On the first track, “Memories,” of Weezer’s new album, “Hurley,” frontman Rivers Cuomo recalls the band’s early days when making music was unencumbered by life’s responsibilities.

Comparisons between the new album and early Weezer’s “Pinkerton” are inevitable. “Pinkerton” expressed the rough flare-up of a young nerd confused by the disparity between beauty (and life) and its fleshly incarnation.

In contrast, “Hurley” is a hit-and-miss album, but its heart is closer than “Make Believe” and the “Red Album” (“Raditude” what? Never heard of it) to the Weezer we grew up with.

“Hurley,” like “Pinkerton,” is about struggling in a crisis, this time reflecting the band’s new, demanding roles as fathers. The end of “Memories” sends us here: “I can hear them babies crying and the lawn needs to be mowed/I’ve got to get my groove on, honey, cause I’m freaking bored.”

Tracks like “Time Flies” and “Brave New World” take this “I’m getting older” lament to its most platitudinous. But there’s real fear here too, as in the latter song, where Cuomo sings, “I may snuff the burning flame/or I may prove to be much more than I thought.”

His fear combined with a hope for a comeback has paralyzed the band with this new album middling between “Raditude” bad and “Blue Album” great. You can’t go back, and it seems Weezer never will, but that’s not the point, is it?