When I first listened to Make Believe, I was pretty stoked. I skipped “Beverly Hills” to get straight into “Perfect Situation,” a song that, on my first listen, blew me away. “This Is Such A Pity” managed to maintain the excitement, and “Hold Me” struck me as a very beautiful (if extremely simple) song. “Peace,” next on the tracklist, was the last thing to keep me running on high — from there, things fell apart a little, starting with “We Are All On Drugs.”
Although my opinions on “Perfect Situation” and “This Is Such A Pity” have certainly changed after that impressionable first spin, I still quite like “Peace.” The song explodes out of the gates with a pretty heavy descending riff, which then moves into a restrained first verse. Taking a second to discuss the music itself, there’s something very distinct about the arrangement that evokes some pretty clear imagery and feelings for me. In my mind, that opening riff seems to evoke something huge and ancient…first and foremost, I see a mountain. Something about it also feels kind of East Asian (anyone else? anyone?), which gives me the mental image of a kind of picturesque, Himalayan-type mountain in the clouds, vast and immovable. Then, into the quiet first verse, the acoustic guitars provide the mental image of glades blowing in the wind, an open space of calm and tranquility between those sweeping mountainsides.
I’m not exactly sure why the music evokes such a distinct and specific image for me, but I think a lot of it has to do with Cuomo’s refrain — “I need to find some peace” — which we all know, after reading any Make Believe era interview, refers to the man’s recent Vispasanna meditation (perhaps that’s where I’m getting the Asia). Another way I interpret the song is that the acoustic guitar verse represents that peace of mind Cuomo longs for, while the jagged riff that cuts back through the track like a massive blade (one of MB‘s coolest musical tricks) represents the insanity of the hectic outside world encroaching on Cuomo’s attempts to block it all out (or fashion himself another world, where that insanity doesn’t exist at all — something he picks up on with The Red Album‘s “The Angel and The One”). Hell, the “whoa-oh-oh-oh” that follow the choruses represent that pained longing the most clearly, and the serene outro of acoustic guitars, Pat Wilson’s simple drum beat, and Scott Shriner’s very-pretty bass fingerings represent Cuomo’s achievement of that peace, even as he continues to chase it.
Rereading what I just wrote, I think it’s easy to say that this can be interpreted as the most musically thematic, purposed arrangement Weezer has released since Pinkerton. The band clearly realized its value too, as it originally closed Make Believe. While I originally thought “Peace” would be a tough sell as an album closer, the more I consider it, I think it would’ve given the song a weight and importance that would have led to more listeners evaluating it as it should have been — a surprisingly well thought-out and executed composition. I only pray that every “Fallen Soldier” from the original Make Believe tracklist sees a release, so we can finally piece together the album’s first official tracklisting and hear it as it was originally intended (not that I would mind getting the non-”Fallen Soldier” recordings, either).
Ahem. Which is not to say I’m going to give “Peace” a free pass, entirely. As with any Make Believe recording, the downright sterile mix does sap some of its power (although “Peace” less than a lot of the other songs on the album, I would say), and imagining this song with Pinkerton or Blue-style production is nearly salivating. On a songwriting level, Cuomo lets slip some real blunders: the infamous “there is no way I can stop / my poor brain is gonna pop” line sucks, just sucks, and nearly all the lines are overly general for what sounds like a very personal song. But, I do find some merit in the less-obvious of the simple lyrics — the more esoteric lines, like “Counting all the flowers / Waste the precious hours” do convey their meaning in less literal terms than the lazier verses (and the reference to “flowers” contributes to that vivid landscape imagery that I mentioned above). “And I don’t have a purpose / Scattered on the surface” conveys the problem, and “All the broken tethers / We can bring together” conveys the hopeful solution. It’s not *as* bad, lyrically, as some suggest.
