Weezer - Van Weezer

 

Weezer reflects on metal music homage with Van Weezer

Weezer's long-awaited homage to metal bands Van Weezer is their 15th studio album, and the title is a reference to the band Van Halen. What has metal got to do with Weezer, you ask? In his earliest years, guitarist/vocalist Rivers Cuomo was a huge Kiss fan; guitarist Brian Bell was a big Black Sabbath fan; drummer Patrick Wilson worshipped at the altar of Van Halen and Rush; bassist Scott Shriner loved Slayer and Metallica.

The last time this vein of harder rock was mined by Weezer was on their much-loved 2002 album Maladroit. Van Weezer is primed to take that album's sonics many steps further courtesy of Shinn. Van Weezer follows the release of the band's first-ever orchestral album, OK Human, earlier this year. OK Human's lead single, "All My Favorite Songs," hit No. 1 at Triple A radio, and was in the Top 5 and growing at Alternative.

A new song from Van Weezer, "I Need Some Of That," can be heard above.

"I Need Some Of That" follows the release of last year's "Hero" and "Beginning Of The End," as well as 2019's "The End Of The Game," all of which appear on Van Weezer. The band also gave fans a sneak peek of the Van Weezer song "Blue Dream" in last year's "Simpsons" episode, in addition to performing the show's iconic theme song at the episode's end.

In an interview with NME, Cuomo reveals that the Van Weezer/OK Human flip-flop was essentially the result of poor timing. As he explains, Weezer had been working on OK Human when they booked the Hella Mega tour.

"We were like, ‘OK, we just made the worst possible type of album you could make before a stadium rock tour,'" Cuomo recalls.

With that in mind, Weezer shifted gears to the Van Halen-influenced Van Weezer, and gave it a May 2020 release date. You know what happens next: the COVID-19 pandemic strikes in the spring of 2020, and the Hella Mega tour gets postponed to this year.

"So we were like: Well, now we've just made the worst possible album for a time when you can't actually tour or perform or rock out," Cuomo says. "When nobody is going to concerts, how can you possibly promote a stadium rock album?"

That now brings us to OK Human, which Weezer went back and finished amid the pandemic.

"This is probably the best possible time for this album," says Cuomo. "It's about feeling isolated and alienated and secluded, so it's the perfect album for now."

Van Weezer, meanwhile, is scheduled to arrive this coming May.

Weezer has sold more than 10 million albums in the U.S., and more than 35 million records worldwide since its debut album's release in 1994. The catalog has included such megahits as "Buddy Holly," "Undone (The Sweater Song)," "Say It Ain't So," "El Scorcho," "Hash Pipe," "Island In The Sun," "Beverly Hills," "Pork And Beans" and more.

 

1. Hero

2. All The Good Ones

3. The End of the Game

4. I Need Some of That

5. Beginning of the End

6. Blue Dream

7. 1 More Hit

8. Sheila Can It

9. She Needs Me

10. Precious Metal Girl

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