We feel a little bit like we just found out Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Turns out Weezer’s forthcoming Hurley, the one with the best album art of all time — a beatific picture of Lost’s Hurley — was not inspired by Hugo Reyes. Rather, it started as product placement for the clothing company Hurley. From the mouth of Weezer’s own Brian Bell, asked, “How did you get the title for your new album Hurley“:
The inspiration came from a surf company called Hurley, that was funding the record at the beginning of the recording process. And we actually did some sort of advertisement … I don’t even know how they’re tied in so much, although, we got some clothes and we did a photo shoot where we’re wearing these clothes, and I think we’re selling these clothes in malls. So how that’s tied in, I don’t know. I think it’s this whole like … tying in different medias,and then using Hurley, the character from Lost, which I’ve never seen in my life, as our mascot almost, for this record, is somewhat postmodernistic maybe. I hope people don’t look at it as too jokey. Cause it certainly comes across that way, without reading into it a little more deeply. That’s it as far as the name and the album cover goes.
Bell goes on to say he didn’t even know who Hurley was, though, at least “a couple members of our band really like Lost.†Right now, we’re almost as disappointed as we were right after the Lost finale.