Also, Cuomo’s vocal performance is heartfelt and impassioned — you can tell he’s really feeling what he’s singing, and the lyrics are just good enough to benefit from it. Emotional vocal performances from Cuomo post-Pinkerton are few and far between (only one comes to mind from both The Green Album and Maladroit: “O Girlfriend” and “Death and Destruction,” respectively), and this one works pretty well. Props also need to be given for that great solo, which soars beautifully above those of Green‘s formulaic redundancy and Maladroit‘s near tasteless, antagonistic shredding. Hearing the chorus transition into that huge “whoa-oh” sound for the first time, into that solo, and back into the chorus is quite a nice musical experience. From there through the quite lovely outro, it’s a pretty smooth and enjoyable ride.
A brief survey of Make Believe tour bootlegs makes it evident that the band did a decent job of conveying the song’s power live, and Cuomo’s repeatedly earnest vocal performance proves that this song did(/does) indeed mean a lot to him. The 5/10/05 performance at the Electric Factory in Philly (where was I, that night?) is probably the best, as Brian Bell throws in a cool extra trick or two with the final “whoa-oh” harmonies, and the band offers up a bit of moody feedback on the second verse. Also notable is that the song was called “Make Believe‘s standout track” by the Offspring when they selected it for their iTunes playlist that year — not a bad assessment, but one with which I’m not about to agree.
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I was at the Electric Factory show you mentioned above. At first I was really dissapointed when Peace was chosen for the set as they were flip flopping between Peace and This is Such a Pity each night and Pity, for me, is the stand out track of that record. However, Peace did take on a new life after that preformance.
I don’t dislike this song at all, but when the overall sheen and bloatedness of the musicianship on this record is brought up, for some reason this song is always the first in my head.
Rivers has always had an earnestness to his vocal performances, but across Make Believe, and the ‘i need to find some peace’ line here, I think he was trying to inject some gravitas into his singing that is simply not necessary.
For me, this track also epitomises the ‘pro-tooled’ recent material – an overall sound that has obviously been pieced together and layered from disparate takes in the studio for precisions sake.
The craftsmenship involved is undeniable, but whatever happened to the sound of four guys in the same room playing a song and somebody pressing record?
You lose the sense of them being a band, and gain the sense of them being a collection of shit-hot session musicians doing a shift at work.
And this doesn’t just relate to Weezer, its a lot of other bands that are given a large recording budget for the time and make the decision to use all of it rather than using just what is necessary and no more…
Anyways, the outro on this song is one of my favourite moments on the record.
My favorite track off Make Believe, and not just because it’s one of the very few songs that I can play on guitar.
Soy, I’m surprised that you gave the ‘if there’s something i can grab/you can bet, i’ll pay the tab’ line a pass while criticizing the others. That was one of those lines that a lot of people had trouble digesting when this song first came out. But I rather do like the ‘there is no way I can stop / my poor brain is gonna pop’ and ‘flowers/hours’ lines- they’re graphic, but seem to hit home what he’s saying.
I heard this at least once on the MB and Foozer tour- not sure which show it was at (and it may have been at both). The crowd really dug the woah-woah-woah-woah (etc.) bit, and I wouldn’t mind if they kept this song in the setlist for the upcoming tour for that reason.
One other thing- this is one of those songs they played at the Hotel Cafe acoustic show in ’02. I’d really like to hear that, not only to have an acoustic version, but also to find out how much the song changed in 3 years. For instance, was woah-woah-woah-woah (etc.) ever something else, or was that it? (I’m guessing that was it, because it brings the point of the song home).
You really nailed it on this one. I particularly agree about what you said about the wordless bridge being the emotional core of the song, like on the chorus of ‘Perfect Situation’ – it expresses more than simple, allegedly trite words could. It makes steam come out of my ears and penis when I hear these sections on those two songs being described and “lyrically lazy” as it completely misses the point.
Personally, I still feel that it doesn’t get quite as moving as the latter half of my favourite ‘The Other Way’, but that’s for another day.
["In my mind, that opening riff seems to evoke something huge and ancient…first and foremost, I see a mountain. Something about it also feels kind of East Asian (anyone else? anyone?)"]
