Half an hour doesn’t leave much room for mistakes, and Weezer’s fillerless third album, clocking in at less than 30 minutes, doesn’t leave much to complain about. It seems the band has been locked up in a basement somewhere and Weezer is their concise and direct declaration that the geeks are back. With tracks like “Photograph” and “Island in the Sun,” Weezer squeezes more pop hooks and slogans into 30 minutes than most bands do in their entire careers. The album is a definitive step away from the band’s last release, the comparatively dark Pinkerton, recalling the bright, crisp melodies of their debut. The first single, “Hashpipe,” is further evidence of the band’s punk-rock origins, with its crunchy guitar licks and sticatto vocals scorched with the residual edge leftover from the alt-rock boom. While most of the songs fail to hit the spot a la Weezer’s now-trademark “The Sweater Song” or “Say It Ain’t So,” the tidy “Green Album” is a reminder of what we’ve been missing for the past few years. Weezer is the new old modern rock.
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