WEEZER The Gold Album
( Reprise)
The past decade hasn’ t exactly been a walk in the park for the average Weezer fan. While they hit pay dirt on the selftitled Teal album, putting out note-for-note reproductions of cover songs, the rest of their output found them challenging even their biggest fans, culminating in a Saturday Night Live skit where actor Matt Damon defends the band ' s newer material to cast member Leslie Jones, eventually erupting into a screaming match. While the pandemic-era album OK Human was a lovely set of piano-led originals, it suffered from a clinical file-trading vibe that instantly dates it. Then came the four EPs named after each season, which found the band wallowing in a Vivaldi-themed netherworld. The planned Broadway residency was canceled because of low ticket sales. However, their fortunes began to change last year. The“ It Girl” of the moment, Olivia Rodrigo, brought the band up during her Lollapalooza set for a headline-creating moment, and all of Gen Z was instantly put on notice. Then the band had a nice little stroke of luck earlier this year when“ Go Away,” Weezer’ s 2014 duet with Bethany Consentino of Best Coast, went viral out of nowhere, making it Weezer ' s most-streamed song of the year. So the seventh self-titled Weezer album, color-coded as The Gold Album, finds the guys back in the studio for a nofrills set of emo-rockers that instantly captures what made them so charming in the first place. Rivers Cuomo is still the onthe-spectrum nerd who pines to be a 70s rock god, but his way with a hook and a love song is still irrefutable. The way“ Say Yes” casually opens the record before exploding into a captivating chorus is worth studying.“ Don’ t Make It Weird” is all crunchy teenage snark and sass, with a perfect Gen Z catchphrase as the hook. Album centerpiece“ We Might As Well Be
Strangers” is a tense breakup song featuring a duet with Karly Hartzman of indie darlings Wednesday and one of the most undeniable melodies the band has released this century.“ Hoops” tackles the many inconveniences that accompany the convenient smartphone era, leading to another unassailable chorus that wouldn’ t sound out of place on a late 80s Dinosaur Jr record. Producers Klas Ahlund and Kenneth Blume recorded the guys straight to tape, dropped the click track for Pat Wilson’ s drums, and returned the band to a more democratic process where all four members could write and contribute. Blume even brought in a 1940s Gibson amplifier during the sessions to give the guitars a little extra crunch and warmth, which the band fell in love with. It truly feels like the boys have gone back to the garage after years of lightweight pop flirtations. It’ s not all pure 40 karat gold as“ C. E. O.” rewrites“ Undone( The Sweater Song)” with the same clunky humor that made“ Beverly Hills” so obnoxious. Yet for the most part this is the sound of a band reenergized and excited to create again.
– Andy Derer
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ROBYN HITCHCOCK The Confuser( Tiny Ghost)
Robyn Hitchcock has filled recent years touring tirelessly as a solo acoustic act, but his musical history is littered with deliciously weird pop music abetted by exceptional and idiosyncratic bands including The Soft Boys, The Egyptians, and The Venus 3. The combo behind The Confuser hasn’ t been duly named, but the new songs and related live work attest to the invigorating prowess of guitarist Jeremy Fetzer, bassist Todd Bolden, and drummer Eric Slick( Dr. Dog, etc.). Hitchcock has rightly been calling this lineup his“ rock-ass band.” The group indeed brings glorious noise to the stomp-
14 illinoisentertainer. com october 2026