It’s a pentatonic melody, which is what a lot of eastern music is founded on.
There are some nice things about the song, but like all the MB songs, I feel like it suffers from being one of a huge batch of songs they recorded… meaning it probably didn’t get the attention it deserved and could have been much much cooler.
The solo section is my biggest gripe. The transition into it is really weak, and the whole thing is comprised of licks I had in my bag of tricks back when I was 16 and just starting out learning to play leads. To my ears, it just kind of meanders without really saying anything.
The MB mix issues have already been discussed; but again, this suffers from a weak drum sound and muddy guitars.
On a positive note, I do kinda like the vocal delivery, but it’s still not on par with pre-hiatus Weezer.
Sick Nick: I wish I went. I really don’t know what I was thinking/doing that night…
Adroit: The Blue Album was done through piecemeal construction, as well. I think Pinkerton is the only Weezer album with a “live band” feel to it (and it shows). I think they recorded all the instrumental tracks together (with occasional overdubs), then did the vocals last, Rivers, Brian and Matt all circled around a microphone setup. Ah, what magical days…
Gumbytom: The “grab/tab” line was not purposefully unmentioned, really. Yeah, that line’s not too great, either. I forgot all about “Peace” having been played live in freakin’ 2002! I really want to hear that version, too.
Peegrinder: I don’t know if the “whoa-oh” chorus in PS is as purposed/thematic as it is here…Going to have to consider that when that one comes up.
Art: Thanks for the heads-up; that riff is definitely an anomaly in the Weezer catalog, and given your light on the subject, I think it’s safe to say that the East Asian vibe was intentional. Very cool.
I like the solo, personally…Not Cuomo’s finest, but it’s at least not redundant nor annoying. It’s nice to listen to, and fits the song pretty well. You can’t ask for a “narrative solo” everytime, as zxcvb would say.
“All the broken tethers / We can bring together” is my second favorite lyric on MB. It’s a simple, evocative metaphor. A great example of the old “show, don’t tell” rule. (My favorite lyric off MB is actually Beverly Hills’ “When the housemaids scrub the floors/they get the spaces in between,” which I find to be similarly evocative, but a less obvious image to go with. It’s just a great little detail that describes the decadence of the Beverly Hills lifestyle he wants to live.)
According to iTunes, I’ve heard this Weezer song more than any other Weezer song by a good 30+ plays.
I once discussed it with a friend and said this:
(transcript from AIM chat)
Me: I want to write an essay on Peace, but the weird thing is: I can typically list exactly what it is I love when I talk about a specific Weezer song.
Him: Yeah?
Me: I can’t articulate correctly what it is I love about Peace. I don’t know… The feeling I get from Peace is indescribable; like a natural high.
Him: Hah I guess I know songs like that too.
Me: If I could capture the feeling peace gives me and put it in a bottle and sell it then I would be a billionaire and there would be no problems on earth. Peace gives me this incredible calm, but it’s sprinkled with this urgent feeling that can’t decide if it’s happiness or sorrow. And the mix is INCREDIBLE. The production on this song doesn’t even bother me because that balance of acoustic and electric is so good. And what a riff dude. The great emotion in the vocal delivery of lines like “My poor brain is gonna pop” and “Counting all the flowers.” (Yes, I do love those lines).
——————–
Then we talked about how much we love the bridge and how the harmonies on Peace are the best from MB (except maybe The Other Way).
Now I need to go listen to Peace.
Good post. I like how you mentioned the offspring as they once said how using ‘whoaahs’ adds a universal appeal that everyone can relate to regardless of language.
Well, I guess I’ll have to be the one to break up the love-fest on this one. To me, “Peace” is the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with Make Believe. It’s a song with a great sentiment, and if it were executed better, it really could have been a hell of a song. But as it is, it’s a lazy toss-off with the meaning tacked onto it as an afterthought.
First of all, that chord progression. I’m all for power through simplicity, but I’m sorry, this is not the case with “Peace”, much as it isn’t the case with “Troublemaker”. I think Make Believe takes the cake for the album with the least variety of chords from song to song. And again, with a song like “Say It Ain’t So”, it works. Here, though, it just doesn’t. It’s D and B. D and B. Nothing but D and B the whole time until the bridge. Considering the different emotions one should be feeling during this song (situations piling up, longing for peace, eventually fighting for said peace), D and B the whole time shows no sort of variety. It’s just lazy.
Which brings me to my next point: the bridge. Peegrinder, I guess I’m gonna be that guy. The bridge in “Peace” is the laziest moment Weezer has ever committed to tape. It does nothing to “bring the point of the song home,” nor is it “purposed/thematic.” The whoa-oh chorus of “Perfect Situation” shows Rivers breaking down, crying out for help. The “whoa-oh” bridge of “Peace” shows that Rivers thought the song didn’t have enough parts, so he added a few vocal runs in there. It does nothing to further any part of the message of the song, and anyone who thinks it does is kidding themselves on account of the lyrical narrative not doing the entire job it should be doing.
My last major problem with this song is that it’s the epitome of everything Weezer does wrong these days: It is the ultimate let’s-correct-the-last-album song. Every Weezer album fixes a few little details in hopes that they found the one magical component of a song that will make their fans like their music again. Maladroit corrects Green’s lack of solos and variety, Red corrects MB’s lack of creativity and life. With “Peace”, as with most of MB, Weezer set out to try and correct Maladroit’s lack of emotion. What they forgot, however, is to take that emotion and make it into a good song. (Another point of interest that lends to my theory is the fact that – hey – why not tune down a half step again and throw in some acoustic guitars! They liked us when we did that, right?)
All in all, “Peace” is not a very good song. As Art Vandelay said, I do sort of enjoy Cuomo’s vocal delivery here, and at the end of the day I might even place it in the better half of Make Believe. But unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much.
I think there’s something meditative about its repetitive chord progression (more of a one-two step than a progression, really), that fits in with the theme of the song. Am I dumb enough to believe that such was intentional? No. But the shoe fits, so I have no problem wearing it. The instrumentation and presentation also varies enough to mask the song’s simple, repetitive foundation. The switch from electric rock guitars to pretty acoustics, the presence of the pentatonic riff and the absence of it, etcetera etcetera.
“The bridge in “Peace” is the laziest moment Weezer has ever committed to tape. It does nothing to “bring the point of the song home,” nor is it “purposed/thematic.” The whoa-oh chorus of “Perfect Situation” shows Rivers breaking down, crying out for help. The “whoa-oh” bridge of “Peace” shows that Rivers thought the song didn’t have enough parts, so he added a few vocal runs in there. It does nothing to further any part of the message of the song, and anyone who thinks it does is kidding themselves on account of the lyrical narrative not doing the entire job it should be doing.”
I really don’t see a difference between the Make Believe whoa-ohs here. On “Perfect Situation,” he does it to convey his loneliness — “whoa-oh, how lonely I am.” On “Peace,” he does it to convey his mindframe — “whoa-oh, how I do long for inner peace.” Same shit, different song — my own problem is that it’s the same band doing it, on the same album. Were I to choose which instance I prefer, or find more believable, it would be “Peace.”
I also think the lyrical narrative of the song conveys its meaning pretty clearly, with or without the whoas. As I expressed in my original writeup, I think the lyrics of the songs could have been expressed better (especially in the verse), but that’s because I think they’re too directly general. However, it does further the message of the song, or at least reiterate and strengthen it — you can not like it, but to say that people who do like it are merely misunderstanding the song or “kidding themselves” is unnecessarily cyncial. I have no problem applying that logic to especially ridiculous opinions (this leading to the “are some opinions more right/valid than others?” debate), like Cuomo having said “How Long,” as a song, scorches the entirety of Pinkerton (this coming from an RCB quote), but enjoying the bridge of “Peace” as part of the song’s lyrical theme is certainly not one of those.
“My last major problem with this song is that it’s the epitome of everything Weezer does wrong these days: It is the ultimate let’s-correct-the-last-album song. Every Weezer album fixes a few little details in hopes that they found the one magical component of a song that will make their fans like their music again. Maladroit corrects Green’s lack of solos and variety, Red corrects MB’s lack of creativity and life. With “Peace”, as with most of MB, Weezer set out to try and correct Maladroit’s lack of emotion. What they forgot, however, is to take that emotion and make it into a good song. (Another point of interest that lends to my theory is the fact that – hey – why not tune down a half step again and throw in some acoustic guitars! They liked us when we did that, right?)”
I loved this paragraph because it is true, so true. It’s unbelievable that the band can still be so out of touch with what makes them great, even after four efforts that have each, in their own time, been called a “transitional” record, or a “stepping stone.” They’re always fixing something about the last record, but then also forgetting what that record did right — and they’re always using the past record as the model, when they really could just go study Blue, or Pinkerton, or at this point, even Alone. TRA goes and corrects MB’s “lack of creativity and life,” as you say, but then forgets several key Weezer strongsuits (Cuomo’s solos, Cuomo’s voice, Cuomo’s songwriting), and the general fact that albums should work as a cohesive whole (something TIK, CDW and “Automatic” all obliterate, and that’s not just because of who’s singing them). I mean, at least this time we got 3 or 4 songs out of the deal that I would put on par with the 90s heyday…but even that’s a compromise, as only one of them comes from the album itself. Sigh…
Tangent! In any case, Red, I do agree with most of your points and, overall, would agree that “Peace” could be on an entirely different level if it had been approached better. But as it stands, it’s one of MB’s few salvagable tracks in my opinion, and despite the shortcomings of its context, is quite a good song at its heart.
Either way though, I’m glad this one finally roused you from the stands to join us. Your insights and articulation are some of the best around, so I hope you become a frequent guest.
I guess what I’m really trying to get at regarding the bridge is that the “whoa-oh” chorus in “Perfect Situation” makes a lot more thematic sense to me than the bridge in “Peace”. In “Perfect Situation”, I can see Rivers, frustrated, lonely and not sure how else to get his feelings out, submitting to a wordless “whoa-oh” chorus for lack of any other way to express himself. In “Peace”… I guess an argument could be made that he’s doing essentially the same thing, but I don’t know. To me, there’s something frantic and urgent about the “Perfect Situation” chorus. The “Peace” bridge just seems like a run – up, back down again, repeat. There’s no urgency, there’s no real motivation found in it – and this is a song that actually has a pretty emotional vocal delivery. It really does just feel like another part in the song, rather than a logical continuation of the theme.
Thank you for the kind words! I always mean to reply, but usually find myself too busy. I always enjoy what you say, though – I often feel the exact same way, and even when I don’t, I have to put forth an effort to argue!
I think Peace is good. But not as fantastic as others here.
Mind-blowingly sterile.
I’ve always been skeptical about this song.
But I don’t know what happened tonight.
If it was my state of mind, the hazy night och just the chaos that is my life right now but I totally fell in love with this song.
The production might not be perfect, but damn that opening riff is so in your face and just great.
And as you mention in this post but something that I haven’t noticed before.
Cuomos voice! He sings with passion, he sounds like he’s into the song! He evokes feelings!
Also like you said this song with a Pink or Blue production would have been one of the very best for sure even considering the slightly cheesy lyrics.
Totally deserving “Grand Playlist” even if I didn’t use to think so, infact until tonight this song was rated with two stars only on my media player.
Just had to go back and read/bump this blogpost because of my new found love for this song.
Yeah Melack, I didn’t really appreciate this one till I wrote this post. Better than I remembered it.
