Weezer: Hurley (15th anniversary) [CRUSH]

Why you'll love it

This 15th anniversary pressing brings Hurley back to the racks. It debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and NME said it had "the charm and spark of the Weezer of old."

This edition

• 15th anniversary reissue
• Ten tracks, the original album running order
• Crush pressing (cat# CRHS003)

About the album

Hurley is the one with Jorge Garcia, the actor who played Hurley on Lost, grinning out from the cover, and that tells you something about the mood. After leaving Geffen, Weezer signed to the independent Epitaph for this one album, and Rivers Cuomo promised "more raw rock energy" than its predecessor. He and co-producer Shawn Everett delivered: big guitars, big choruses and a handful of co-writes with outside songwriters that keep things varied. It was the band's eighth studio album and their only one for Epitaph, which makes it something of a one-off in the catalogue.

"Memories" opens the record with a rush and a video featuring the Jackass crew on backing vocals; "Ruling Me," "Trainwrecks" and "Hang On" are classic Weezer power pop, and "Unspoken" builds from acoustic guitar to a full-band crash. The New York Times called it the group's strongest album in years at the time. "Memories" also turned up in a Guitar Hero track pack alongside "Buddy Holly," which is about as Weezer as a fact can get. Fifteen years on, it holds up as one of their most fun records, and the cover still makes everyone in the shop smile.

Tracklist

Listen

On Crush (cat# CRHS003), a reissue of the 2010 album.