This is the type of record that makes you wonder if the leader of a once popular band even knows what the hell he\u2019s doing anymore. Weezer has experienced a resurgence in popularity due to their note for note remake of Toto\u2019s \u201cAfrica.\u201d The Black Album<\/i> is something they\u2019ve been hyping for about two years now, and guess what? It sucks!<\/p>\n
Weezer\u2019s downhill trajectory began around 2009 and has reached its absolute nadir. The album cover even has a sticker quoting Matt Damon\u2019s character from the now infamous SNL sketch. The opening track and first single \u201cCan\u2019t Knock The Hustle\u201d tries to showoff Rivers Cuomo\u2019s appreciation for hip-hop and trying to be the cool dad at his kids\u2019 school. The damn song is about an Uber driver and the lyrics are useless and pathetic. Where are the guitars? Why have they been replaced by keyboards and drum machines? Why am I subjecting myself to this?<\/p>\n
Hate on me if you want, but when I think Weezer, I think of \u201cEl Scorcho\u201d and \u201cUndone,\u201d not \u201cBeverly Hills\u201d and \u201cFeels Like Summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh As A Kite\u201d tries to be a decent song, but it doesn\u2019t work as well as stuff from the past. \u201cZombie Bastards\u201d tries to be cutesy but comes off annoying and irritating. Rivers doesn\u2019t even know what Rivers is thinking right now! This is not the Weezer I grew up, and it\u2019s unknown if we\u2019ll ever get them back again.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving In L.A.\u201d has a decent enough chorus, though it sounds better live; here it comes across as cloying and unnecessary. I would love to know what it was that got Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio to produce this mess. Too much danceable pop music has already infected the airwaves ,and somewhere along the way Rivers\u2019 brain was infected as well and he hasn\u2019t been able to switch back to what made Weezer so good back in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Just Being Honest\u201d is Rivers\u2019 attempt to portray his opinions across in song and unfortunately, it falls flat just like everything else here. You can say that I\u2019m a purist, that I only like old Weezer, and that I\u2019m not giving their new direction a chance. Well, guess what? Their new direction is the lackluster sound of a great rock band going hardcore pop and falling on their faces miserably and publicly in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo Many Thoughts In My Head\u201d is the best track here but it\u2019s pretty much ruined by a bombastic chorus that feels unnecessary. Nice Nilsson reference, though. As the record cruises to its conclusion, everything falls further. \u201cCalifornia Snow\u201d has the air of a ballad, but nope, it\u2019s just another wannabe rap track with crappy electronics.<\/p>\n
Weezer was one of these bands that I grew up loving and then along the way they lost the plot. Aside from a few decent songs here and there, never really recovered their plot. It goes without saying that its relatively hopeless for Rivers and company to come back to their former glories; rather, they will probably go down in flames still fighting for this new sound. Relative to the album\u2019s release, it didn\u2019t even hit the Billboard Top 10, which is a bad sign for an album that\u2019s been promoted as heavily as this one. I managed to survive this disaster and had to listen to a podcast to recover. Fearless reader, I pray for your soul!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":33752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5738],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-45573","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-weezer","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45573"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45573"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}