I just went back and listened to Peace, then had a craving for some MB (strange, I know), and i’ve realized that this isn’t actually a horrible album. It’s not great, no, barely even good, but not horrible. About 5 songs are absolutely fantastic, Peace among them.
Anyway, Soy, what song here do you think better’s Peace? Personally, I would put PS, TISAP, and TOW above it, but which one were you talking about when you said that it wasn’t MB’s standout?
I don’t understand at ALL why this is considered the worst Weezer album by so many. I think everyone should really sit down and listen to these things through one more time.
OOS, from forever ago: I’m not quite sure, and that’s probably why I never replied to begin with. Make Believe is murky territory for me, I never know exactly how I feel about it. But the two best on the disc, in my opinion, are “The Other Way” and “The Damage In Your Heart.”
Burgess: Having said that, none of the songs, individually, are all that bad — except “Drugs” and “My Best Friend,” definitely two of the worst ever. Other than that, the songs run the gamut from okay to pretty great — it’s just that, for whatever reason, the album it all adds up to is really offputting. It has to do with the production, that painful mix, the weird combination of the really juvenile lyrics and the return of Cuomo’s impassioned vocal delivery…But I think more than anything else, there’s always been the feeling that this record could have been a lot, lot better, which at the time was a novel concept. Red and Rad have the same issue, but Maladroit and Green were roughly as good as their respective eras could have possibly made them be, so I think that sting is still in a lot of fans’ minds with this album.
Haunt You Everyday is in my top 10 post Pinkerton songs, even with its less than perfect production. I enjoy The Other way and Damage in Your Heart too, but they don’t anywhere close to HYED for me.
It actually sounds authentic. I really don’t feel like Rivers is bullshitting his way though HYED, that fucking guitar solo is phenominal. NOBODY gives that guitar solo any credit, and it’s one of those perfect, concise solos that they used to nail all the time. The vocal delivery really feels genuine too. I LOVE the chorus.
When I heard it live in ’05, it fucking floored me. I was at the concert at the Aragon just a couple days before MB came out, and I hadn’t heard the album at all yet. I thought MB was going to be a true return to form after getting to hear the full power of this live.
How can you not love the outro too with Rivers voice and guitar dueling?
Man, HYED fucking rocks. Most Under-rated Post Pink song ever.
I like it more than I used to, definitely. I wouldn’t call it a classic solo, but it’s a very cool one. Pales in comparison to the two more recent closers for me, but it kills “December” and isn’t too far behind “O Girlfriend.”
I get why people wouldn’t like this album. From the horrible album cover to the obnoxious singles to the production, etc. But I really don’t get why it constantly gets ranked under all of the other super flawed Weezer albums. This is the post-Pinkerton album that makes me cringe the least, I think.
The problem with most of MB is that it sounds so contrived and forced. Peace and HYED are wonderful songs, but Christ almighty, the lyrics….
I still put Peace among the best PP material, but is there anything that can be done about my poor brain is gonna pop? It’s not so much that lyric, but the way he delivers it. Same with HYED. The last minute of that song is an aural masterpiece, but I cannot get over the lyrics. For an example of a song with a similar feel, but much better lyrics, and is thus much more successful, see The Angel and The One.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what’s said of “Don’t Worry Baby” in the Alone II booklet. Rivers writes:
“I loved the oblique motion of the main melody line moving around within the more static background melodies. And the verse melody totally knocked me out- “Well it’s been building up inside of me for, oh, I don’t know how long” -the wild combination of long and short notes, straight and syncopated rhythms, articulated and melismatic phrases, the big leap down a fourth and the leap up a minor 6th. This seemed to be the exact type of melody that I wanted to write and that I felt destined to write: grand, operatic, dramatic, Romantic.”
This is why I think songs like Peace work. It’s beautifully amazing how much control the band displays in this song. Dull as it may be, if there were more than two chords, attention would be lost from vital moments such as the “Eastern Asia” riff, Rivers’ emotional lyrics, as well as all of the solid vocal work throughout the entire piece.
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