Vanweezer
On the new Weezer album – knowingly titled Vanweezer – the alt-rock stars are channelling classic Van Halen, working the whammy bar and recycling riffs from Crazytrain and Entersandman. As TG’S Grant Moon notes: “They’re turning the gain up full here...”
Led by singer/ guitarist Rivers Cuomo, alt-rockers Weezer first made their mark with their 1994 self-titled album and college radio hits such as Buddy Holly, Say It Ain’t So and, later, Island In The Sun. Theirs is a glossy, crunchy and highly listenable hybrid of pop and rock, with Cuomo a naturally talented performer and songsmith. And yet, for all their indie-cool, Weezer are an eclectic bunch. Their proud affection for the harder rock they grew up with is there in the fuzzy tones of 2002 LP Maladroit, and their irony-free versions of Toto’s Africa and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid on their 2019 covers album, titled simply Weezer but better known as ‘The Teal Album’. And while the band’s first new album of 2021, OK Human, is a beautiful and mellow masterclass packed with strings and piano, they’re turning the gain up full here on Van Weezer.
Despite its title, this album is not simply homage to Van Halen – more a celebration of the strand of 80s rock that Eddie and the boys ignited. Cuomo, co-guitarist Brian Bell, bassist Scott Shriner and drummer Patrick Wilson still sound like Weezer, but pump up their work with some 80s guitar tone, heft, and attitude. That said, the opener definitely does channel VH themselves: The End Of The Game features an E major tapped guitar arpeggio and a joyfully clichéd metal-style riff, the low E string chugging away in 4/4/ as a pedal tone, as the band play power chords E/A/A/C#M/B above it. That progression’s topped off with some very-eddie natural harmonics over the wire of the fifth and seventh frets, with the last note divebombing out via whammy bar. The verse itself is standard Weezer – incredibly catchy and sweet, all about adolescent love (‘ I know that you would crank this song/air-guitaring with your headphones on’). Hints of Panama here, from Halen’s smash 1984 album, especially in the pre-chorus – the E/D#/B guitar figure outlines Bsus4 like Halen’s track did, just in reverse.
All The Good Ones is set to a beat reminiscent of Weezer’s hit Beverly Hills, itself not too far from Joan Jett’s I Love Rock N Roll (‘ I just love the way she plays guitar/when she dives down on the whammy bar’). The upbeat Hero contrasts reality with childhood dreams of saving the world ‘ swinging on a web, flying in the sky, shooting lasers from my eyes’. Some really nifty major-pentatonic lines here, but on this tune and throughout the album, producer Suzy Shinn keeps the guitars big, but – despite the rawk premise – there are surprisingly few widdly moments from Bell or Cuomo.
Cuomo can write fluff like Sheila Can Do It and She Needs Me in his sleep. Stronger are I Need Some Of That – a nostalgic, harmony-rich slice of power pop with a dash of The Cars circa My Best Friend’s Girl – and Beginning Of The End. There’s a hint of The Darkness in the multi-tracked symphonics here; cue more deftly-executed tapping in E major, with some Phase 90-alike treatment, too. Strummy acoustic ballad Precious Metal Girl alludes to that mecca of 80s hair metal, LA’S Sunset Strip, and two of its typical bands – LA Guns and Faster Pussycat. The album’s packed with such rawk references.
The opening riff of the galloping Blue Dream is a faithful rendering of Randy Rhoads’ classic hook for Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train, transposed to C from the original F# and played on Weezer’s fuzzy, fat, gleamingly modern guitars. The riff may be borrowed but the song’s fantastical lyrics about undersea adventure and lost love are all Cuomo’s own.
Metallica’s influence bubbles up in the deceptively troubling One More Hit, about drug withdrawal. The E minor intro/verse riff is a cousin of Enter Sandman, the chorus moving into the brighter territory of that key’s relative major, G. With the thrashy middle-eight harks back to metal giants Slayer, the song ends with a darkly clever musical joke: as the subject requests ‘one more hit and then I’ll quit’, the song modulates up to G#, itself getting higher.
It’s just one highlight on an album rich in melody, detail and solid guitar work. Weezer’s journey back to the stadium of 80s rock is affectionate, highly accomplished, and great fun. They’re enjoying rocking out, and that’s catching.
WEEZER’S JOURNEY BACK TO THE STADIUM OF 80S ROCK IS AFFECTIONATE AND GREAT FUN