Weezer’s new project draws on years of inspiration

Weezer’s been doing some pretty wacky stuff for the past couple of years. I mean, I can’t say they’ve ever been completely normal—Pinkerton’s got some pretty unhinged lyrics at times, and they did have Lil Wayne feature on one of their song. (The song is “Can’t Stop Partying,” and they also did a version with Chamillionaire, if you’re interested).

But the past years have seen Rivers and Co really ramping things up. Back in 2019, they let their fanbase bully them into covering “Africa,” which ended up being a gold record. Then they decided to release a cover album to try and promote a normal studio album. Then, you know, there were the two back-to-back releases in 2021—an orchestral baroque pop record and a hair-metal tribute album.

This is the band that stuck to straight-eighth-note power chords for two decades, mind you. How they ended up here is anyone’s guess. In their long string of experimentation, Weezer stumbled upon Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and decided to do their own take. The latest ambitious concept from the band is to release four EPs in one year, one for each season. Each EP is supposed to match the feel of the respective season it’s dedicated to.

They’re all seven songs long, which leaves each one around 25 minutes long—not far off from being long enough to be a full-on album. “Spring” was fine. It was fun but had some weaker moments. “Summer” was a bit of a step up, with some great riffs. But “Autumn” is, out of all the members of the Season-EP family, the strongest release so far. The concept for this EP was to make a “Dance-Rock.”

Since this is supposed to be a dance-rock album, we gotta talk about the rhythm section. If the grooves aren’t there, this concept just isn’t going to work. Scott Shriner is perhaps one of the most underappreciated members of Weezer.

First off, the guy’s life story is crazy—he’s a former marine who married a member of the King of Bhutan’s harem before somehow getting hired to play with Weezer. But he’s got some solid bass lines. This album gives him a lot of room in the mix to stretch out a bit, letting you really appreciate it.

There’s some nice drumming from Patrick Wilson, too – a swing beat here, a drum fill there and a surprisingly funky dance beat on “What Happens After You?” It’s Patrick Wilson at his best: economical, yet effective. “Can’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me” has this funky disco beat accenting the offbeat. Much of the drumming is along that same vein. Some of these beats kick like a mule with how hard they go, let me tell ya. Speaking of the drums, the timbre of the drums sounds a lot better now.

As good as the past two Weezer season EPs have been, there has been an issue with the drum sound. It was a blemish on an otherwise lovely pair of releases, but it’s been rectified here. In “Spring and Summer,” the drums got taken out back and shot, and in “Here on Autumn,” they’ve been rehabilitated and are as good as new. “Tastes Like Pain” has some really cool processing effects on the drums, too. The guitars are still here, of course.

Lots of little harmonies litter the tracks. Some of the choruses really restrain the guitars, though. There are certainly some moments where the band could have afforded to boost the guitars a couple of decibels. The bass is drowning out the guitar on “Should She Say or Should She Go,” which is basically the inverse of every other rock album in existence.

I will say that there have been a few Weezer albums where the solos aren’t very adventurous, but I’m happy to report that there’s some genuine shredding on this album. Apparently, Van Weezer wasn’t enough for the band to get that out of their system. “What Happens After You” has probably the best solo on the album.

One of the other big musical elements is the heavy use of keyboards. Weezer was apparently pretty close to hiring a keyboard player in the mid-2000s, but they never ended up doing it. (If you’re curious to hear what that would have sounded like, check out Motion City Soundtrack). “Get Off On the Pain” has a really neat breakdown played on synths that sound like a metal riff transposed over from the guitar. The usage of synths is a lot subtler on tracks like Francesca, where they hang out in the back to sweeten the mix a little and double up some of the guitar leads.

There’s this assumption that bands who use keyboards must let them dominate the mix, and that’s simply not true. This record is a good example of how they can be used to enhance without overwhelming.

Another category of bonus instruments that spice things up is orchestration. “Tastes Like Pain” is the best example of that. The band has been doing a lot of symphonic stuff for the past few years, really, so it’s to be expected that they’d continue the trend here. There’s also a saxophone solo on “Should She Stay or Should She Go”—a very bold choice if you ask me, lots of interesting instrumentation here. One of the things that the band has done across the past few EPs is to include a lot of tempo and key changes.

In popular music, there’s an expectation that you generally stay away from those things. It just throws off the average listener too much. I have to imagine that, perhaps after decades of mostly conforming to that standard, Weezer has simply decided to start ignoring conventional wisdom. It’s a bold move to make a dance-inspired album with tempo changes, but I have hope that these tracks would still go over well on the floor, or at least, as well as you can expect Weezer to go over at a nightclub.

There are still a couple of things you could criticize Weezer for. Rivers used to get the other band members to sing harmonies for him. Now, he’s mostly singing his own backing tracks, and the musical signatures that make the best Weezer songs timeless aren’t here.

You know the acoustic guitar intro to “My Name is Jonas,” or the cool bit with nothing but organ and vocals on “Surf Wax America,” or the dozen little instantly recognizable riffs from “Buddy Holly?” This album doesn’t really have parallels to those. The stuff that makes songs legendary just isn’t here.

In that regard, there is a bit of distance between this project and the band’s best work. But if you compare this EP to most contemporary music, “Autumn” comes out near the top. This is a solid collection of tunes. It’s not a very long listen, and I think this four-seasons project is both compelling and well-executed enough to have justified its existence. This is 24 minutes well spent right here—I’d recommend this EP to anybody with a spare moment and an open ear.