Weezer leans into creativity instead of producing for fame

The career of Weezer’s lead singer and songwriter Rivers Cuomo has been oddly paradoxical.

Cuomo, who has a knack for song structures, chord progression and melodies, has no problem writing quality songs. It’s turning those songs into hits that’s proven harder.

Weezer has had success, of course. After all, the band’s debut album has sold fifteen million copies worldwide. However, it’s also their best-selling album. Even after almost thirty years and fourteen more studio albums, they have yet to top those numbers.

You can assume that this has to be at least a little frustrating for Cuomo. He’s said in interviews that he believes if he just writes the right song or the right album, it’ll be able to bring the band up to mega-star status. Cuomo has even expressed a desire to, if that mega-star status does materialize, headline the Super Bowl.

The quest to write that one magical hit record has been one met with its fair share of adversaries. The attempts to gain new fans has, more often than not, served to irritate the fans that are already listening.

Weezer’s most divisive records have always been the ones that try their hardest to gain commercial success. Their most beloved albums are the ones that focus on either quality songwriting or ambitious concepts first and foremost.

The irony is that, often times, the risky albums end up outselling the safe commercial ones Weezer’s commercial success has never been strongly correlated with their commercial sensibilities. For better or for worse, the attempt to balance commercial appeal and critical acclaim has been one of the driving forces of Weezer’s career for most of the band’s existence.

However, it appears that the band’s strategy may very well be changing. With the announcement of the “SZNS” project, the band seems to be stepping off the tightrope and saying goodbye to the balancing act altogether. To some extent, the last few releases have shown the band changing course already. The past three Weezer albums have all been recorded in different genres, and all of them show an evolution from the band’s past work. With “SZNS,” Weezer is truly breaking away for good. The first installment, known as “SZNS: Spring” could represent the first step in a new direction for the band.

Weezer’s probably best known for their songs that follow the formula of straight-eighth note power chords and four-on-the-floor drum beats. Distortion guitar has always been a centerpiece. This EP experiments with looser rhythms and alternative instrumentation.

Weezer’s debut album had a handful of harmonica lines, but the instrument has been more or less abandoned by the band until now, where it’s brought back on the track. There’s also far more acoustic instrumentation as well. The production is somewhat similar—Suzy Shinn and Jake Sinclair have been brought back from previous releases—but other than that, the Weezer we’re seeing now is an entirely different animal.

What stands out to me perhaps even more so than the change in songwriting is the change in release schedule. The plan for “SZNS” is to release four albums—one for each season—over the course of the year. No longer will Weezer adhere to the traditional cycle of album releases, touring and promotion. The very means of releasing the music are becoming as adventurous as the songs themselves.

This is, in my opinion, not a move that will be met with great success on the charts. EPs have never sold as well as their LP counterparts, and the entire concept is fairly unorthodox from the get-go. To dedicate a year of the band’s career to an experiment is not one I can imagine the label being enthusiastic about, but I think the fans might appreciate the effort a good bit more.

With a sonic departure and a new strategy, Weezer seems to be fully embracing its weird side. I think the idea of writing hit singles has been put on the back burner, at least for now, in order to chase after a new kind of success—the creative kind.

Being able to stretch their creative muscles in a new way surely has to be rejuvenating for the band, and I can imagine the fan response will be a breath of fresh air. The fanbase has already expressed a great deal of excitement over the idea of a year-long event, and it’s only just begun. I’m interested in seeing how the next three releases turn out, but for now, “SZNS: Spring” is a pleasant if somewhat uneven collection of tracks. It’s an odd duck to be sure, but it has a certain charm to it.

We’ll have to see what “Summer” has in store for us next.