Weezer - Gold Album Review

Heartbreaking that the album art isn't an awkward picture of the band standing side by side. This is their first self-titled record where this is the case and that is an absolute travesty. Millions will suffer for their negligence, and their reputation will be forever tarnished. Very disappointing...

There is no one that hates Weezer more than Weezer fans. Everyone with knowledge of this group in any capacity knows that. But that kind of irony presented by their fandom is maybe it’s biggest issue. A lot of the fans have a bad habit of taking the music for granted and holding the band to the standard set by their earliest work. What’s odd about it to me as that from what I can tell, none of Weezer’s peers who are currently active (ie. Pearl Jam, Blur), are held to the same standard as they were in their prime. But for some reason, many Weezer listeners expect this decades old band to be releasing more Blues and Pinkertons on the regular. As someone who thinks some of their best work came out AFTER the 90’s, it’s pretty discouraging to see, and this is made worse by the lack of any real consensus among the fandom about how they feel regarding each album (aside from that the first two are nebulously “good”).

To me though, Weezer has always felt to me like a band that has only ever made great, average, and bad albums. But what’s been missing from their 30+ year catalog is an album that I would consider to be just “good”, around that 7/10 range. Today, that changed, with the Gold Album being the first record they released which I believe to fit that category.

I was able to get a sneak peak of this record at a listening party held by Green Light Records a week early, but I hadn’t paid enough attention that day to fully form an opinion. I would say that comparing my experience at the listening party to my full, focused listen, this record has grown on me. If I had to compare the sound and quality of this album to their existing work, I’m getting a lot of Maladroit. It’s very crunchy and tough with the riffs and fuzzy guitar tone, and you get a bit of that edge on there reminiscent of 80’s and 90’s alternative alike. The opening track Say Yes ensures that you know what you’re getting into immediately with alternating dynamics and an infectious chorus. These aren’t new sounds for them, but getting another big, dumb alt rock record from these guys for the first time since White feels pretty refreshing after their recent experiments of varying quality. C.E.O. feels particularly self-aware of this concept, and The LA Sound pays back to the community that spawned them as the star of the show.

This is also the first album of theirs since Red to feature songs written by band members apart from Rivers, with The LA Sound being written by Brian Bell and Nowhere being written by Patrick Wilson. I think both of them improved as songwriters since then, as both of those songs are noticably better than their earlier contributions. It's also really cool to see them collaborate with Wednesday on We Might As Well Be Strangers too. I think their sound is a nice one to have here.

I will say however, that the overall flavor and quality of the album is not the most consistent. Some tracks feel a bit like an afterthought, or like they were slapped on with little reason. It sounds strange to say this about an album just 32 minutes in length, but songs like The Show Must Go On and Shine Again feel like filler and take up very little space in my memory. Hoops has probably become the most infamous track here, showcasing some of Rivers Cuomo's most iffy writing habits. Ultimately, I found the inclusion of such tracks to be unnecessary at worst and inconsequential at best.

When all is said and done, I had a good time with the Gold Album. This isn't their best "return to form" album (of which they have quite a few), but it's fun and unapologetically geeky. I would recommend this fans of their previous works and anyone else looking for some simple, pop rock fun.