Review Summary: Weezer meme it up
Weezer have basically embraced the meme at this point. Rivers Cuomo seems perfectly content with transforming his band into a self-aware parody of itself, with the release of their cover of Toto’s Africa last year and a single from the Black Album which pokes fun at their hardcore fans who demand they return to their power pop-cum-emo roots. While I have no issue with the band having a bit of fun, it’s certainly a surreal path to be headed down. Still this is the same band that has a song about a Spider stuck in a drainpipe which transforms into an analysis on life and death and an album with Hurley from Lost on the cover. The Teal Album is a direct diversion of everything that’s been demanded of them at this point. A series of 10 covers, ranging from 60s Sunshine Pop, 80s Synth-Pop, Classic RNB to even heavy metal. While many are asking why, the real question is did they pull it off?
The Teal Album is an odd set. While the songs shift in style, they also shift heavily in quality. The opener ‘Africa’, while Weezer’s biggest chart hit in a fair amount of time, hails in comparison to the original. In fact, nearly every song on this record does. But Africa is the most glaring example, with fairly passionless vocals and weirdly flat sound. These same issues also plague the group’s takes on ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ (Though hearings Rivers imitate Jackson’s signature yelps is an amusing sight). For the most part, the group don’t attempt to Weezerfy the songs here. The tracks are covered pretty much identically to their original arrangements. So sadly there’s no Power Pop rendition of ‘Take On Me’ here, but does that bring down the overall quality of most of the covers? Of course not. If anything, the band have delivered a pretty great set here. Their takes on ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ and ‘Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This’ emulate the sound of the original recordings incredibly well and are both laden with fitting keyboard work which matches the surreal Miami Vice style cover and the overall feel of the album well. Similarly, ‘Take On Me’ features Rivers hitting the notorious high notes that coat the song and pulling it off with gusto. ‘Happy Together’ is a pleasant take on The Turtles’ classic hit and the Brian Bell led rendition of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ shows they still aren’t afraid to turn the distortion up.
The album’s biggest surprise comes in the form of a cover of TLC’s classic girl group hit ‘No Scrubs’. While it’s an incredibly bizarre choice, the cover is actually incredibly well put together and Rivers voice fits remarkably well with the song. Maybe it’s just the novelty of having Weezer cover No Scrubs of all things but it’s an incredibly fun and catchy take on the track and definitely the stand out here.
Teal has drawn heavily mixed reviews from critics. While many see it as a pointless, hollow release that doesn’t need to exist, you have to understand what the aim of this record is. To have fun. Weezer are doing what they do best here. Be Weezer. Granted while some of the tracks are less than stellar, the playful nostalgic feel of the record really makes up for these duds. It’s a good time and in the end, that’s what Weezer always succeed in giving.
Standout tracks:
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This
Take On Me
No Scrubs
Stand By Me
