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Weezer Hurley1990s alt-rock kings Weezer probably wish they had never released Pinkerton by now, since it’s the Holy Grail that all of their later albums have been judged against. It’s true that some of their later albums don’t hold up in the same way, but that’s because they simply haven’t showcased the songwriting chops Rivers Cuomo showed off on that record. Hurley is in many ways an exception to that, bringing together disparate influences and combining them into tracks that will satisfy pop fans and indie kids alike.The Walkmen LisbonThree of the members of the Walkmen were in the garage rock revival group Jonathan FireEater. While their new sound is also a homage to the classics of yesteryear, it’s both a darker and tighter one. On their 6th album, Lisbon, singer Hamilton Leithauser claims a heavy debt to “early Elvis and Sun Records kind of sounds.” However, the emotion that comes across is more fitting with Elvis’s later period: dejected, mournful, and alone. Together, it makes for one fine record.The Dead Weather Sea of CowardsJack White says that the name of the band’s new album refers to the anonymity of Internet message-board haters: the same type of people, for example, who might have laughed at the Dead Weather for presuming to release a second album in under a year. Sea of Cowards is raw and unfiltered, it’s true, but the energy of the group comes through and raises it head and shoulders above almost any other pure rock album this year. Here’s hoping the wait to the next one is similarly short.