Van Weezer
| Weezer
Van Weezer
Van Weezer is the fifteenth studio album by American rock band Weezer, released on May 7, 2021 by Crush Music and Atlantic Records. Featuring a classic rock and hard rock inspired sound, the album was announced in September 2019 with an original release date of May 2020, coinciding with announcement of the band's participation in the Hella Mega Tour alongside Green Dayand Fall Out Boy. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was delayed indefinitely and Van Weezer's release was delayed until May 2021, almost four months after the release of the band's previous album OK Human. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Kerrang!
Given they’re now nearly 30 years into their stellar career, will Van Weezer ultimately become any Weezer fan’s favourite album? Maybe not. But, for the first time in too long, it is a Weezer record that rocks exactly how a Weezer record should – and that means you might as well jump right in.
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NME
The heavy metal pastiche often clashes against Rivers Cuomo's sensitive style of songwriting, but album 15 does boast one of the band's best choruses.
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Drew's Reviews
Weezer has found a fun and creative outlet on Van Weezer, an album that continues the band’s whimsical approach to songwriting without losing their fundamentals. Van Weezer brings forth the band’s best since 2014’s Everything’s Going to be All Right and possibly a contender for inclusion into the Top 3 Best Weezer albums.
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AV Club
With tons of great hooks, and minimal cringe, this is the rare Weezer record that is simply fun to listen to, without fear of having to jump for the “skip” button every couple of songs. Like the record’s pandemic-borne sibling, the orchestral pop release OK Human, an exercise in intentional nostalgia turned out to be the most forward-thinking move the band could make.
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All Music
Working with a rotating cast of collaborators, he remains focused on big hooks, melody, and clever turns of phrases that never are anchored to the past even when they play upon memories. It's a trick that Van Weezer pulls off as a whole: any of its retro origins are washed away by big, dumb sounds that keep the record grounded in the eternal now, an aesthetic choice that also helps the album be a rousing good time.
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The Young Folks
There’s a mutual agreement between the band and the public; they don’t overindulge in terrible music and we don’t delve deep into their downward spiral in quality. And it’s a shame that Weezer aren’t using their later years to try new things or test their abilities outside of past pop trends. So if Weezer aren’t willing to break the agreement, maybe it’s time to just let them go. We’ve had splashes of hope every now and then, but it might be finally time to let the sun set on Rivers Cuomo’s endless summer.
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Vinyl Chapters
Weezer return with an ode to 80s metal in the fun and surprisingly diverse sounds of Van Weezer.
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mxdwn Music
Van Weezer generously adds some much-needed sensory throwback to this century. The tracks are vivid and full of life and remain nostalgic to Weezer as a band but struggle in their tribute to hair metal heroes. This album indulges in the early style of Weezer but shows the band still enjoys being a part of Weezer themselves.
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Cryptic Rock
With the exception of a few Heavy Metal inspired moments here and there, Van Weezer is light years more a fun Weezer Pop Rock album than it is Metal. In essence, what you get on Van Weezer is Weezer and with catchy songs like “I Need Some of That,” “The End of the Game,” and “Precious Metal Girl,” Weezer fans will be happy.
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Peanut Butter Pope
‘Van Weezer’ is also a tale of two halves – its ‘Crazy Train’ reinterpretation sees the album go off the rails, and any promise amidst the pageantry of the first five songs is forgotten in the process. Could it have been so much better? Who knows? “Weezer salutes Van Halen” was never going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but any opportunism involved has been completely ignored, despite a few presentable choruses.
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The Needle Drop
Between a few tracks hitting and Rivers singing "pump it up into me, please daddy" as a hook, Van Weezer is pretty much a mid-tier Weezer album.
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Stereoboard
‘Van Weezer’ is basically just a shit-tonne-of-relentless-fun that, much like their finest records, leaves you wondering how on earth Weezer often get it so spectacularly wrong.
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Rolling Stone
Weezer Deliver a Love Letter to Eighties Metal on ‘Van Weezer’.
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Pitchfork
Rivers Cuomo’s latest is a tribute to his hair metal heroes, but it never goes all that hard.
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PopMatters
It behooves us to stop looking for a new Blue Album or Pinkerton, so the question we must pose to each new Weezer release is, Does it succeed on its own terms? In the case of Van Weezer, the answer isn’t clear. It’s too patchy to be a Yes but far too tuneful and breezy to be a No. For our purposes, let’s call it a draw and wait for the next one. Knowing Weezer, it shouldn’t be too long a wait.
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Paste Magazine
Weezer continues to play it safe, as if they have much to lose.
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The Soundboard
Even then though, Weezer release so much music nowadays that that isn’t as worthwhile an honor as it might seem, and indeed, a backslide within a matter of months is not unprecedented in the slightest. This isn’t a direction they’re liable to stay on, and that regression can and will come again before the memory of this can even settle in. But with Weezer, it’s worth just holding on to small victories, where Van Weezer is a lot of fun at a time where this band felt utterly incapable of delivering that.
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Sputnik Music
It’s another Weezer gotcha moment, a gimmicky novelty album that has a handful of redeeming songs but will ultimately fade into the ether within a few months. Weezer might be having fun – and more power to them, seriously – but they’re only testing the patience of a loyal fanbase which is probably starting to grow tired of getting continuously bamboozled. Just kidding, I’m already hyped for their four disc Seasons boxset. Seriously, God help us Weezer fans.
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Beats Per Minute
In a way, this is the purest definition of a 21st century Weezer album. A lot of people like to rag on them for making forgettable, airy music that leaves your brain after you listen to it, but that’s something that Weezer seems to be embracing at this point. Van Weezer is the definition of a modern Weezer album: if you go in expecting it to be as dumb and forgettable as other recent Weezer albums, you’re going to get exactly that.
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Dead Press
Only four months removed from the lush, orchestral, introspective predecessor ‘OK Human’, Weezer double down with a familiar, playful batch of power-pop bangers, taking just enough cues from metal, classic rock, and glam to facilitate an album title that most likely originated as a joke.
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Gigwise
As acoustic closer ‘Precious Metal Girl’ fades out, the debate over whether Van Weezer successfully apes Van Halen is one for the birds. It’s not got the power to carry us back to the normal world single-handedly, but its celebration of rock’s glorious communal spirit ensures it will be there every step along our way. It deserves the crowd it will one day be performed to.
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The Upcoming
Despite these highlights, though, this release does not match up to its predecessor, and falls victim to the criticism levied at most of Weezer’s latter-day output: the songs have undeniably catchy choruses, but they are not matched by equally memorable verses.
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Ben's Beat
Because of their completely opposite natures, Van Weezer does stand as a nice companion piece to the year’s earlier OK Human album, but don’t expect anything close to the same level of unexpectedly hard-hitting emotional moments alongside the fun-loving Weezer melodies. Remember that Rivers Cuomo is a very strange 50-year-old man and bring your expectations back down to earth.
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Upset Magazine
Always delivered with a wink and a smile, it may not be the Weezer you’d show off to your mates, but it’s almost certainly the one you’ll listen to for a much-needed serotonin hit.
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Spectrum Culture
It’s hard to get quite as mad at Rivers Cuomo when he writes songs like these, silly tributes to the larger-than-life rock gods that made him want to pick up a guitar. Just please never write a song about drugs again, dude.
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Spin
Van Weezer continues that trajectory with its hard-rock/metal ethos, but it seldom feels like anything beyond a novelty.
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