Weezer Album Review
Weezer – Death to False Metal
Words by Alex Brady
Weezer. Many will be aware of their name and may be able to name a few songs of their, but they have always been somewhat of an unsung hero when their albums having been masterpieces more often than they have been self-titled.
Their latest release, Death to False Metal, isn’t a new album in the traditional sense as Hurley was. It’s more a collection of unreleased tracks than purely fresh work, which may scare you into thinking it’s a disc of second rate material that wasn’t worthy of release the first time round. Hang your heads in shame!
Every track has that unique Weezer stamp; unaltered vocals, song writing which isn’t convoluted with fancy effects or show-off guitar solos and an all-encompassing sense of youth-infused fun available to all regardless of age. They are a very clever band, talented and accomplished and, unlike Green Day or the Red Hot Chili Peppers who should have faded away gracefully a long time ago, keep producing exciting sounds whilst maintaining the band’s quirky image. There are subtle similarities to Ash and Biffy Clyro which may be more evident to British fans but that’s purely incidental and is neither here nor there once you have consumed the album in its entirety.
It’s a beautiful album too. Not in the same sense as a compilation of Mozart’s work or something along the lines of Florence and the Machine’s Lungs; more in that you can hear the variations in production harking back to sounds from their days in the early 90’s all the way up to the present day; you experience how the band grew up. The variation in mood is also worthy of praise. Losing My Mind is a warming break from the otherwise upbeat river running through this album, bringing your heart rate down a few knots before kicking things back up into fifth gear. There was a pleasant surprise for the last track in the form of Un-Break My Heart, that classic ballad by Toni Braxton. No emotion is lost in this reimagining, if anything it works better in this form, that of a struggle to deal with heart-wrenching pain and move on, compared to that of a love-troubled woman who has nothing else in her world.
The stand out song has to be I’m A Robot. The S-Club introduction belies a song which puts a skip in your step. It’s an intensely fun and joyful track whilst cleverly playing with the cold hearted life of a machine and, maybe unintentionally, serves as a stark contrast to the manufactured, unimaginative pop industry which dominates the charts these days.
This album is nigh-on perfect and that is said without exaggeration. After listening to this it is worth revisiting every other album they have blessed us with, simply because this one is made up of tracks not considered their best yet remains an exceptional work of art.
10/10
