Pacific Daydream
Pacific Daydream is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Weezer, released on October 27, 2017.[2] The album is their second release by Crush Management, is distributed by Atlantic Records, and is trademarked by a modern pop sound, differing from their previous work.[3] The lead single, "Feels Like Summer", was released on March 16, 2017.[4] The second single, "Happy Hour", was released on October 31.[5]
Pacific Daydream
Background and recording[edit]
In 2016, frontman Rivers Cuomo 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.[6] In April, Cuomo teased the album, describing it as "Beach Boys gone bad", tackling "more mature topics" and "less summer day and more winter night".[7] 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 if] the Beach Boys and The Clash fell in love by the ocean and had one hell of an amazing baby".[8] The band ultimately pushed back plans for The Black Album and began focusing on the new collection of songs.[8] Guitarist Brian Bell later said "Whatever it's going to be called, it's going to be fucking awesome."[9] 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.[10][11] Cuomo's original title for the album was Somebody's Daydream, but he later explained that the band's drummer, Pat Wilson, thought "Pacific" was a more attractive alternative than "Somebody's", and ultimately the group settled on Pacific Daydream.[10]
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, syllable, and key 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."[12]
Writing and composition[edit]
Songs[edit]
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.[13] The album's opening track, "Mexican Fender", written by Cuomo and Toby Gad, was based on Cuomo's interactions with Katy Goodman, of the indie rock band La Sera.[14] Cuomo credited Jake Sinclair, the producer for The White Album, in assisting with the creation of the track.[13] "Beach Boys", an ode to the Beach Boys, was written specifically to sound "the least like [them]", and describes Cuomo's experiences of "being in downtown LA at night and being totally disoriented and alienated".[13] The song's bridge features quotes from Murry Wilson, the father of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson.[13] The album's lead single, "Feels Like Summer", is an "EDM-infused" track about "the death of [Cuomo's] June 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.[15][16] "Weekend Woman", the album's third promotional single, features an opening nod to The Zombies' "Time of the Season", as well as a verse melody previously used in a Green Album outtake, "Burning Sun".[15][17]
Music[edit]
John Pareles of The New York Times called the album a "collection of pop-rock songs with old-fashioned verse-chorus-bridge structures",[18] while Derek Rossignol of Uproxx stated that, with Pacific Daydream, "the band has proven that they’re still capable purveyors of sunny and bright alternative rock".[19] Alex Hudson of Exclaim! stated that the album attempts to carry on the band's signature power pop style, while adding more electronic production.[20] Andrew Trendell of NME asserted that "'Pacific Daydream' is all carefree, expertly crafted pop, free of irony and all the better for it".[21]
Release and promotion[edit]
On March 16, 2017, the band released the album's first single, "Feels Like Summer".[22] On August 17, the band unveiled the album art, title, and opening track, "Mexican Fender", as well as its accompanying music video.[23] Another promotional single, "Beach Boys", was released on September 14.[24] "Happy Hour" was the album's second official single, released on October 31, 2017.
Reception[edit]
Commercial[edit]
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.[25]
All tracks produced by Butch Walker except where noted.
Track notes