Hurley

At heart, Rivers Cuomo is a pop star with a hard rocker’s heart. He loves tough guitars, caressing harmonies and earnest melodies that sound as if they were born to come cranking out of a transistor radio. On Hurley, the band’s 2010 release, Cuomo teams up with a number of co-writers, from professional song doctors Desmond Child and Linda Perry to alt-country performer Ryan Adams and 1970s star Mac Davis. There’s plenty here to like.  “Ruling Me,” written with Dan Wilson, swoons like the Beach Boys. “Run Away,” with Ryan Adams, adds a new-wave rock tension from 1982. “Smart Girls,” with No Doubt’s Tony Kanal, pushes off a bass line to lead into its explosive chorus. “Where’s My Sex?” is the sound of Cuomo reverting to form as the confused arrested adolescent. “Time Flies,” with Mac Davis, is a deliberately raw closing tune highlighted by Cuomo’s nearly off-key emotionalism giving things a desperate goodbye as Weezer transform into lo-fi kings Guided by Voices for a moment. The Deluxe Edition includes four bonus cuts, including a convincing read of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” and the hard-rock crunching of “All My Friends Are Insects.”