Say it ain’t so
Speaking of nostalgia, Weezer last year returned to the upper reaches of the pop charts (and spawned a viral “Saturday Night Live” sketch) with its stunt cover of Toto’s indelible ’80s hit “Africa.”
Now the long-running L.A. alt-rock combo is using that renewed attention to unleash an experiment it’s been threatening forever: a self-titled effort, due March 1, known as the Black Album, which frontman Rivers Cuomo was saying as far back as 2016 would represent a striking about-face from its crunchy guitar-pop sound.
Judging by a couple of synthed-up advance tracks, including one called “Zombie Bastards,” Weezer has followed through on that idea, and not because Cuomo is confident his audience will like it.
Indeed, if that “SNL” sketch made anything clear, it’s that the Black Album is precisely the kind of record most Weezer diehards don’t want from this band — as good a reason as any I can think of to listen up. with DJ Khaled, Chance the Rapper and Quavo (with whom he hit No. 1 in 2017 with “I’m the One”).
But for the most part Bieber spent the year “just living life,” as his frequent producer Diplo put it to me not long ago. “Michael Jackson was a guy that never had a life, really, and then tried to live it when he was older,” Diplo said. “Justin, maybe he’s self-aware enough so that he’s like, ‘I’m a human being and I love a person — let me do that for a minute.’ ”
That said, the singer’s long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s “Purpose” may be on the way. Diplo said he’s been trading songs with Bieber for what he reckons is shaping up as “a Christian album.”
So although she’s said nothing about when we should expect her next album, perhaps it’s reasonable to think that Swift will work faster this time, either to avoid bogging down or simply to keep up with an industry that’s accelerated immeasurably over her decade-plus in the biz.
Also: Releasing her “Reputation” Netflix special on New Year’s Eve felt an awful lot like a chapter-ending move from this most story-minded of pop stars.