Released: 2019

Genres: Pop Rock

The Musiquarium’s Weezer (Black Album) Review Score: 3 out of 10.

Following the surprise release of Weezer (Teal Album), Weezer was determined to make an even worse self-titled album than that, with Weezer (Black Album). One might assume that the Black Album would be dark and heavy, maybe something along the lines of Pinkerton or Maladroit, but no, this is just Weezer making more uninspired, run-of-the-mill modern pop slop.

Those “hasta luegos” in the trying-so-hard-to-be-funky Can’t Knock the Hustle are frankly quite embarrassing. Zombie Bastards sounds like something a pre-pubescent boy would think of while playing Call of Duty, high on Mountain Dew. High as a Kite would be somewhat tolerable, if it wasn’t so over-produced. Living in L.A. sounds like more of the pop trash of Pacific Daydream.

Piece of Cake has these annoying “Doo doo doo doo doo doo doos” from Rivers Cuomo, and should have been titled Piece of Crap instead. The stretch of songs from I’m Just Being Honest to Byzantine isn’t exactly good, it’s just significantly less cringey than the first half of the album. California Snow has Rivers Cuomo rapping, and is as laughably bad as you’d expect — he’s about as cool of a rapper as Will Smith is.

Like Raditude before it, Weezer (Black Album) is also the worst album of its respective decade. Also, are the band covered in paint or wearing gimp outfits on the cover?

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Weezer on Discogs.

Back to the 2019 Album Guide or the Weezer Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard