Posted February 15, 2019 by AdamSG1 Comment Album Review

Weezer – Teal Album Collaboration | w/ Jasper PR, Peanut Mixtape & Full Volume Blogs

The music industry can be too serious at times. Intentional or not, it’s easy to get wrapped up in a world that wishes to highlight flaws rather than things that simply want to provide a good time. There are critics out there who wake up to birdsong and immediately have their day ruined. “Uhhh Tweedy Pie, you were a little flat in those last few notes” says the critic, before sticking on the news and jerking off to onerous Brexit chat.

Sometimes we need to take a step back from reviewing the hottest releases and just remember to fall back in love with music every once in a while. Not every song warrants an existential crisis or an out of body experience, and this is certainly the case with Weezer’s recent Teal Album. An album of pure 80’s covers, with artwork of the band donned in their freshest throwback gear, fully aware of what they’re doing. What more could you want?

This release definitely runs with the ball that was caught during the whole “Africa” meme, and has certainly made a lot of people aware of the band’s upcoming The Black Album in March, but even this obviously-designed-to-be-a-laugh release has brought the best pretension out of Pitchfork. Well alongside some of our favourite bloggers and PR people, we’re going to talk about why the Teal Album is everything we could want, and more.

JASPER PR
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Making a bold marketing move and filling space between releases, Weezer drop Teal, a covers album. Having never really been a Weezer fan I thought this was a brilliant move and YES! I totally went and bought the combo pack for Teal, and pre-ordered the Black album, due out 2019-March-01.

Weezer won me over the moment I heard their version of Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. Having been actively clubbing at the time of this release it was inevitable that when my eyes locked with those of a Curt Smith look-a-like, across a crowded room, AND he asked me to dance…it would only be a matter of time before our 80’s bodies (not actual age, the era) would become entangled and a product of our love for TFF would arrive nine-months later. Who knew TFF were so potent?

The facts that Weezer just sang this song as is and didn’t change a thing makes this memory for me stand out. Not only do I have the original shenanigans to smile about, I have this moment to enjoy smiling about the shenanigans…you never forget a truly awesome shag. One that also comes with a lifetime guarantee.

PEANUT MIXTAPE
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‘No Scrubs’ is quite something. The first few listens left me a little flabberghasted if I’m entirely honest. The more you listen though, the more it makes sense as a Weezer song. No, I’m not implying Rivers Cuomo regularly deals with scrubs hanging out the passenger side of their best friend’s ride, hollering at him, but rather that the clumsy, straight up daft nature of the cover is perfectly Weezer.

People love to slate Weezer, saying that they wish they would go back to making serious music like Pinkerton, when in actual fact that version of the band is dead. Rivers Cuomo literally owns a meme account on Instagram. The sheer daftness of a forty something white man playing the TLC classic on a guitar is just the kind of daft that sums up Weezer to a tee.

Probably the most apt of the covers on The Teal Album, ‘Happy Together’ is perfectly Weezer, if they were a little goofier I could easily believe they wrote it. This is a happy wee thing that just fits, Rivers’ vocals fit the song and express the tone of it well whilst the rest of the band don’t stray too far from the path but they don’t need to. This is an undeniably comfortable moment in the album, it’s a song that needs little adapting and fit’s the Weezer vibe. Maybe they’re luring people into a false sense of security before attempting both Black Sabbath and TLC. Overall, nice one Weezer.

FULL VOLUME BLOGS
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So we all know that “Mr. Blue Sky” is a classic right, and who could possibly make this banger even better? There’s only one answer… Weezer. Yes that’s right, Weezer have turned a tune into a TUNE on the Teal Album. I feel like the vocals fit the song brilliantly, and they even manage to hit those high notes. Of course there is an ample amount of rock and roll to the song in classic Weezer fashion, topped off with some mellow guitar riffs in an awesome instrumental finish. Loving this cover, and the album is full of class covers!

At this stage of Weezer’s career, we couldn’t really care less about what they do. We’ve already got the classic albums in Blue and Pinkerton, the great albums in Green and White and honestly? We’d rather a self-aware covers album than another oblivious self-destruction like Raditude.

The likes of “Africa”, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” and “No Scrubs” are genuinely great covers. The entirety of the album pairs rarely altered elements but adds in the traditional crunch of Weezer’s guitars during some choruses. That’s all, it’s a bit of fun, so have a bit of fun. In Weezer We Trust.