Album Review: Weezer – The Black Album (Warner Bros)

Years in the making, Weezer’s Black Album finally sees the light of day just a few short weeks after their Teal Album was released.

Out on January 24^th, the Teal Album was Weezer’s covers record where Rivers Cuomo and company famously recreated Toto’s Africa along with re-workings of tunes by everyone from Black Sabbath to Tears For Fears to The Turtles to, um, Michael Jackson.

Now we have The Black Album, a record that has been in production since 2016 and was originally being discussed as being “super dark”.

That has turned out not to be the case.

There are a couple of points of difference to the songs on The Black Album to previous Weezer tunes.  First, shock, horror, Rivers has allowed himself to swear. So, he drops a few f-bombs and as a result, sounds a slight bit “edgier”.

Secondly, the album was produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, who adds a layer of indie-pop sheen and a few surprises into the mix, that, perhaps wouldn’t otherwise be there.

And thirdly, Cuomo has written most of the songs on piano, rather than guitar, which results in fewer typical Weezer-style guitar anthems and a more interesting sound. The lack of dependence on guitars has opened up the band to other sonic options and Sitek turns out to be the right guy to help them incorporate them into their sound.

To be fair, this still sounds very much like a Weezer album.

Opener Can’t Knock The Hustle may feature some wonky treated vocals and a disco beat, but at its heart, its still pure Weezer.

The same can be said for Zombie Bastards. Despite the chorus of , “Die, die, you zombie bastards”, the tune is playful, catch and childlike.

The sunny Living In LA sounds like The Police’s So Lonely with a dance beat added while Piece Of Cake is pure pop confectionery with its joyous “do do do dos”.

Rivers pays tribute to the Purple One on The Prince Who Wanted Everything and I’m Just Being Honest has arguably the best lyrics, while managing to be about as catch as Buddy Holly.

The album does have one dark moment, the album closer California Snow, a thinly-veiled reference to cocaine use featuring a synth intro taken straight from Ozzy’s Mr Crowley.

These days, it seems, most bands who have been around for any length of time…think Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Killers…tend to operate in their own musical universe, seemingly oblivious to what’s happening on the charts. And Weezer is one of those bands. They have nurtured their own loyal following over the years and are pretty much making new music for them, rather than a wider audience.

They know that they aren’t going to make a tonne of money on the sale of new music and support themselves by playing their hits to concertgoers around the world while throwing in a few new tunes to keep hard core fans happy and to keep their own sanity.

To that end, The Black Album works perfectly. Let’s face it, there are already plenty of Weezer albums in the world…this is another one.

Marty Duda