🎶 2022-03-17 16:08:20 – Paris/France.
Here we are in 2022: the pandemic drags on, war rages in Europe, the rich tapestry of human civilization unravels with economic upheaval... Weezer Up to? Glad you asked. Rivers Cuomo and company challenged themselves to release four seasonally themed albums in a single year. The first payment, SZNZ: Spring, falls on Sunday (the spring equinox) and features seven short songs all composed and recorded very recently, and all centered on warming, blooming, picnics; that kind of shit.
SZNZ: Spring
Weezer
Crush Music, March 20
6/10
For starters, the acoustic guitar and renaissance flute of “Opening Night” set the mood with a vibe so sweet your teeth will hurt. Over an acoustic chord progression that Ned Flanders might find a bit too milquetoast for his liking, Cuomo informs the audience: “Shakespeare makes me happy, and I'm happy to be with you. If they shaved the guy on his Buddy Holly glasses, imagine how they'll brutalize him for lines like "We lay in the grass for Henry the Fourth Part I." Later in the song, we learn that the Bard's other characters, including Hamlet, Rosalind, and Falstaff, also make Cuomo happy. How seriously can you take a rock singer who tells you that Hamlet makes him happy? Hamlet can't even make Hamlet happy.
Obviously, Cuomo is a conceptual guy, God bless him. Apparently, Puccini's 1904 opera "Madame Butterfly" provides the story arc for the band's 1996 masterpiece (don't @ me), Pinkerton. But it's, like, really conceptual, which is a good thing. Cuomo and company are clearly stepping outside the box on this one. They also have fun. And they obviously got really good at making records.
There are some little musical treasures to discover throughout the short album. The delicate dulcimer and whispered melodies in the final 10 seconds of "The Sound of Drums" easily overshadow the rootsy acoustic of the song "you're about to watch a show about old tools on PBS" right off the bat. At the end of “All This Love,” Cuomo sings over delicate guitar and piano playing. The musical moment is soft, complex and ended too soon.
“All This Love” is also the most Weezer-esque of the songs on the album, both in terms of music and lyrics. "With a key and a kite/ Waiting for the lightning to strike/ Camping in the field near my house/ I forgot how to live/ How to love/ How to give/ How to sing with a mask on my mouth", sings Cuomo at the gallop of the guitar and the piano. The reference to the mask is a nice reminder that this music is freshly hatched and incubated at COVID.
Other songs on the album challenged my cynicism and lost. The relentless cheerfulness of “A Little Bit of Love” sounds like Hallmark movie montage music. “Now the winter freeze is gone / Now is the chance to live the life we want,” Cuomo sings. As Hemingway wrote at the end of “The Sun Also Rises”, “Isn't it pretty to think so? »
“Garden of Eden” begins with birdsong, because of course it does. And it kinda sounds like a Buddy Holly (the singer, not the song)/Everly Brothers/Mumford and Sons mashup. Halfway through, Cuomo lets us know that he "hasn't felt this good since the Velcro shoes came along."
Apparently, the band hasn't even started writing and recording the next episode of SZNS, Summerwhich will of course be followed, God willing, by Autumn et Winter. It's nice to see a group challenge each other in this way. Good for them. But, Weezer, if you're listening, pay attention. Remember what happened with “Beverly Hills”.
Follow writer David Gill on Twitter.com/songotaku.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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