Weezer Stream 'Hurley' a Week Ahead of Release

In advance of the Sept. 14 release of 'Hurley,' Weezer are letting fans try before they buy, as the album is currently streaming in its entirety on MySpace. Newly free from a 16-year recording contract with Geffen, 'Hurley' is Weezer's first album in a new deal with punk mainstay Epitaph and comes with expectations that the band has returned to its mid-'90s sound.

So, how does the new material actually fare? 'Hurley' is definitely rawer than the sleek mainstream sound of 'Raditude,' but there's still plenty of chic power pop to go around. Opener and lead single 'Memories' is the record at its best. The track opens with orchestral tuning before blasting into a bouncy, hyper-melodic pop punk number that would be home on the Warped Tour.

The goofy materialism of the group's recent work isn't altogether absent, though, most notably on 'Where's My Sex?' Rivers Cuomo can still write a huge, sugary and successful pop song when he needs to. There's plenty of material on 'Hurley' that could fit nicely in the band's upcoming tour, on which they will play 'The Blue Album' and 'Pinkerton,' their first two albums.