Weezer honcho Rivers Cuomo wants to be liked. And we want to like him.

Yet since 1996 — or 2002, if we’re being generous — we’ve struggled to get along.

“Everything Will Be Alright in the End,” out now, is where we run through a field of flowers toward each other, lock hands and tumble to the ground giggling like fourth graders.

On the new record, Cuomo tried to replicate the magic of the “Blue Album” (for all the gushing over “Pinkerton,” Weezer’s debut is the masterpiece) — he even got old pal Ric Ocasek to help him produce it. Cuomo can’t do it because everybody has grown up. That’s a good thing: The raw emotion of teen angst makes for great art; the nostalgia, scar tissue and attempt to understand why youth was such a mess makes for better art.

Plus Cuomo’s effort is so earnest, so heartfelt and finely crafted, the results are rad.

Interpreted as cheeky, his debut single “Back to the Shack” hits me as an honest pledge of allegiance to rock. “We belong in the rock world/There is so much left to do/If we die in obscurity, oh well/At least we raised some hell.”

“Eulogy of a Rock Band” strikes me the same way. Even when harping on his cult in “I’ve Had It Up to Here,” Cuomo’s fresh truth-telling makes me happy.

The album takes on more than rock and a thorny relationship with fans — plenty of stuff about reconciling with his dad and family life here. And for guitar geeks, the quick blitzes of notes and distortion and the epic, proglike closing three-song suite make good on Cuomo’s Ace Frehley fetish.

Need me to give it to you straight? If your top two records of all-time are “Blue Album” and “Pinkerton,” “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” could sneak into the No. 3 spot. It’s that good. It’s that true to Weezer’s original spirit.