Weezer - Weezer (Black Album)

It’s TOO easy to indulge in and I lose my mind. “Can’t Knock The Hustle” is a simple, disco-esque song, and it doesn’t help that this song is on the live setlist for the band. It’s barely fun to enjoy both live and on recording. “Zombie Bastards” is the worst one so far, it takes a lot for me to not skip the song. “High As A Kite” exhales Beatles-like composition, and is one of the only singles that I thoroughly enjoyed. “Living In L.A.” belongs on the previous album, Pacific Daydream, instead of this album. It’s also a fairly decent song, yet also exhibiting qualities of late 2000s dance-pop and music of that time. “Piece Of Cake” starts the segment of songs that aren’t singles and this is just an adequate plateau guiding us into the Coldplay-ish “I’m Just Being Honest”. It’s like Weezer took everything from Coldplay’s last records and added their charm. It’s an alright song at best, and it just helps reminisce more Coldplay instead of Weezer. It’s a bad sign when you remember the good times about a band with the medium being ANOTHER band’s material. We get a taste of a Red Hot Chili Peppers-like song with “Too Many Thoughts In My Head”. The chorus manages to save us, but the lyricism already dives into a topic of being high that has been used twice already in previous songs. “The Prince Who Wanted Everything” is a change of pace, structure-wise, and “Byzantine” is the most interesting tune out of the whole album. “California Snow” is the last single and song to cap off the record. I am most disappointed here, with the song sounding like a modern Top 40 hit. It was made to definitely cater to the younger generation, along with vocalist Rivers Cuomo’s social media presence.

Trends seem to attach and devour like parasites, and Weezer took the bait. It’s one thing to take a modern, mainstream approach with your music, which they did do with their latest records. From a business perspective, it can be very beneficial to have the majority of casual audiences in your corner, especially as a band with high status like these guys. However, I really think they failed at executing their idea. Rivers Cuomo has connected to younger listeners with memes and an advanced usage of social media, but musically might be falling off the map. I have seen Weezer live twice now, and they play all their best material with the occasional promotion of their latest album, showcasing the singles. Honestly, I believe that by playing a deepcut off the album instead of the single, there would be more of a push to listen to these new albums.