Weezer
Self-Titled (Gold Album)
With The Gold Album, Weezer delivers a definitive return to form that feels like The Blue Album meets Pinkerton. Merging their signature lyricism and sharp guitar riffs with decades of seasoned musicianship, the band proves they haven't lost that raw, DIY energy that first won over fans since the early 1990's.
Michael Venn, contributor
September 25, 1994, Local 186, Boston, Massachusetts. I was a college student working as an intern at MCA Universal and Geffen Records, and Weezer’s self-titled, now iconic, Blue Album hadn’t broken into the mainstream yet. I had already discovered their nerdy alternative rock soundtrack to my so-called 20-year-old life, and thanks to songs like “Surf Wax America” and “Buddy Holly,” I was already a fan.
That night, my roommate Jack and I went to the show. The club was packed with a line out the door. It was going to be a great evening. The Boston based band, Orbit, opened that night for this new, mostly unheard of Los Angeles indie rock band. As the opening act, they got the 350 kids in the crowd going with their set, but when Orbit left the stage, they took about 275 of their fans with them.
But Weezer came to melt our faces off. By the third song of their set, the 75 or so people who stayed were being treated to one of the best live performances I had ever seen from as yet unheard of band, who would go on to release 20 albums over the next three decades.
What I’m getting at with this story is that Weezer has gone back to those nostalgic days with thier new release, The Gold Album. If I had to sum up this record, it’s the Blue Album meets Pinkerton, with a little bit of the Green Album sprinkled in for good measure.
The album opens with “Say Yes,” and in typical Weezer fashion, you get a personal, weird, honest and comical lyric from Rivers Cuomo, along with a catchy riff that has you nodding your head in approval 30 seconds into the song. The tempo keeps gradually increasing into an explosive chorus that is immediately catchy and immediately Weezer-esque.
Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell and Scott Shriner have been doing this for years, but this time around, they seem to have taken a page from the early days of the Weezer playbook and gotten back to their roots, or at least to the memories of when they started the band and Rivers was writing songs on his Tascam 688 in his bedroom in Connecticut.
This album feels like a reintroduction. It’s like running into a friend you haven’t seen in forever, but it immediately feels as if no time has passed. By the third track, “Don’t Make It Weird,” you’re back in the same vibe you got the first time you heard the Blue Album.
“We Might as Well Be Strangers” might as well be one of my favorite tracks on the album. With lyrics like, “I was Nancy, you were Vicious, I’m not sure I even miss us,” it just rings true to the sentiment of Weezer. Rivers pushes his vocal range while echoing all the feelings of some lost romantic breakup from our youth that we’ve all managed to get through at some point in our lives.
Another favorite track is “C.E.O.,” which, incidentally, could have been titled “Undone (The Sweater Song), Part Deux.”
The Gold Album is full of Rivers Cuomo’s signature guitar riffs and sometimes silly, poetic lyrics that have continued to ring true for so many of their fans over the decades. Songs like “The Show Must Go On,” “Up in the Clouds” and “The L.A. Sound” are vintage Weezer, but even better.
“We came to melt your face, we’re gonna torch this place, we’re gonna take you down, this is the L.A. sound.”
Those lyrics pay homage to the story of the early days of the band, out on the road with a Thomas Guide as their GPS, playing small, shitty clubs and, thankfully, combined with the ignorance of youth, managing to spread the music of Weezer to the masses.
Sometimes it’s that DIY attitude of not knowing what you don’t know that launches a band and keeps it going for more than three decades. It takes you from playing small shows to a handful of fans before your music catches fire, to playing stadiums with generations of fans in the audience. And Weezer plays each show regardless of how many people are there with the same intensity and the same goal, to win over everyone in the audience and make them a Weezer fan for life.
The magic of Weezer will always be their sound, Rivers sincerity in his voice, the overdriven guitar and bass, the pulsing drums, and the feeling of nostalgia for when music was meant to be listened to loud and enjoyed live with friends. Sometimes that means 40 people in a basement, 400 people at a club or 40,000 people at a festival.
Weezer is still here to melt your face off in 2026, just like they did to me in 1994, at a small club in Boston. I’m so grateful I was at that show, and so happy that Weezer is still bringing their L.A. sound.