Good day everyone, I hope you all have been well. How good is it to be back after (yes im going to say it) Covid (erk) ?.I’m not going to babble on about it too much, but how much of a buzz kill has it been? None to little work for alot of people including most of our favourite musicians, how rude of the pandemic to spoil our fun, right?!

I for one am glad to be seeing local artists get on stage again around the country, and also hear of some great (some long awaited) albums coming out from artists all around the world.

That being said I grabbed my headphones, my book and a pen and took off to my quiet space to write my first review of 2021. This year has already held a few firsts for me the worst being the first year I’m going to start life without either of my parents in it. But there are many positive firsts done and on the way also, my first show of my favourite female comedian, first time going to a concert with my step daughter just us 2 and late this year my partner and I will be welcoming our first baby together into this world. 

Anyway back to this particular first (album review for 2021).This band alot of you are sure to know very well, which could very well be from some of their most popular hits such as Island in the sun, Hash pipe and Buddy Holly.American rockers Weezer have been bashing our eardrums for many years now (since 1992 infact).

This time around I took a spin of Weezer’s 15th studio album Van Weezer. 

Van Weezer felt very familiar (Obvious nods to Van Halen right throughout) with a signature sound you would expect from these guys. One thing I found rather interesting about Van Weezer is that a good portion of the songs had what seemed like rather positive titles only to be lyrically the complete opposite. Whether this was on purpose or just my opinion of it is totally irrelevant. 

I’m going to work backwards here and tell you least favourite first (off the album).Personally my least favourite off Van Weezer was She needs me. It was boring, same old and vocally snoozy. There bandaid off, it’s said, let’s move on. 

A close second worst song was, I need some of that. It gave off some kind of Beach Boys vibe that just erkked me, bigger riffs at the beginning of this track saved it from the bottom of my list.
All the good ones and Blue Dream, were also at the bottom too. All the good ones was I guess sort of anthem styled and lacked excitement for me, however I have heard way worse. Blue dream was one of those so/so kind of songs,  didn’t hate it/didn’t love it. 
Going up the scale to tracks I enjoyed a little more was, Beginning of the End and Sheila can do it. Both songs had some decent parts but lacked some major luster too. One had a great sound but vocally eh and the other was vocally top notch but musically flat.
But after those few I felt myself plunked amongst some gems.1 more hit, had a rocking intro and was both catchy and enjoyable. It also sat really well vocally.The end of the Game was also catchy and riffy. I liked it alot. 

My second favourite of the entire album was the track that kicked the whole thing off, Hero. It was a great first song for an album, lyrically in depth, relatable and just really easy to listen to and jive with.

But to me they really did save the best one for last with Precious Metal Girl. It was completely different to all the other songs on the album. Acoustic and toned back it really didn’t need the gusto to stand out. The vocal was raw and the lyrics were meaningful. It hit every sense it needed to.

Overall Weezer’s Van Weezer was a pretty decent album. I certainly wouldn’t rank it as one of my personal favourites of all time but I am certain that many fans old and new alike will enjoy it for the art it is. 

I give it a 7/10

Steph Suter-James