Weezer – SZNZ: Spring

The key to being a Weezer fan is to always be prepared for the unexpected. Last year alone, the Rivers Cuomo-led quartet brought us the orchestral OK Human, glossy hair metal tribute Van Weezer and, erm, an Enter Sandman cover. Which of their 2021 releases you preferred may well inform your initial feelings about Spring, the first of four seasonal EPs. If you’re a Van Weezer believer and felt OK Human was a little too left-field for your dose of Cuomo, then look away now. For Spring is, for want of a better phrase, utterly unhinged.

Imagine that meme of somebody asking if they know of any bands that sound like Weezer but medieval, and you’re close to envisaging the sound of this seven-track release. We’re talking acoustic guitars, recorders, mandolins, Iron Age percussion and dulcimers throughout. Producers Jake Sinclair, Ethan Gruska and Suzy Shinn’s insistence that the band record to 24-track tape gives everything an undeniable warmth and low-key charm. It sounds like Weezer playing in a room together, just with crazy instruments, playing crazy songs.

And it’s the songs themselves where things get really interesting. As long-term fans will be painfully aware, the production of a Weezer album means little unless Cuomo has turned up to the studio with some decent compositions. Thankfully, this batch is one of his most engaging and ambitious in some time. Opening Night interpolates the first movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (because, of course) to bizarrely charming effect. Angels on Vacation is, quite literally, about two angels taking a holiday trip to Earth and buying fries and coke and seeing whale shows and wearing ponchos and God knows what else. It’s crazy and brilliant, and oh so Rivers. Elsewhere, the lovely double whammy of The Sound of Drums and All This Love is chocked full of old-school Cuomo melodies backed up with arguably the nearest the band have ever got to replicating those iconic Blue album guitar tones. And closer Wild at Heart’s rogue chord changes and soaring vintage synths make it an instant addition to the “Weezer, you’re not scared to play for your friends” playlist.

OK Human came close, but Spring is – bar tacked-on radio bait A Little Bit of Love – pure, unadulterated Weezer. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary with such a proposition. But if that sounds like your thing, then SZNZ Part One will delight.

Charlie Peters

SZNZ: Spring is released on 20^th March 2022. For further information or to order the album visit Weezer’s website here.

Watch the video for the single Angels on Vacation here: