REVIEW: WEEZER - OK HUMAN

 

4/5

Pet Shop Beach Boys. 

OK, Computer...or is that Alexa? What year is it? I'm serious! 2021? Thank God! The last one was one for the dark ages. I feel like I've just woken up from the world's longest quarantined coma. And dare I ask, who's the President? REALLY?! Thank goodness! It really is a brand new day. As fresh as the colour of a classic Weezer album. Now don't tell me Rivers and the boys are 50 years old? I remember being a college kid geeked out over the 'Hash Pipe' of 'The Green Album' singing 'O Girlfriend' to the one I loved like R.E.M. (remember them too?). How are we living in a time were the Foo Fighters are considered "Dad rock" and half the members probably actually need 'Medicine At Midnight' like their new album released last week. I can't even keep up. Which sort of serves as my apology for the lateness of this and their new release review. I need to check a calendar. You know last year was bad when you're still all shook up like Presley and it's already February. You know last year was bad when the 'Buddy Holly' bandsmen didn't even release an album last year after releasing the teal and black spectrum adding two in 2019 (and I didn't even have time to get to them and there was no corona then, so what's my excuse?). But following that same path keeping busy during lockdown in the studio, they're set to release two before 2022 too. Expect 'Van Weezer' to pull up this Summer like the festivals we won't get to see their iconic W stage crashing logo at this year. But still expect it to rock like Van Halen or an AC/DC thunderbolt when the time comes.

Before all that however in a schedule reshuffle to start a year were we are licking our wounds, Weezer start off with something a little lighter to pet. The California crew head to the beach once again with their dogs and cats for 'OK Human' an album that takes so much inspiration from the 'Pet Sounds' of Brain Wilson's Beach Boys (and Harry Nilsson's Randy Newman covers LP 'Nilsson Sings Newman') that Rivers Cuomo and the dudes recorded this entirely with analogue equipment like they were Jack and Meg, with strings recorded at the same studios that The Beatles walked across a zebra crossing for...oh and a 38 piece orchestra too. The result is their most beautiful sounding album to date for their 14th and a band who are already working more overtime than their Los Angeles Lakers last three games, or this writer when he used to hustle the coffee shop gig between articles. It's wholly original too, despite the inspiration. It's influence is it's own for a classic collective who we really should be calling as iconic as Cuomo's Holly glasses. That's just the way I see it buddy and you will too when you listen. This is just what you'll get for the band that was about to embark on the Hella Mega Tour with luminaries like Green Day and Fall Out Boy (which 'Van Weezer' was meant to roll out) before COVID-19 hit 2020 and all our vision became blindsided. Now 'All Our Favorite Songs' will also become one of yours all-time. Weezer or all bands. From the amazing artwork that Dave Matthews Band's 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King' and 'Away From The World' would be proud of. All the way to LA's 'La Brea Tar Pits' that will cement their legend with this amazing album. Instantly Cali' timeless like 'Aloo Gobi' that couldn't sound more classic Weezer if it "What's playin' at The Aero?/Some French noir flick/Don't wanna sit next to humans (don't we all not want to right now?), I'm agoraphobic/Order up a decaf latte, spin Gainsbourg tunes Gosh darn this cast iron lounger, my butt will bruise." Even sitting at home with your fanny (not that one fellow Brits) packed with purple, this one will actually make you happy to stay tied up at home with those Abbey Road strings. John and Paul would love this one. Just like the 'Grapes Of Wrath' that pick at Steinbeck like something made for both mice and men. Rivers rocking his audible as he "drift(s) off to oblivion" with Moby Dick and George Orwell's '1984'. "Growing heavy for the vintage" '66.

Playing the 'Numbers' give Weezer one of it's deepest cuts too as Cuomo shows us how compellingly haunting his vocals can get, as in this world of less love and more likes Rivers tells us through the streams that "numbers are out to get you" like social media and FOMO. 'Playing My Piano' continues this ivory inspiration as Rivers hasn't run water through his hair and "hasn't washed it in three weeks". It must be all those Zoom interviews he has to get back to. Hey...at least he has hair my fellow 'Half (Hair) Pipe' alumni. But, how about the vivid reflections on 'Mirror Image'? "She is my mirror image / Showing me who I am / Until the day that we shatter / She helps me understand" he sings on an outstanding ode. Scrolling through 'Screens' like a quarantined Haim video that knows alone whilst "the real world is dying", Rivers asks where we will be 21 years from now like the average age of their fans when they first started out now "everybody stares at a screen". South Korean mega K Pop group BLACKPINK get a nice shout out like their call sign. But in this world of memes people who once dreamed with their head in the clouds are now moving into different clouds in these strange skies (as Sly Stallone's Rocky says to Michael B. Jordan on 'Creed', "what cloud?"). We're not playing "Solitaire on our desktop" anymore. Life feels like a 'Bird With A Broken Wing', thank God for that beautiful song to sing. Because these 'Dead Roses' are for you and like then band plays on the instrumental 'Everything Happens For A Reason', like one of their classic albums 'Everything Will Be Alright' in the end. Even if it feels like the Schwarzenegger end of days right now, this band is with you even if it's more 'Here Comes The Rain' than 'Abbey Road's' 'Here Comes The Sun'. Because after all you can't deny the Beach Boy brightness of that piano. Wouldn't it be nice if the world was like it used to be? Thank God it's 1966 again as I just wasn't made for these times. Well, we're a little bit closer when bands we love just like 'Beverly Hills' are back and sounding exactly the same as what we grew up with and fell for, in love with the soundtrack of an easier time when we were kids. Let this rain and LeBron like purple reign for a band who need to release an album of that color, "wash all your troubles away". The 'Pinkerton' green and blue garage band turned stadium superstars who once had 'Hurley' on their album cover (save a surf shop suing) and have recorded covers of Toto's 'Africa' and songs for 'Jackass' released six stellar albums in the last decade and have already started this one off with two after a years break that we all took...and needed, for the good of ourselves and the good of the world. It seems like 'The Sweater Song' outfit won't run out of thread to pull, no matter if you walk away (we won't). 'OK Human' will stop you climbing the walls like an 'OK Computer' song for your radio and head. In a time were we are all left so exasperated to the point of breathlessness (and that has nothing to do with what we wear on our face (mask up)), trust Weezer like Springsteen to give us that human touch. TIM DAVID HARVEY

Playlist Picks: 'All Our Favorite Songs', 'Aloo Gobi', 'Numbers'.