''Pacific Daydream'' is the eleventh studio album by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing v ...
, released on October 27, 2017. The album is their second release by
Crush Management, is distributed by
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
, and is trademarked by a modern pop sound, differing from their previous work.
The lead single, "
Feels Like Summer", was released on March 16, 2017. The second single, "
Happy Hour", was released on October 31.
Background and recording
In 2016, frontman
Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer.
Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...
began filling a folder of songs intended for a darker project (provisionally titled ''The Black Album'') but ultimately completed a second folder with songs that were of a different nature first, leading to the creation of ''Pacific Daydream''. In April, Cuomo teased the album, describing it as "
Beach Boys
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...
gone bad", tackling "more mature topics" and "less summer day and more winter night". As Cuomo began writing and recording, they found the songs to be more "like reveries from a beach at the end of the world
.. as ifthe Beach Boys and
The Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...
fell in love by the ocean and had one hell of an amazing baby".
The band ultimately pushed back plans for ''The Black Album'' and began focusing on the new collection of songs.
Guitarist
Brian Bell
Brian Lane Bell (born December 9, 1968) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and occasional lead vocalist of the rock band Weezer, with whom he has recorded fi ...
later said "Whatever it's going to be called, it's going to be fucking awesome." Inspired by an ancient Chinese proverb by
Chuang Chou, Cuomo hoped to explore more "radical" sounds, a departure from the "classic" style of ''
The White Album
''The Beatles'', also referred to colloquially as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover conta ...
''.
Cuomo's original title for the album was ''Somebody's Daydream'', but he later explained that the band's drummer,
Pat Wilson
Pat Wilson (born Patricia Mary Higgins; 11 June 1948) is an Australian singer and journalist. Wilson wrote for ''Go-Set'', a 1960s and 1970s pop music newspaper, under the pen-name "Mummy Cool" during 1971–1972. Wilson released several s ...
, thought "Pacific" was a more attractive alternative than "Somebody's", and ultimately the group settled on ''Pacific Daydream''.
To create the album, Cuomo utilized various musical and lyrical fragments he had collected over time. He kept an archive of song ideas and hired programmers to organize a spreadsheet of lyric snippets by
beats per minute
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery ( ...
, syllable, and
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
to call from whenever stuck. "Instead of trying to force myself to feel inspired, I can just go into the spreadsheet and search
..I just try them out to see which ones work magically."
Writing and composition
Songs
Cuomo has described the album as having an overall theme of "alienation and loneliness and not feeling like I have a place to fit in", describing it as having a "darker, sadder undertone to it relative to" their previous album.
[ The album's opening track, " Mexican Fender", written by Cuomo and ]Toby Gad
Tobias "Toby" Gad (born 28 March 1968) is a Los Angeles-based German music producer/songwriter, best known for co-writing John Legend's biggest hit, " All of Me," the fifth-highest certified single in RIAA history, and for co-writing and producin ...
, was based on Cuomo's interactions with Katy Goodman, of the indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
band La Sera
La Sera is an American indie rock band formed by Katy Goodman, the bassist for Vivian Girls, in 2010. They have released four albums and toured internationally.
History
La Sera, whose name means "the evening" in Italian, started in 2010, with Goo ...
. Cuomo credited Jake Sinclair
Jake Tony Sinclair (born 29 November 1994) is an English footballer who has played professionally for Southampton and Hibernian. He is currently a striker for Mangotsfield United.
Career
Sinclair joined Southampton at the academy level at ...
, the producer for ''The White Album'', in assisting with the creation of the track. "Beach Boys", an ode to the Beach Boys, was written specifically to sound "the least like hem
A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...
, and describes Cuomo's experiences of "being in downtown LA at night and being totally disoriented and alienated".[ The song's bridge features quotes from ]Murry Wilson
Murry Gage Wilson (July 2, 1917 – June 4, 1973) was an American songwriter, talent manager, record producer, and music publisher, best known as the father of the Beach Boys' Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson. After the band's formation in 1 ...
, the father of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...
.[ The album's lead single, " Feels Like Summer", is an "EDM-infused" track about "the death of uomo'sJune bride", who's now "home with the angels." The track was written through a "cut-and-paste" style that Cuomo had adopted while writing for ''The White Album''.]
"Weekend Woman", the album's third promotional single, features an opening nod to The Zombies
The Zombies are an English rock band formed in the early 1960s in St Albans and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group had a British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two fu ...
' "Time of the Season
"Time of the Season" is a song by the British rock band the Zombies, featured on their 1968 album ''Odessey and Oracle''. It was written by keyboard player Rod Argent and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in August 1967. Over a year after its origin ...
", as well as a verse melody previously used in a '' Green Album'' outtake, "Burning Sun".
Music
John Pareles of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the album a "collection of pop-rock
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and ...
songs with old-fashioned verse-chorus-bridge structures", while Derek Rossignol of ''Uproxx
''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...
'' stated that, with ''Pacific Daydream'', "the band has proven that they’re still capable purveyors of sunny and bright alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
". Alex Hudson of ''Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' stated that the album attempts to carry on the band's signature power pop
Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...
style, while adding more electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
production. Andrew Trendell of ''NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' asserted that "'Pacific Daydream' is all carefree, expertly crafted pop, free of irony and all the better for it".[
]
Release and promotion
On March 16, 2017, the band released the album's first single, "Feels Like Summer". On August 17, the band unveiled the album art, title, and opening track, "Mexican Fender", as well as its accompanying music video. Another promotional single, "Beach Boys", was released on September 14. "Happy Hour" was the album's second official single, released on October 31, 2017.
