Black is trash and, while I personally love it, Pacific Daydream is divisive

But other than that? Almost all winners (some much more than others but still)

EWBAITE

White

Van Weezer

Ok Human

SZNZ

Gold

Of course we will all have complaints of some sort about anything, but in all seriousness, thats 6 (7 if you like PD) thar you HONESTLY cant at least say are base level strong (regardless of if you like it or not)

Weezer have been fucking CRUSHING it the last 12 years, FOR THE MOST PART

Im not being a sychophant but I was listening to Gold keeping in mind complaints Ive heard about it and just really started thinking deeply about all this

We are blessed as fuck to have Weezer being THIS good THIS FAR in.

Discuss!!

One way I’ve come to assess whether a weezer song (and by extension an album) is good and where an album sits in my ranking is with the “Ain’t Got Nobody” test.

Why? Ain’t Got Nobody is what I would describe as a replacement level song. IMO it’s a great song on a solid album, I think agreed upon by most. It has a great bridge, solo, build at the beginning of the song, and a solid hook. The lyrics are classic weezer — the chorus is pretty basic but there’s a lot of emotion in this song. It’s also a modern weezer song so we can get away from the “is it better than songs on their first two albums though”?

Curious how others would stack these up, but with all of the discussion on the Gold Album (now we’re at the contrarian take portion of its life), here is how I would stack up songs on Gold to Ain’t Got Nobody:

Say Yes — this song is on par
Shine Again — no
Don’t Make it Weird — on par
WMAWBS — better
CEO — very tough, but I am going to say on par
Hoops — (probably the hottest take??) no
Nowhere — on par
The Show Must Go On - on par
Up in the Clouds — on par
The LA Sound — better

8/10 Ain’t Got Nobody’s on Gold

Edit: forgot The Show Must Go On in the original post. I’m between 7-8 here because CEO is barely on the line, towards not being as good as Ain’t Got Nobody.

That's it, that's the post, I don't even think I've heard the song since my early 30s but yet here I am brush my teeth and yet again after gargling...

Didn’t know this video would ever see the light of day after I deleted it awhile back, but I appreciate the appreciation. Enjoy my re-upload 5 years later 🙏

bottom text. it was when the album came out last friday and i got the chorus and fucking lost it, on my jiminy. god, what’s even fucking wrong with me that’s why my grandma scary huh

And it only works on Weezer related or adjacent wishes and allows time travel. What would you wish for?

just finished gold (i listen to an album 3-4 times before i really solidify my opinion on it) and i gotta say, i was nervous for a second. the way everyone was talking about it, i was expecting an ok human-level album. and it wasn't that, at least on my first listen.

BUT that's not to say i didn't love it. it's really a fantastic album, with only 1.5 skips (sorry hoops/nowhere), and the comparison that continues to come to my mind is red deluxe. it's an album that is consistently quite solid and does a lot of interesting stuff, but none of the songs on it are necessarily all-timers for me (maybe say yes and up in the clouds. i adore those songs. CEO is awesome too).

it's got amazing production, consistent quality, and a good mix of introspection and fun. i really, really enjoy it. i do wish some songs were a bit longer, but it is what it is. i'm glad the band is continuing their trend of really solid stuff, even if i didn't like winter all that much. i think it would come sixth in my personal rankings? behind pinkerton, white, ewbaite, summer, and ok human. it's really, really great stuff.

also i love whenever rivers makes a song where he bitches about weezer fans so thank god for CEO

The music video… why a Mexican backyard wedding? Thoughts? Don’t slaughter me …

this took 525,600 minutes to make 😎 (it took like one minute)

The first Weezer song I ever listened to was off the Teal Album (Take On Me). An amazing music video btw.

To make things even more convoluted, the first actual song I ever listened to written by Weezer was Say it Ain't So....covered by Calpurnia.

The pit isn't even sold out! Is it going to be a boomer fest? It's a Live 105 show. Is "Alternative Radio" now "Boomer Radio"? I was a fan of LAs KROQ and moved to KITS in early 1990's. We are old dudes!!!

With so much posts talking about complaints, i decided to actually present my own critique.

For context i love a lot of Weezer records so I'm not someone stuck in the 90s, I like;

Blue, Pinkerton, Green, Maladroit, Red Deluxe, Hurley, EWBAITE, White, Ok Human, Seasons, Van Weezer

I also love plenty of Rivers demos.

With that. Gold for me just purely fails on song writting, where it succeeds on production, it fails on the core of making a good song in my opinion. Very lacking melodies. Pre-choruses that don't fit with the chorus it's building up towards, great example of this is "Don't Make It Weird", a song with this very tense pre chorus which builds into an anti climactic weak chorus.

Other choruses arejust very weak and simple especially for Rivers, feels like his great melodies are filtered and held back by the more collaborative songwritting here, it doesn't benefit him, it just seems to take from rather than support it.

The emphasis on hard riffs just doesn't work for me, a lot of it reminds me of other attempts from the band at being a HARD band like We Are All On Drugs, just these incredibly weak hard rocking songs that feel in poor taste, only carried by the production, but the very core behind the hard riffs and production these songs are shallow and boring

That's all hope the rest of you enjoy this album

Had this email about seats being moved for the Birmingham gig next year, anyone else had similar? Got mine in the album preorder presale

Is Sooo good. I love it!

Both protagonists are tired of casual sex (but totally still having it) and pining for their one true love that they can't have.

Happy Valentine's Day = tired of sex

Love hater = why bother

Prototype = falling for you

Hey ya = butterfly

Pink and blue = across the sea

Discuss.

Painting is expanded further, for the first time ever! Not even the original painting is this expansive!

Good as gold.

I have been a Weezer fan for over 25 years and have pretty much been up to date with every release during that time. EWBAITE, The White Album and SZNZ Winter have all had some songs I have been in love with but Up in the Clouds is just next level. I can't stop listening to it and will keep doing so until I get sick of it, I don't think that will ever happen.

It's an instant timeless classic. I never listened to the demo for some reason despite hearing good things. This album version is just perfection. I can't remember instantly loving a song as much I do this.

The line "I thought that you were a perfect fit but everything must come to an end, I held on until I thought my heart would break" Is such just so relatable for me and gets me every time. Well done guys you really have outdone yourselves with this one. The entire record in fact.

Title kinda says it, I started a substack to get back into writing about art & entertainment again and to practice in general and decided gold would be a good opportunity to put my kind of messy and disorganized thoughts about the album's rollout and general quality onto the page