Some musical geeks write dark, spiky songs of self-loathing. Others feel they've got nothing to lose and produce hook-laden power pop instead. Rivers Cuomo does both, which is probably why the Weezer frontman is affectionately regarded by his legions of fans as King of the Nerds. Not exactly your conventional pop star (he lives like a hermit, takes university degrees and has had an operation to make one leg shorter than the other), Cuomo has a knack for producing crowd-pleasing melodies that usually outweigh his lack of social skills. Make Believe finds him in lively form, sighing over the girlfriends he's lost and sneering at the plastic people who live in Beverley Hills and take too many drugs. But as a certain football pundit might say, the songs here are good rather than great; always enjoyable but ultimately a bit samey. The problem is, for all their quirky energy and offbeat humour, Weezer's music is a lot closer to the mainstream than they'd like to admit.