Reception
Commercial
''Pacific Daydream'' debuted at number 23 on the ''Billboard'' 200, which made it the lowest debut performance for a Weezer studio album since their 1994 debut. It is also the band's first album since 1996's '' Pinkerton'' to fail to debut in the top 10.
Critical
According to Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, ''Pacific Daydream'' has received an aggregated score of 64/100, based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Jake Kilroy of ''Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
'' describes it as "a strong album, but not a strong Weezer album", adding "But if you ever wanted to hear Weezer at their professionally sharpest, this is surely it. It's no surprise that Cuomo is a fan of pop smashes like Carly Rae Jepsen
Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...
's 'Call Me Maybe
"Call Me Maybe" is a song recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen for her EP ''Curiosity'' (2012) and later appeared on her second studio album and first international album ''Kiss'' (2012). The song was written by Jepsen and T ...
', as ''Pacific Daydream'' might be more Train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...
than Ozma...For the band to be at its full potential, though, the songwriter needs to reflect more on the takeaways of experiences rather than the moments themselves."[ Andrew Trendell at '']NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' opined that aging has not worn Weezer down, stating "''Pacific Daydream'' is all carefree, expertly crafted pop, free of irony and all the better for it. Lock the doors, crack open a cold one, and enjoy an endless summer with Weezer."[
Saby Reyes-Kulkarni from '']Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' was more critical of the album, noting "for the second album in a row, Cuomo anchors the music more specifically to California. Sure, that's worked for scores of artists in the past, but a crucial part of Weezer's appeal was that you could believe they came out of any garage on any tree-lined cul-de-sac in any suburban zip code in the U.S. ''Pacific Daydream'', in spite of its name, mostly just gives you a feeling of being nowhere."[
]
Accolades
The album received a Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
nomination for Best Rock Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sev ...
at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards
The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys hosted. During her opening monologue, Keys brought out Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and fo ...
.
Track listing
All tracks produced by Butch Walker
Bradley Glenn "Butch" Walker (born November 14, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the glam metal band SouthGang from the late 1980s to early 1990s as well as the lead vocalist ...
except where noted.
Track notes
* signifies a co- producer
Personnel
Weezer
*Brian Bell
Brian Lane Bell (born December 9, 1968) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and occasional lead vocalist of the rock band Weezer, with whom he has recorded fi ...
*Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer.
Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...
*Scott Shriner
Scott Gardner Shriner (born July 11, 1965) is an American musician best known as a member of the rock band Weezer, with whom he has recorded twelve studio albums. Joining the band in 2001, Shriner is the band's longest serving bass guitarist.
Prio ...
*Patrick Wilson
Patrick Joseph Wilson (born July 3, 1973) is an American actor and director. He began his career in 1995, starring in Broadway musicals. He received nominations for two Tony Awards for his roles in ''The Full Monty'' (2000–2001) and ''Oklahoma ...
Additional musicians
* Butch Walker
Bradley Glenn "Butch" Walker (born November 14, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the glam metal band SouthGang from the late 1980s to early 1990s as well as the lead vocalist ...
– additional guitar, synth, percussion, and backing vocals
* Daniel Brummel
Daniel Brummel (born September 15, 1981 in Pasadena, California) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who has performed and recorded with various musical groups including Sanglorians, Ozma, Weezer, Nada ...
– acoustic guitar, slide guitar, piano, clarinet, percussion, and horn arrangement on "Sweet Mary"
* Ihui Wu – trumpet on "Sweet Mary"
* Josh Alexander
Joshua Lemay (born May 29, 1987) is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he performs under the ring name Josh Alexander. He is a two-time Impact World Champion, with his second reign being the longest reig ...
– piano on "Sweet Mary"
Production
* Butch Walker
Bradley Glenn "Butch" Walker (born November 14, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the glam metal band SouthGang from the late 1980s to early 1990s as well as the lead vocalist ...
– producer and engineer
* Jonny Coffer
Jonathan Coffer (born 8 March 1989) is a multiple Grammy-nominated songwriter and record producer from London. He has written and produced for artists including Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Lykke Li, FKA twigs, Naughty Boy, Emeli Sandé, Fall Out ...
– producer
* J.R. Rotem – co-producer
* Oh, Hush! – additional production
* Todd Stopera – engineer
* Suzy Shinn – engineer
* Eric Valentine
Eric Dodd, known professionally as Eric Valentine, is an American record producer who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride.
He subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Lostprophets, Tak ...
– mixing , mastering
* Tony Maserati
Tony Maserati is an American record producer and audio engineer specializing in mixing. He was involved in the development of the New York R&B and hip-hop scene in the 1990s, working with Mary J. Blige, Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, and Queen ...
– mixing
Charts
References
External links
The Chuang-tzu
translated by Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang ( ; October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese inventor, linguist, novelist, philosopher, and translator. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generati ...
*
{{Authority control
2017 albums
Albums produced by Jake Sinclair (musician)
Albums produced by J. R. Rotem
Atlantic Records albums
Weezer albums