Hills" band premiered its lead Everything Will Be Alright in the End single on KROQ, and it does feel a bit like 1994 again.
As heard in the surfaced footage from Weezer's 2014 cruise, the first 10 seconds of "Back to the Shack" are all power rock. Wailing guitar riffs and explosions of bass and drums set up the epic, rock-leaning song and that's just a preview of what is to come.
Musically, "Back to the Shack" is one of the more straightforward rock singles to come from Weezer in years. Recalling Pinkerton in its instrumentation, the heavy guitars helps to keep the mid-tempo anthem from dragging along. While Pat Wilson plays a steady drumbeat, guitars blast through a listener's headphones, giving pure power to the comeback single.
It's not all cock rock, though. In true Weezer style, "Back to the Shack" features hooks for days, and the turn of events in the chorus is nothing short of a pure earworm.
While the music itself is raw and nearly unhinged, frontman Rivers Cuomo's lyrics are what really set "Back to the Shack" apart.
As Weezer's dedicated (and often disappointed) fanbase is well aware, the late 2000s weren't particularly great for the former kings of nerdy, hooky alt-rock. Songs like "Can't Stop Partying" and basically all of Death to False Metal are weird takes on pop and not so much, well, good. But, Cuomo is declaring he's taking you back to 1994 (and "The Blue Album") and pleasing his core fanbase.
"Sorry guys I didn't realize that I needed you so much / I thought I'd get a new audience, I forgot that disco sucks / I ended up with nobody and feeling really dumb / Maybe I should play the lead guitar and Pat should play the drums," he sings right off the bat.
Seriously. He's apologizing for all of Weezer's recent music. That takes some balls... And we like it.
Weezer fans know to be hesitant regarding any new albums, but we here at Music Times are cautiously optimistic about Everything Will Be Alright in the End...
Listen to Weezer's new single "Back to the Shack" below, via the Weezer YouTube page:
"Back to the Shack" is the lead single from Weezer's new album Everything Will Be Alright in the End, which is due out Sept. 30 via Republic Records.
