Weezer - Van Weezer Music Album Reviews

Weezer - Van Weezer Music Album Reviews
Rivers Cuomo’s latest is a tribute to his hair metal heroes, but it never goes all that hard.

Turning 50 hasn’t tempered Rivers Cuomo’s inner child. The Weezer frontman still writes about romance in the language of a smitten teenager, and a quarter century after “El Scorcho,” he’s still biting rap lingo and chasing whatever the kids are into. His best and worst songs alike resound with the simplicity and shamelessness of youth. Cuomo’s Peter Pan syndrome is why many mortified fans bailed on Weezer years ago, but it also accounts for why so many loyalists have stuck around, even as the band’s discography has barely managed the dire hit-to-miss ratio of late-period Simpsons: Weezer is one of the last bands of their generation that still sounds young.

Delayed a year by the pandemic, along with its corresponding Hella Mega arena tour with Green Day and Fall Out Boy, the band’s latest Van Weezer is even more nostalgic than usual. “Even if we blow up, we’re never gonna grow up,” he sings on “I Need Some of That,” between recounting memories of lazy summer days cruising around on 10-speeds and cranking Aerosmith. As its title promises, the album extrapolates on a foundational piece of Weezer lore: Cuomo’s teenage love of hair metal, first teased way back on The Blue Album with Kiss posters on his wall.

The band has touted Van Weezer as a return to the harder edged rock of 2002’s Maladroit, perhaps the most fondly remembered of Weezer’s dozen post-reunion albums, but in the two decades since, they’ve grown into a considerably kitschier band. Where Maladroit’s guitars winked at the camera occasionally, Van Weezer’s two-handed tapping revels in its hamminess. And for all its pyrotechnic guitars and arena stomp, Van Weezer never actually roars all that hard. The title promises Van Halen, but the volume rarely exceeds Rick Springfield. Paired with Cuomo’s eternally boyish voice, the result is a cuddly, Build-a-Bear tribute to ’80 metal, with little of the rowdiness this music embodied in its heyday. The only parents this metal could piss off are ones with strong opinions about Pinkerton.

At this stage, though, dopiness is a Weezer feature, and as their recent albums go, this is one of the better ones. Coming on the heels of the clock-punching covers record The Teal Album, you could be forgiven for assuming Van Weezer was born more of algorithmic opportunity than personal passion, but it’s never as cynical as that. “The End of the Game” and “All the Good Ones” fully commit to their bedazzled riffs and fist pumps, living up to the album’s promise of dumb, goofy kicks. Weezer are having fun here, and anybody enticed by an album called Van Weezer probably will, too.

There are some stinkers, of course. “1 More Hit” is Cuomo’s latest cringe song about addiction, while “Precious Metal Girl” never overcomes the titular pun. But on the whole this is Cuomo’s most melodically generous batch of songs since 2014’s near return-to-form Everything Will Be Alright in the End, and that stickiness makes up for a lot. When the bright surf harmonies kick in on “Sheila Can Do It,” Blue Album fans will feel sensory throwback as vivid as Proust’s madeleine. Melodies like this are at the heart of the other reason so many fans have remained loyal to this group: Weezer never produced a better copy. Inconsistent as they are, the band that most reliably conjures the pleasures of early Weezer is still Weezer themselves.
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About Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera

Hey, I'm Perera! I will try to give you technology reviews(mobile,gadgets,smart watch & other technology things), Automobiles, News and entertainment for built up your knowledge.
Weezer - Van Weezer Music Album Reviews Weezer - Van Weezer Music Album Reviews Reviewed by Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera on May 20, 2021 Rating: 5

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