Album Review // Weezer // Weezer (Gold Album)
3.5/5 stars
Weezer's self-titled gold album is either their 16th, 17th, or 20th studio album, depending on who you ask and what releases they choose to include in that list. The fact is, over 30+ years, the power-pop giants best known for their first decade of music have run in circles chasing mainstream pop acceptance, obscure musical experiments, and the approval of longtime fans who just want another Blue Album or Pinkerton. While Weezer's Gold Album doesn't exactly break that cycle, it's the closest they've come to merging at least two of those things into one shockingly fun project. The Gold Album marries Rivers Cuomo's penchant for so-bad-it's-good lyricism with the band's best production in a decade. Lead single "Shine Again" echoes the riffs found on fan-favorite Maladroit, while second single (and duet with Wednesday's Karly Hartzman) "We Might As Well Be Strangers" instantly feels more accessible. But the record itself falls somewhere in between, with corny song premises like "C.E.O." (a pseudo-sequel to "Undone - The Sweater Song") and "The LA Sound" getting by on sheer execution and guitar tones alone. While unlikely to be anyone's favorite Weezer album since the '90s, The Gold Album proves that Weezer officially moving into "classic rock" territory doesn't mean they're missing any energy.
