Weezer (The Black Album) - Weezer: Review
Weezer
is the legendary California alternative rock band that rose to fame in the 90s after dropping two universally acclaimed albums. Following into the 2000's commercial success continued to find its way to Weezer becoming an alternative radio staple and culminating in the biggest hit of the band's career the often maligned Beverly Hills. In the 2010's Weezer traded out their commercial success at large for a return to critical form beginning with the well received Everything Will Be Alright In The End and peaking with the fantastic Weezer (The White Album). But the stylistic approach changed rapidly in the wake of The White Album and its follow-up became a much hated return to form making Pacific Daydream largely viewed as a disappointment, with prominent critics calling out its lead single Feels Like Summer as being a particularly disastrous pursuit. So with the dropping of largely varied and critically confusing singles in the lead up to The Black Album it is difficult to know what to expect.
Review By Lavender:
I believe Weezer's Pinkerton is among the best albums of the 90s, and I believe Weezer's The Blue Album is among the greatest albums of all time and I'm never shy about those views. It's why I am so disappointed with Weezer's output for much of my lifetime. From the albums that get close but can't quite make it like The Green Album or Maladroit to some of the worst pop-rock offenses of all time like Hurley or Make Believe its hard to believe this is the same band that got off to one of the best starts of all time. So when 2014 Everything Will Be Alright reintroduced creative song topics and unique compositions I was excited for the direction Weezer was going in, and rightfully so as in 2016 they dropped their best album since Pinkerton by FAR with The White Album. But as we know when Weezer giveth, Weezer taketh away and its quick follow-up Pacific Daydream was as underwhelming a dive into commercial radio rock as any in their discography. So the only thing to expect going into The Black Album is that nobody knows what to expect, and the best we can do is judge what the band provides in a vacuum and hope whatever they are aiming for, they're successful.
Let's start with what I think of the four singles they used to lead up to this album, which varied in style and reception quite a bit and also happen to be the first four tracks. Can't Knock The Hustle is a surprisingly fun and contemporary alt-rock tune that has grown on me a lot since I first heard it, some of the lyrics that were initially cringe inducing I think have a funny and creative edge to them that I didn't expect from Weezer in this day and age. That feeling extends onto High As A Kite a tune which takes its time with a pretty long build-up but really takes shape with a killer hook and a fantastic half that sees Weezer sounding more like ELO than the group responsible for some of their output in the 90's. Another big surprised is that unlike most people I actually enjoy Living In L.A. even though the verses need some work I really liked the soaring chorus and Rivers Cuomo impressed me with his performance for the first time since The White Album. Unfortunately the same sentiment doesn't extend to the eye roll inducing Zombie Bastards, a song that went a long way to turn off my excitement for this record with its absolutely nauseating lyrical themes and cartoony radio friendly hook.
Unfortunately outside of a few singles there really isn't much to see on The Black Album a handful of songs come close to scratching an itch but losing it one way or another and some fall completely flat. Too Many Thoughts In My Head has a decent chorus but it's had the life sucked completely out of it by lackluster production and makes it hard to get excited about any of it. The same can be said for Byzantine which has been mixed down to the engagement level of elevator music and seems to relish in its simplicity, but these are some of the highlights in the albums second half.
The Prince Who Wanted Everything not only causes chronic headaches with its lyrics but brings the composition of a Christmas song to the world of corny alt-rock in one of the sugariest and most lifeless songs Weezer has made since their dark days. Piece Of Cake is another huge disappointment that doesn't really have much to offer instrumentally and has one of the most forgettable verse patterns on the project, but everything gets worse when you dive into the overproduced stop and start chorus that makes me want to turn the album off immediately and never touch it again. Finally California Snow is a series of weird decisions whether its with the cocky and contemporary lyrics or the trap breakdown in its introduction, it isn't one of the worst tunes on the album but certainly not one I plan on revisiting anytime soon.
On a brighter note the best song on the second half of the album comes in the form of I'm Just Being Honest a well written and surprisingly cute tune and one of the only ones that fits the bright and radio friendly production palette Weezer aims for across this project.
Weezer is known to illicit some strong opinions, I am certainly one of the people that has a few regarding the bands back catalog, but the truth of The Black Album is that it is stunningly average. Most of the tracks fail to stand out in any way whether good or bad and the rest of the bunch is split nearly down the middle, there aren't any songs that are among their best of all time and just one that is among their worst. The Black Album's ultimate flaw is being not much else other than forgettable. 4.5/10
Let's start with what I think of the four singles they used to lead up to this album, which varied in style and reception quite a bit and also happen to be the first four tracks. Can't Knock The Hustle is a surprisingly fun and contemporary alt-rock tune that has grown on me a lot since I first heard it, some of the lyrics that were initially cringe inducing I think have a funny and creative edge to them that I didn't expect from Weezer in this day and age. That feeling extends onto High As A Kite a tune which takes its time with a pretty long build-up but really takes shape with a killer hook and a fantastic half that sees Weezer sounding more like ELO than the group responsible for some of their output in the 90's. Another big surprised is that unlike most people I actually enjoy Living In L.A. even though the verses need some work I really liked the soaring chorus and Rivers Cuomo impressed me with his performance for the first time since The White Album. Unfortunately the same sentiment doesn't extend to the eye roll inducing Zombie Bastards, a song that went a long way to turn off my excitement for this record with its absolutely nauseating lyrical themes and cartoony radio friendly hook.
Unfortunately outside of a few singles there really isn't much to see on The Black Album a handful of songs come close to scratching an itch but losing it one way or another and some fall completely flat. Too Many Thoughts In My Head has a decent chorus but it's had the life sucked completely out of it by lackluster production and makes it hard to get excited about any of it. The same can be said for Byzantine which has been mixed down to the engagement level of elevator music and seems to relish in its simplicity, but these are some of the highlights in the albums second half.
The Prince Who Wanted Everything not only causes chronic headaches with its lyrics but brings the composition of a Christmas song to the world of corny alt-rock in one of the sugariest and most lifeless songs Weezer has made since their dark days. Piece Of Cake is another huge disappointment that doesn't really have much to offer instrumentally and has one of the most forgettable verse patterns on the project, but everything gets worse when you dive into the overproduced stop and start chorus that makes me want to turn the album off immediately and never touch it again. Finally California Snow is a series of weird decisions whether its with the cocky and contemporary lyrics or the trap breakdown in its introduction, it isn't one of the worst tunes on the album but certainly not one I plan on revisiting anytime soon.
On a brighter note the best song on the second half of the album comes in the form of I'm Just Being Honest a well written and surprisingly cute tune and one of the only ones that fits the bright and radio friendly production palette Weezer aims for across this project.
Weezer is known to illicit some strong opinions, I am certainly one of the people that has a few regarding the bands back catalog, but the truth of The Black Album is that it is stunningly average. Most of the tracks fail to stand out in any way whether good or bad and the rest of the bunch is split nearly down the middle, there aren't any songs that are among their best of all time and just one that is among their worst. The Black Album's ultimate flaw is being not much else other than forgettable. 4.5/10
