Weezer [ tickets ] songs usually get straight to the point, but they've never been so hit-you-over-the-head honest--while, of course, still insanely addictive--as they are in "Make Believe."

How much more direct can you get than "you're my best friend and I love you," "man, you really freak me out," or, the seemingly overall theme of the new album, "I am cold, hold me"? It's to the point that you keep listening, wooed by the poppiness, sure there's something deeper, but there simply isn't. Just brazen need, and for the most wrong reasons ("take me with you 'cause I'm lonely"), all brilliantly concealed by pound-in-your-brain catchiness.

Take the first single, "Beverly Hills." Giant chords, Peter Frampton wah-wahs, female background singers, and, yes, handclaps--all over lyrics like "I just don't belong." The other stadium-worthy rally, "We Are All on Drugs," also makes you look for something deeper, but no, it's a song about how we are all on drugs. It's all so easy and familiar--other songs evoke everything from '60s Brit pop to Pat Benatar to, I swear, at the start of "Haunt You Every Day," Lionel Richie's "Hello"--it's impossible to take anything, even "I am terrified of all things" or "I can be the meanest person in the world," too seriously.

If this is Weezer's art, they've perfected it on this album. Pour your heart out, show everyone its damage, then flail on it so ridiculously and with so much pure pop passion, soon they'll all be stomping (and incessantly singing) right along.