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Rolling Stone

A breakthrough for Weezer... Cuomo's songs are his most plaintive and brilliant since Pinkerton. [19 May 2005, p.74]

All Music Guide

It may be a spiritual cousin to Pinkerton, yet it's far removed from the raw, nervy immediacy of that album.... This has a lighter, brighter feel than any of its predecessors, not just in the music but in its outlook.

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Dot Music

"Make Believe" is classic Weezer, further refining the template of unthreatening heavy metal riffs... welded to smart lyrics, largely of satirical nature, and infectious melody.

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Q Magazine

Hints that Cuomo may be approaching some sort of personal epiphany about his place in the world. [Jun 2005, p.116]

Entertainment Weekly

Weezer's most conventional disc... a cleaner-sounding record heavy on way-earnest power ballads. [13 May 2005, p.85]

E! Online

You can hear them struggling on Make Believe to keep fans bouncing along to the power-pop anthems but also keep it interesting for themselves so frontman Rivers Cuomo won't put the whole thing on hiatus again.

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Filter

The thread that made Weezer everyone's favorite nerd-rock quartet--the soul and core behind the dramatic guitar crescendos--has unraveled completely, leaving us with a record full of, well, a lot of dramatic guitar crescendos. [#16, p.87]

Blender

In striving for Zen-like purity, the songs often end up eerily blank. [Jul 2005, p.122]

Mojo

Another patchily edifying addition to the Cuomo enigma. [Jul 2005, p.106]

Lost At Sea

Some songs are worth a listen, but the overall package sounds and feels redundant and, putting myself at the mercy of =W= fans everywhere, renders itself irrelevant.

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Prefix Magazine

It's the schizophrenic sound of a band starting over a decade later.

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Paste Magazine

Neither the best nor the worst album this band has recorded.

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The Guardian

A chunk of almost straight-faced love/self-doubt songs show that while these geeks may not inherit the earth, they can play their competitors at their own game.

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New York Magazine

Many of these songs are thin schematics for “perfect” pop songs. They’re impressive in their commitment to formula--deploying catchy, whiny hooks, taut structure, loud-soft interplay, and well-timed guitar peals. Yet for all their nakedness, they offer little in the way of revelation.

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New Musical Express

Far from the unpredictable genius of old, it seems that Rivers Cuomo has returned lacking both edge and sparkle.

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Slant Magazine

The truth is that any Weezer copycat band could have made this record.

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Uncut

The guitars still kick, but charm is thin on the ground. [Jul 2005, p.89]

ShakingThrough.net

Make Believe might sound more sincere if the clean, precision-metal production didn’t steamroll Cuomo’s lyrical misery in bombastic arrangements featuring factory-issue power chords and a MOR-safe rhythm section.

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Stylus Magazine

Make Believe seems so simple compared to [Weezer's] other albums.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Weezer's once unique aesthetic has been replaced by something formulaic and ultimately too safe.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

It's a sweet, open, daringly earnest album in which the sad old Cuomo does battle with the wise old soul Cuomo wants to become. By conventional wisdom, it should never work as a rock album, and most of the time, that conventional wisdom is dead on.

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The New York Times

Infuriatingly plain. [16 May 2005]

cokemachineglow

Make Believe finds Cuomo donkey-punching the formaldehyde-soaked corpse of his former glory.

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Playlouder

You can feel how dreadful this record is from the very first bar.

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Pitchfork

Sometimes an album is just awful. Make Believe is one of those albums.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 235 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jordan F. gave it an8:
Ok. the album itself is pretty bad... but nonetheless, it holds my all-time favorite song: "Haunt You Every Day".

Bri J. gave it a10:
This album is not Pinkerton or the Blue album. It is better. It shows that they have evolved and every song is very catch. To me, the weakest songs are the 2 that got the air play; Beverly Hills and We are all on drugs. Those 2 were ok, but the rest of the album was awesome. Take it for what it is. It's happy upbeat power pop. There's nothing with that when in this day things are so depressing. This is one of my most listened to cd's still? My concern would be whether they will be able to top this cd on their next one, if there is a next one.

E C. gave it a1:
The album that ruined Weezer for me. I could care less about their upcoming '08 album. I would call this their sell out album, but they sold their souls to their record label years ago. It's just painfully obvious on this album. When the nostalgia fades (if you every even feel it during any of these songs) you're just left with a bitter realization that one of the most fun bands of the 90s is officially irrelevant.

Lucas W. gave it a6:
Good album musical skill, and songs such as hold me as well as haunt you every day are very well crafted, however after listening i feel unsatisfied. It has no ability to evoke feeling.

Mike S. gave it a7:
I can only hope that "tout ensemble" will be back to cuomo's old writing days,not that make believe was particularily bad,its just not up to true weezer standard!

Hex G. gave it a4:
Only 2 or 3 songs here are worthy of being on a weezer album, the rest are just plain, boring and uninspired and the idea of putting "Butterfly" on this record is baffling. "This Is Such A Pity" and "The Damage In Your Heart" are just awful when you think of the music these guys have created together in the past. For me, this is Weezers poorest album by far.

Joe B. gave it an8:
Considering that most music reviewers are self-pretentious idiots with not a hint of musical knowledge within them (seriously - I bet that the some of these reviews are by journalists not important enough to cover real news), it's not surprising that an album as catchy and well-made as Make Believe is disregarded and even blatantly insulted. Have a look at some of the unfavourable reviews: wtih the exception of one or two, they rant on almost exclusively about the lyrics. What about the catchy guitar and vocal hooks? Well, here's what CokeMachineGlow's Clayton Purdom has to say: "You can’t just play two chords and yell words and call that a hook" (with regards to Beverly Hills). Oh really? Who says? Is there some unwritten law? Yes it's lyrics verge on cliche, but what so many people (reviewers) fail to realise is that lyrics play such a small role in comparison to vocal melodies, chords and structure of a song. Great vocal hooks, guitar melodies and a great sound. Don't listen to the journalists.

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Make Believe

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