Weezer – Teal Album

Now plenty will say, “Weezer?!? They are still around?” Not only are they still alive and kicking but they feel up to reinventing the past. By reinventing the past I mean they are taking songs (largely from the 80s) which probably influenced or made a mark on them as young people and putting the Weezer twist on them.

Entitled the Teal Album (continuing on with naming their albums after colours), this is a cover album. Comprised of ten tracks which come from several eras – 60s, 80s and 90s. From a variety of bands/acts like Michael Jackson, Toto, Tears for Fears, and TLC. The variety is wide and plenty of surprises to be found here.

Some might dismiss this as lazy. Lazy in that do we really need another cover album? Curmudgeons will say that it demonstrates a band who are scraping the bottom of the barrel and maybe just fulfilling a record label contract the easy way. Please don’t be a lazy listener! Don’t just write this off. A band like Weezer with plenty of talent as instrumentalists, loads of intelligence and Rivers Cuomo’s unique voice has plenty to bring to this particular musical discussion.

Bring something new to the table they do. TLC’s “Scrubs” is funny. Toto’s “Africa” is fun. The only song I feel was a let down is their version of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. It is such a majestic song that you would have had to do something special with it and such is not the case.

It is an album which will appeal to several generations. Those who were around during the original versions of the songs and young people possibly discovering the songs for the first time.

Track Listings