Grade: D
For better or worse, there is a high number of bands that have continuously stuck to the unique sound that put them where they are today.
Whether it’s Motorhead, Interpol, AC/DC, deadmau5 and so forth, people know what to expect from these artists whenever they release new material.
Weezer is no different.
Since their debut in 1994 with “Blue Album,” Weezer broke known stereotypes in rock music.
They didn’t yell about sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. They didn’t look or dress “cool.”
They didn’t even act wild or delve into delinquency.
They were just normal geeks that played in a band.
Regardless, their first album catapulted them to the upper echelons of popular music, becoming a staple on radio stations across the country.
However, the new millennium didn’t take to them kindly.
Aside from a few hit singles, Weezer pumped out below-average albums that resulted in sales in the same vein.
The torrent of like-minded recordings near the end of the decade didn’t help things, either.
The problem with Weezer is that their songs sound exactly the same.
Chord progressions, sound production, songwriting ... it was, and still is, almost impossible to differentiate any Weezer song from one another.
Their latest release, “Everything Will Be Alright in the End,” is ironically anything but.
Weezer still sounds the same as ever, a twist that absolutely everyone was expecting.
They’re still the geeks from high school playing “Dungeons and Dragons” and rocking out in the garage.
Hardly a bad thing, obviously.
They’ve grown up, but their music hasn’t.
As evident by the album cover, the childish simplicity and the warm, yet abrasive, sound still fluctuates within “Everything Will Be Alright in the End,” but so has the music scene around it and the band.
No evolution, no experimentation, just the signature sound that everyone knows them for.
That isn’t to say they should be forced to make a change.
They’re doing what they do best, and they probably will reside in that mindset for the rest of their career, which is admirable to some extent.
But when the fatigue of eating the same sandwich consecutively throughout the past two decades starts to seep in, a change in one’s diet doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
