Weezer has always relied on nostalgia. Even in 1994—when the band’s members were just some baby-faced, uncool college kids who started a rock band—their brand of pop-rock turned on remembered pleasures, bygone loves, and adolescent embarrassments. Not much has changed: the band’s first song in four years, “Back to the Shack,” is basically an apology for the past two decades and a promise to embrace their nerdy roots.
Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily. Rivers Cuomo is at his earnest best, entreating us to rock out “like it’s ’94” and “turn off those stupid singing shows.” A bit pat, perhaps, but there’s enough power-pop riffing and self-referential lyricism involved to please most fans. The tune is off the band’s new album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End, which is out in September.
