Albums Of The Week: Weezer | Weezer (Gold Album)

T HE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: Weezer have a new color to add to the collection. After Blue, Green, Red, White, Teal and Black, the group’s latest self-titled LP—their 20th album—is destined to be known as The Gold Album. The album traces back to a return to basics. Fresh off a sold-out 30th anniversary tour that saw the group play their iconic debut in full, the four reconvened in Orange County, midway between their California homes, and went back to where they started: a rehearsal space, playing and writing together, figuring out what came next. Weezer (The Gold Album) was born from those sessions, four guys in a room creating. It’s a tightly wound, ready-to-spring record with songs written by three of the four members, marking the first time singer-guitarist Rivers Cuomo and drummer Pat Wilson had written the basics of a song together since their first album. For recording, the group brought in two producers with sharply different methods that aligned with the vision: Klas Ahlund and Kenneth Blume (formerly Kenny Beats), who said he wanted to make 'the most violent Weezer album ever.' Ahlund took a more mathematical, stringent approach, while Kenny chased the rock-band-in-a-room feeling, with no grid, no click track, and no pitch correction. Drums were tracked with all four playing live, listening to each other and reshaping the songs as they went. The result plays to the group’s eternal strengths and feels like one of those imagined greatest-hits collections built entirely from new material. It’s a direct, raw iteration of the group, as urgent and vital as anything in their catalog three decades in. The record runs tongue-in-cheek meta songs about aging as a group, weighing legacy, and carrying on, alongside tracks that celebrate exactly where they are now: as one of the most influential names in the world for anyone, any age, picking up a guitar, a bass, or a pair of drumsticks. It’s a genuinely exciting late-career swing that lands.