Album Review: Weezer – Weezer (The Teal Album) (Crush Music/Atlantic Records)

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Weezer, in particular Rivers Cuomo who has one of the finest voices in music in my opinion. While eagerly anticipating the release of their new album, The Black Album on March 1st unexpectedly the foursome have dropped a record of covers!

Called Weezer (The Teal Album) it sees the band cover 10 famous tracks. From the meme of 2018, Africa by Toto to Black Sabbath’s Paranoid to Bille Jean by Michael Jackson!

Let’s not mess around, Weezer (The Teal Album) has some absolute bangers on it and some absolute duds. It’s not just about how you feel about Weezer but how you feel about the original songs. If you can’t stand Africa, you won’t like it here as Weezer stick closely to their own formula without messing around with the original tracks much.

A lot of people are going to love this album and for good reason but last year’s obsession with Africa puzzled me. It’s not a very good song and having a huge part of the internet tell you otherwise because it was a joke got annoying. Now Weezer do it justice and their version is superior in my opinion but that’s because Cuomo could be doing Mongolian throat singing and I’d be impressed.

The highlights include a peppier cover of a-ha’s Take On Me, a catchy as hell version of The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams and a wonderful cover of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me. It’s also pretty awesome to see the soft-rockers perform a thrilling version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. Cuomo really channels his inner Ozzy here and the rhythm is bang-on.

TLC’s No Scrubs and The Turtles’ Happy Together do very little for me though. Still, this is a really fun surprise and anything new from Weezer is always welcome!

Weezer – Weezer (The Teal Album) Full Track Listing:

1. Africa (Toto)
2. Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears)
3. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (The Eurythmics)
4. Take On Me (a-ha)
5. Happy Together (The Turtles)
6. Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
7. Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)
8. No Scrubs (TLC)
9. Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
10. Stand By Me (Ben E. King)

The album is available via all major streaming and digital music platforms.