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Pitchfork Media's album review for Make Believe was published on May 8, 2005. It was written by Rob Mitchum and awarded the album a somewhat bombastic 0.4 stars out of 10, marking a significant change in the critical discourse around Weezer's output. Below is an excerpt.
Sometimes an album is just awful. Make Believe is one of those albums.
Weezer have been given a lot of breaks in their second era-- both The Green Album and Maladroit were cut miles of slack despite consisting of little more than slightly above-average power-pop. The obvious reason for this lenience has to do with the mean age of rock critics, and the fact that most of these mid-20s scribes were at their absolute peak for bias-forming melodrama when The Blue Album and Pinkerton were released. Even for someone like me, who came late to the Weezer appreciation club, it was impossible to hear these "comeback" albums without the echoes of the earlier alt-rock pillars ringing in our ears.
But now there's an antidote to that nostalgic interference. Right from the start of Make Believe, when Weezer lurches into a flaccid take on Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N' Roll" with an unfathomably horrible speak/sing vocal from Rivers Cuomo (think "I like girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch"), you can hear hundreds of critics mouthing "no no no" and going into crumpled shock. What's more disconcerting is that the song gets worse over the course of its three minutes (let's just say "Framptonesque voicebox solo" and get back to repressing the memory)-- and it's the album's first single.
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" I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" is a Pinkerton-era b-side by Weezer. It was originally released on the single/EP releases of " The Good Life," and later appeared as the fifteenth track on Pinkerton's Deluxe Edition. On the song's handwritten lyric sheet, the song is titled simply " Love of my Dreams."
According to The Pinkerton Diaries, "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" was originally written as a musical sketch titled "My Dream Love" by Rivers Cuomo on January 13, 1995. According to the Recording History, the song was recorded (sans female vocals) during the first Pinkerton sessions in September of that year, with the final version being recorded in the Summer of 1996. According to Karl Koch, Rachel Haden came in one night at Sunset Sound Recorders and nailed "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" on her first take. The song is unique as the only song originally conceived for the Songs from the Black Hole to receive a proper full-band studio release. In the narrative of the story, the song is from the point-of-view of the character Laurel (played by That Dog member Rachel Haden), who sings about rejecting her shipmate, Jonas (Cuomo), despite being in love with him. The original demo featuring vocals by Cuomo leaked online through Cuomo's website in November of 2020, shortly before being sold as part of the demo compilation Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years on November 22.
In a Facebook post in December of 2016, Haden remarked that she was not paid for her work on the song [1].
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This list attempts to document every reference made to a person - living, dead, fictional, or real - in a Weezer lyric.
| Person
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Song
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Lyric
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Note
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| Ratt
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"Surfwax America"
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I'm goin' surfin cuz I don't like your face
I'm bailin' out because I hate the race of
Ratts that run Round and Round in the maze
I'm goin' surfin', I'm goin' surfin'!
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As indicated in Cuomo's handwritten lyric sheet, the line was actually written "Ratts" to reference the band, not the animal. "Round and Round" is a song off the band's 1984 album Out of the Cellar.
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| Jermaine Dupri
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"Let It All Hang Out"
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Me and JD chillin in the shack
Sharing Chiclets from the same pack
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Jermaine Dupri co-wrote this song.
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| Sebastian
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Throughout the album
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Sebastian is the lead character of the album's narrative. He is the lead musician in a band called The Astronauts.
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| Katy Goodman
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"Mexican Fender"
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" Met her at a guitar shop on Santa Monica and 7th Street
The salesman tried to get my attention to sell me a Mexican Fender "
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The her in this song is Katy Goodman of the band La Sera. Her and Rivers have hung out in Santa Monica on at least one occasion, which is the basis for this song.
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| Monty Python
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“Happy Hour”
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“ But then my boss calls and she’s crushing me with a 20-ton weight
Just like in Monty Python ”
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The 20-ton weight in the lyric is most likely referring to the 16-ton weight, a recurring gag in several Monty Python sketches such as “Self Defense Against Fresh Fruit.”
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| Serge Gainsbourg
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“Aloo Gobi”
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“ Order up a decaf latte
Spin Gainsbourg tunes ”
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Serge Gainsbourg was a French Musician who is regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop. In his 30+ years of work he made music in several different genres such as jazz, rock, and electronica.
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![[1]](https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/File:Rachelhadenmattrivers2016.jpg){kind=link}
