Make Believe

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For the Chicago-based indie band, see Make Believe (band)
Make Believe
Make Believe cover
Studio album by Weezer
Released May 10, 2005
Recorded December 2003 - February 2005
Genre Alternative
Length 45:09
Label DGC, Geffen (U.S.)
B0004520-01 (LP)
B0004520-12 (CD)
Producer(s) Rick Rubin
Professional reviews
Weezer chronology

The Lion and the Witch
(2002)
Make Believe
(2005)
Winter Weezerland EP
(2005)


Make Believe is the fifth studio album by Weezer, released on May 10, 2005, the eleventh anniversary of the release of The Blue Album. Bolstered by the Top 10 hit single "Beverly Hills", it gave Weezer their biggest chart album peak yet, hitting #11 in the UK and #2 in the U.S., where it went gold quickly, and eventually platinum. The song also earned the band their first Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. Despite this, Make Believe has received mixed reviews from some critics and fans, though it has remained a consistent seller.

As of March 2006, Make Believe has sold 1,103,757 units in the U.S. alone.

Make Believe features the band's first two songs to top the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, the aforementioned "Beverly Hills" and "Perfect Situation."

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Rivers Cuomo.

# Title Length
1. "Beverly Hills" 3:18
2. "Perfect Situation" 4:15
3. "This Is Such a Pity" 3:24
4. "Hold Me" 4:22
5. "Peace" 3:53
6. "We Are All on Drugs" 3:35
7. "The Damage In Your Heart" 4:02
8. "Pardon Me" 4:15
9. "My Best Friend" 2:47
10. "The Other Way" 3:16
11. "Freak Me Out" 3:26
12. "Haunt You Every Day" 4:37

[edit] Writing & Recording Process

As early as spring 2002, and at random points in late '02 and early 2003 demos for possible use on Weezer's fifth album would be uploaded to Weezer.com's audio/visual page. After some time, the band decided to start from scratch with a fresh group of songs. Twenty eight songs were uploaded in all on the website (and can still be found on various fan sites) yet only one ("Hold Me") made the actual album. This batch of songs is commonly referred to as "The A5 Demos" or "Album 4.5," or, among some fan groups, "Fantasy," a play on the title of the final album.

Rivers Cuomo's discovery of meditation in the three years between this and their previous release, Maladroit had a great influence on the content of the album. Mainly on "Pardon Me," which was written after a ten day guided meditation course, in which he learned the ancient techniques of Vipassana (Insight Meditation) and Metta (Lovingkindness) which encourages those who practice to "seek pardon from all those who I have hurt in action speech or thought." He also claimed the title of the album came to him while meditating.

Make Believe marks a return to Cuomo's more personal songwriting style after taking a more distant approach on the previous two albums. An example of this is "The Other Way," which was written for Elliott Smith's ex-girlfriend Jennifer Chiba. According to Cuomo:

“ I wanted to console her, but I was confused and skeptical about my own motives for wanting to do so, so I wrote that song about that. [1]. ”

"We Are All on Drugs" was inspired by Cuomo hearing party-goers on Sunset Strip [2]. "Hold Me" was written during a songwriting experiment in which Cuomo fasted for 24 hours and then wrote a song [3].

Producer Rick Rubin told Rivers Cuomo to "write a Billy Joel or Elton John type of song." The result of Rubin's request was "Haunt You Every Day" which is not the first Weezer song to feature piano, but is the first that Rivers wrote entirely on piano. According to Cuomo, Rubin told Tom Petty the same thing and he wrote "It’s Good To Be King." [4]

As the band was working on the album, they struck a deal to have "My Best Friend" be included in the film Shrek 2 yet this deal was scrapped when the makers of the film didn't think it fit to the timings of the visuals. The Counting Crows song "Accidentally in Love" took the place of "My Best Friend." [5]

Hundreds of songs were demoed during the three year period of making of the album . Despite the abundance of release-able material, to the dismay of many fans, this is the first Weezer album not to feature any b-side releases. Of the notable unreleased material, "You're The One" and "Love is the Answer" can be heard on the "Making of Make Believe" special feature on the disc's Enhanced CD feature. A cover of Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my Heart" was in consideration for the album. [6]

[edit] Music sample

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The wrong version of "We Are All on Drugs" appears on the first CD release and all vinyl releases of "Make Believe". It was later replaced with the correct version on subsequent CD releases. The two versions of the song are sonically identical, however two lines of lyrics are different. The incorrect lyrics contained on the first CD release and the vinyl releases are: "I want to confiscate your drugs. I don't think I can get enough. Uh." whereas the correct lyrics on subsequent CD releases are "I want to reach a higher plane. Where things will never be the same. Uh."
  • The title Make Believe won out over drummer Patrick Wilson's suggestion for the title: One Thousand Soviet Children Marching Towards The Sun. [7]
  • "Freak Me Out" is one of two songs released on a studio album that has never played live in concert by Weezer. The other is The World Has Turned and Left Me Here from the band's First Album.
  • The liner notes feature a monologue from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. The monologue is taken from Act 5, Scene 1 of the play in which Prospero gives up his magic. This has prompted many fans to speculate that this will be the band's final album.
  • A new cover for Make Believe was created for the video of Perfect Situation. It showed the band as the name "Weeze", the fictional predecessor to Weezer and Rivers Cuomo replaced by Elisha Cuthbert. Elisha features in the video as the lead singer of "Weeze", but as the video progresses, is replaced by Cuomo.
  • Weezer's longest album to date.

[edit] Album singles

Single cover Single information
"Beverly Hills"
  • Released: 2005
"We Are All On Drugs"
  • Released: 2005
"Perfect Situation"
  • Released: 2005
"This is Such A Pity"
  • Released: 2006

[edit] External links

Weezer
Brian Bell • Rivers Cuomo • Scott Shriner • Patrick Wilson
Former members: Jason Cropper • Matt Sharp • Mikey Welsh
Discography
Albums: Weezer (The Blue Album) • Pinkerton • Weezer (The Green Album) • Maladroit • Make Believe
Extended plays and live albums: The Good Life • The Lion and the Witch • Winter Weezerland
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