Weezer had quite the revival in 2018, from their cover of Toto’s “Africa”, to a surprisingly popular SNL skit about the decisive nature of the band and their current music. Due to this, Weezer did the only logical thing, release an album of covers The Teal Album. The track lists ranges from songs like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Take on Me” to “Billie Jean” and “No Scrubs”. Ever-so-shockingly the album sparked mixed reviews, with some saying that the album was ridiculous and unnecessary while other felt that it was a fun way to change things up.

I have been a huge Weezer fan for years- I’ve seen them in concert several times and have even met them- so when I saw that they dropped a purely cover album I was a bit confused and when I saw the track list I was even more puzzled. However, after listening to it, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the album was absolutely ridiculous, but it was super entertaining to listen to. The ones that I was most expecting to hate were actually some of the highlights of the album, especially their cover of “No Scrubs”. I was not confident that middle age, white men would be able to pull this song off, but boy was I wrong. Cuomo seems self-aware, yet he still is able to have fun with the song. Another highlight was their cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, while Cuomo is not always able to keep up with Jackson’s vocals, he doesn’t let that stop him. They make the classic funk-pop song into a concert-ready anthem. Weezer added heavy guitar riffs and strong drums to the song, and it truly brought new life to the song.

Weezer has always been able to pull of covers so it is not surprising that this album is not an exception. Yes, I understand the criticisms but at the end of the day this album just seemed like Weezer having some fun just for the heck of it, and who can fault a band for that.