Weezer

Decades after their founding, Weezer remain something of an enigma, a blend of big, joyful arena rock with leader Rivers Cuomo’s shy-guy reticence, metal riffs with nerdy lyrics and goofy humour with obsessively precise pop craft. Formed in California in 1992, the band debuted with 1994’s Weezer (a.k.a. “The Blue Album”), an album whose indelible hooks (“Say It Ain't So”, “Undone - The Sweater Song”) and overall sweet disposition (“Buddy Holly”) made it an instant antidote to the angst of grunge. Weezer returned in 1996 with Pinkerton—a moody, noisy and self-loathing record that came to be embraced as a cult classic—and then took a nearly five-year break, with bassist Matt Sharp leaving to form The Rentals. The 2001 comeback Weezer (a.k.a. “The Green Album”) ignited a period of increased productivity, with the group regularly turning out albums of charming, polished and slightly eccentric power pop. A commercial high-water mark was 2005’s Make Believe, whose stomp-along anthem “Beverly Hills” became a U.S. Top 10 hit. Unexpectedly, Weezer would ascend back into the Hot 100 in 2018 when, after a fan-led social-media campaign, the band released a cover of Toto’s 1982 smash “Africa”—an expression of both their commitment to and utterly carefree attitude toward their place in the culture. The success of the song sparked a covers album, Weezer (a.k.a. “The Teal Album”), which was followed a month later by Weezer (a.k.a. “The Black Album”). Subsequent releases have found the band members forging new ground while tipping their hat to their idols: 2021’s OK Human is a baroque-pop collection backed by a full orchestra, while the same year’s metal-inspired Van Weezer recalls the concision and monolithic choruses of the group’s formative work. Cuomo then moved to get almost every other conceivable stylistic experiment out of his system on the following year’s ambitious four-EP SZSN series.