James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Younger – Part 13: Make Believe

It’s always a grim realisation when I get to ‘M’ in any A-Z challenge that I’m actually only half way there. But after today we are closer to the end than the beginning, which may be of some consolation as I complete this arbitrary and entirely unnecessary retrospective of albums that I listened to in the noughties.

M is for Make Believe

It’s widely acknowledged that Weezer’s debut album was both a critical and commercial success and one of the stand out albums of the 90s. Their follow-up album Pinkerton was not so well received at the time, but retrospective reviews have been kinder and there is something of a debate over which is the better album.

What is generally agreed, however, is that everything Weezer have released subsequently has been inferior to those first two records.

Which is a shame, because after a five year hiatus following on from Pinkerton, Weezer have been nothing short of ubiquitous, releasing no less than 14 albums to date, with a fifteenth imminent.

However lukewarm the reception for most of their 21st century output has been, few albums have attracted more scathing reviews than 2005’s Make Believe. Nonetheless is remains one of their most commercially successful releases.

And I quite like it.

It’s all pretty disposable, but few songs capture the spirit of the noughties better than the buoyant Beverly Hills.