{"id":22647,"date":"2019-02-01T16:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=22647"},"modified":"2019-01-31T13:28:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T18:28:25","slug":"weezer-the-teal-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/entertainment\/2019\/02\/01\/weezer-the-teal-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Weezer: The Teal Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0Weezer, one of the most wildly inconsistent bands I\u2019ve ever been a fan of, released a full fledged cover album after the success of their version of Toto\u2019s \u201cAfrica.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The \u201cAfrica\u201d cover happened after a long running fan campaign online. To be honest, I don\u2019t really get it. I love \u201cAfrica,\u201d I love Weezer (most of the time), but those two things don\u2019t really go together and it wasn\u2019t something I was clamoring to hear. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0However, \u201cAfrica\u201d actually ended up being a massive hit for Weezer, peaking at #1 on the Billboard alternative charts. It was their highest charting song since \u201cPork and Beans,\u201d which was released a decade ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0So, while they have a new album coming up in March, last week they released a surprise all-covers album called \u201cThe Teal Album.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Overall, I didn\u2019t dislike it. After all, I adore their cover of Toni Braxton\u2019s \u201cUnbreak My Heart,\u201d maybe they can replicate that magic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Yet the main problem with this one is that all of the songs are covered too straight. There aren\u2019t enough different ideas being played around with to make me want to listen to the Weezer version over the original. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The only real difference is that these renditions have more dirty guitars, a louder mix and an overall heavier feel. Rivers Cuomo\u2019s voice also stands out when compared to the dynamic vocals of the people singing the original songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0So let\u2019s start looking at the album track by track, with the one that started it all \u201cAfrica.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s pretty straightforward. It\u2019s just the same as Toto\u2019s version, but it uses synths instead of flutes in the interlude. However, I can see someone unfamiliar with the original liking this. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0It is a quirky enough song that it fits right in with Weezer\u2019s aesthetic, so all in all, it\u2019s a good one. It could\u2019ve been so much worse, considering how Pitbull butchered the song (check out \u201cOcean to Ocean\u201d if you don\u2019t mind your ears bleeding).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Up next is their cover of \u201cEverybody Wants to Rule the World\u201d by Tears for Fears. I think this one was pretty valiant. Cuomo has a really nice vocal performance here and I like the instrumental.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cSweet Dreams (Are Made of This)\u201d is ok, but Weezer\u2019s cover of it does nothing to make it their own. The instrumental just feels dull compared to the original.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The next song, \u201cTake on Me,\u201d falls into the same trap. These are two of the best and most dynamic songs of the 80s. Nothing about the covers are bad, but I\u2019ll take A-ha and Eurythmics any day of the week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Track five is \u201cHappy Together\u201d and this is one I can get behind. There\u2019s just a lot of charm I like from this one. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m less familiar with the original version of this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Following this are two songs I just could not see the merit of. \u201cParanoid\u201d just sounds like the band\u2019s guitarist Brian Bell doing a horrible Ozzy Osbourne impression and the instrumental not being hard enough to capture what makes the original good. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0After that is \u201cMr. Blue Sky,\u201d and again, Weezer is faithful to a fault. WIthout the original arrangement and vocals, this song just sounds boring to me, and I\u2019d much rather listen to ELO\u2019s rendition of this classic. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Then comes \u201cNo Scrubs,\u201d a song by TLC. Truth be told, I have never heard this song before, and didn\u2019t know what to expect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0After listening to it, I quite enjoyed it. This was probably the weirdest song the band could\u2019ve chose to cover, so Cuomo goes all out in his delivery and sounds like he\u2019s having a ball. That feeling is contagious and makes me like this one quite a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Following this is \u201cBillie Jean,\u201d one of Michael Jackson\u2019s biggest hits, and I liked this one too. Cuomo basically makes every Jackson \u201chee-hee\u201d or \u201choooo\u201d noise that\u2019s ever existed and it makes me laugh. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The album closes with \u201cStand By Me\u201d and I wasn\u2019t super impressed with this one. It does sound uniquely Weezer, as they use really loud synths and bass beats over the originally melancholy and sparsely instrumented song. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0So while I give it props for being different, it just doesn\u2019t resonate emotionally with me like Ben E. King\u2019s original does.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThe Teal Album\u201d is a cover album through and through and comes with all of the pitfalls of being a cover album. All of the songs are well arranged and performed and \u201cAfrica,\u201d \u201cNo Scrubs,\u201d \u201cHappy Together,\u201d \u201cEverybody Wants to Rule the World\u201d and \u201cBillie Jean\u201d are standouts that I\u2019ll probably throw into the rotation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I just feel like if there were more risks taken, and more song choices like \u201cNo Scrubs\u201d or \u201cBillie Jean,\u201d the album would be better for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Plus, I know this album was released as a little joke and I\u2019m taking it much more seriously than the band probably did. It definitely seems like it has been successful for the group so far, so I\u2019m not gonna say it wasn\u2019t a worthwhile project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0If you like Weezer or haven\u2019t heard some of these songs before, you\u2019ll find something to like here. Otherwise, don\u2019t waste your time on this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Henry Wolski<\/strong>
\nExecutive Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0Weezer, one of the most wildly inconsistent bands I\u2019ve ever been a fan of, released a full fledged cover album after the success of their version of Toto\u2019s \u201cAfrica.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0The \u201cAfrica\u201d cover happened after a long running fan campaign online. To be honest, I don\u2019t really get it. I love \u201cAfrica,\u201d I love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":22645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2104,2144,2109],"tags":[2000,73,2141,1384,109,74,2924,2925],"class_list":["post-22647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-music-entertainment","category-opinion","tag-henry-wolski","tag-music","tag-online-exclusive","tag-opinion","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-weezer","tag-weezer-the-teal-album-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-29-at-1.44.22-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-5Th","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22649,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22647\/revisions\/22649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}