Pacific Daydream

Pitchfork 4.3/10 If you like hooky Weezer, about half of the albums should appeal to you, while the same applies if you’re partial to the more out-there Weezer. Pacific Daydream is the band’s first offering to fall far short for both camps—not because it’s one of the most extreme examples of Cuomo going for a radio-friendly sound (though it is that), but because he betrays the band’s mission in the process.

A.V. Club F While all of Pacific Daydream is typically well-crafted—with expert production, luxurious swaths of guitars and effects, and those still-tight harmonies—it highlights that, at this point in the band’s career, what Weezer could use most is some digression. Instead, what Pacific Daydream offers is little more than another reason to tour.

The Needle Drop 4/10 Weezer indulge in millennial pop cliches on their most sugar-sweet album yet, Pacific Daydream.

NME 4/5 ‘Pacific Daydream’ is all carefree, expertly crafted pop, free of irony and all the better for it.

The Line of Best Fit 5/10 With last year’s Weezer (White Album), they found themselves on the right side of the critics and were initially supposed to follow it up with the aptly titled Black Album. Instead, they’ve reappeared with an album influenced by the idea of a “beach at the end of the world”. Pacific Daydream, feels just like that; a day dream that, for some reason, doesn’t quite sit right.

Evening Standard 3/5 Twenty-five years after they formed, Weezer’s 11th album might have been a forgettable late-career release but for the sure-footed songwriting and Rivers Cuomo’s intriguing lyrics, which are often just a shade darker than the west coast melodies.

Rolling Stone 3/5 Butch Walker's post-postmodern production sometimes overwhelms the songs, but its best moments ... gamely make up for the places where Pacific Daydream sounds like Weezer by Numbers.

DIY 4/5 Here, they’re not chasing perceived ‘relevance’ - simply put, Weezer are a band at play.

All Music 3.5/5 That's the pleasure of Pacific Daydream: beneath its glossy surface, there's not only plenty of melody, but a perverse sense of humor that keeps the record from sounding too smooth and settled.

The Observer 3/5 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.

Slant 3/5 For all the ways in which the album's chill vibe reflects Cuomo's best qualities, it also highlights some of his shortcomings.

Spectrum Culture 40% Pacific Daydream isn’t the worst thing that Weezer has ever done, but it commits a far greater sin than just being flat-out bad: it’s completely forgettable.

Hot Press 8.0/10 Stunning return to form for Rivers Cuomo and the boys.