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Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo fancied himself a modern-day Burroughs while working on Pacific Daydream, using a computer program to arrange musical fragments into songs. Ultimately, it led to a pretty straightforward Weezer album. “Mexican Fender” kicks off with a riff ripped directly from J. Geils Band’s “Love Stinks,” retrofitted with a typically nerdy love story about falling for a guitar-slinging computer-programmer physicist (“That’s pretty cool for a singer in a band,” Cuomo opines). Elsewhere, he tips his hat to one of his most obvious influences on “Beach Boys,” fantasizes about rock immortality (he sings, “I’m like Stevie Ray Vaughan”) on “Happy Hour,” flexes his nerd knowledge with a Star Wars reference in “QB Blitz” and sings earnestly about loneliness (note: he thanks his meditation teacher before his family in the liner notes). Butch Walker’s post-postmodern production sometimes overwhelms the songs, but its best moments – “Weekend Woman” could be Weezer’s “Good Vibrations” with is everything-but-the-sink hooks and a catchy, Lady Gaga–like bridge – gamely make up for the places where Pacific Daydream sounds like Weezer by Numbers.
