Weezer have a new color to add to the collection. The group just announced their self-titled album ‘Weezer’, out August 21st via Reprise/Warner Records, with the gold-themed record landing as their 20th over a decades-long run. The lead single “We Might As Well Be Strangers” featuring Wednesday is out now, weaving together the vocals of Rivers Cuomo and Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman. After Blue, Green, Red, White, Teal, and Black, gold joins the lineage.
The album traces back to a return to basics. Fresh off a sold-out 30th anniversary tour that saw the group play their iconic debut in full, the four reconvened in Orange County, a midway point between their California homes, and went straight back to where they started: a rehearsal space, playing and writing together, figuring out what came next. ‘Weezer’ was born from those sessions, four guys in a room creating together. It’s a tightly-wound, ready-to-spring record with songs written by three of the four members, and it marks the first time Cuomo and drummer Pat Wilson had written the basics of a song together since their first album.
For recording, the group brought in two producers with sharply different methods that still aligned with the vision: Klas Ahlund and Kenneth Blume, formerly Kenny Beats, who said he wanted to make “the most violent Weezer album ever.” Ahlund took a more mathematical, stringent approach, while Kenny chased the rock-band-in-a-room feeling, with no grid, no click track, and no pitch correction. Drums were tracked with all four playing live, listening to each other and reshaping the songs as they went.
The result plays to the group’s eternal strengths and feels like one of those imagined greatest-hits collections built entirely from new material. It’s a direct, raw iteration of the group, as urgent and vital as anything in their catalog three decades in. The record runs tongue-in-cheek meta songs about aging as a group, weighing a legacy, and carrying on, alongside tracks that celebrate exactly where they are now: as one of the most influential names in the world for anyone, any age, picking up a guitar, a bass, or a pair of drumsticks. It’s a genuinely exciting late-career swing that lands.
Earlier this year the group announced Weezer: The Gathering, a massive 32-date North American run with The Shins and Silversun Pickups in support. To mark the news, they hosted a week of events in Los Angeles, including Weezerpedia trivia and a pickleball tournament with fans.
‘Weezer’ Track Listing:
Say Yes
Shine Again
Don’t Make It Weird
We Might As Well Be Strangers ft. Wednesday
C.E.O.
Hoops
Nowhere
The Show Must Go On
Up In The Clouds
The LA Sound