Weezer - Weezer (The Teal Album)

Weezer
Weezer (The Teal Album)
2019
Spotify

With a new album scheduled to come out in March Weezer just couldn't wait to release new music. The solution, an album of covers, 80s covers. I blame "Africa" by Toto most of all because it seems like it was that cover that sparked Weezer's new interest in not writing their own music. Maybe it is because their recent albums have been such shit that they are going back to the cover well, I'm not quite sure. The question why will frustrate throughout this whole record. How many Tears for Fears covers are out there at this point? Thousands maybe, so why does Weezer think their pedestrian take is something the world needs to hear? It makes even less sense given an album of new music is right around the corner. I think a track list even revealed that the new album will have the "Africa" cover on it as well. All could be forgiven if this album was incredible right? Well it isn't. There are no new takes, no flipping a track, just Weezer plays the hits. It seriously makes them sound like a fucking bar cover band and this is the same band that gave us Pinkerton. Weezer have been slipping for years, each new album worse than the last, but a cover record is the last fucking straw. It shows an audacity and a thoughtlessness that only comes with being completely out of touch. I can almost guarantee that after their cover of "Africa" went viral, they said to themselves man everyone is going to love us covering all the hits from the 80s! Well we don't.

Though the majority of these songs come from the 80s there are other eras that make their way on to this record. "Paranoid" the Black Sabbath classic returns, but it is directly on the nose including the vocal effect that Ozzy used and even some of his intonation. It is truly one of the most bewildering things I have ever heard. For a band like Weezer who has always been extremely precious about their work to just say fuck it we're doing a covers record is mind blowing. The TLC hit "No Scrubs" is also here, ya know cause it is funny seeing a bunch of middle aged white guys sing TLC. Every choice feels like this: odd and completely inaccessible. If you thought Weezer were going to recapture that angsty loner feeling that they were so great at I hate to break it to you, but that is just not going to happen. I don't know who this band is, but it sure as shit doesn't feel like the Weezer I know. Don't listen to this record, it will just make you mad.

0.5 out of 10