After two decades of underachievement, last year’s self-titled “White Album” at least marked a partial return to form for Weezer. Its Beach Boys influences are revisited here, then given a modern R&B twist courtesy of Rivers Cuomo’s co-writers, whose credits include Beyoncé, Rihanna and Jessie J songs. The crunching guitar of Mexican Fender, the harmonies of Weekend Woman and (the lazily titled) Beach Boys, and the pop smarts of Feels Like Summer all shine on a front-loaded collection. But the quality control flags badly later on; the wearyingly anodyne La Mancha Screwjob and Get Right, in particular, are buffed to the brink of featurelessness.
