View source for Weezer (The Black Album)

{{About|the 2019 Weezer album|for other uses of "The Black Album"|The Black Album (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox album
| name         = Weezer
| type         = studio
| artist       = [[Weezer]]
| cover        = Weezer Black Album Cover.png
| alt          =
| released     = [[March 1]], [[2019]]
| format       = Digital, CD, LP, Cassette
| recorded     = [[2016]]{{citation needed}} - [[2018]] at United Recording, Los Angeles, CA; Federal Prism Studios, Los Angeles, CA
| studio       =
| genre        = Alternative
| length       = 37:33
| label        = Crush Music/Atlantic Records
| producer     = [[Dave Sitek]]
| reviews      = {{Black Album reviews infobox data}}
| metascore    = 53
| song_reviews =
| prev_title = [[Weezer (The Teal Album)]]
| prev_year = 2019
| next_title = [[OK Human]]
| next_year = 2021
| misc         = {{Singles
 | name         = Weezer (The Black Album)
 | type         = studio
  | single1     = [[Can't Knock the Hustle]]
  | single1date = October 11, 2018
  | single2     = [[Zombie Bastards]]
  | single2date = November 21, 2018
  | single3     = [[High as a Kite]]
  | single3date = February 21, 2019
  | single4     = [[Living in L.A.]]
  | single4date = February 21, 2019
  }}
}}
'''''Weezer''''', also known as "'''The Black Album'''", is Weezer's thirteenth studio album and sixth self-titled album. It was initially envisioned as a follow-up album to 2016's ''[[Weezer (The White Album)]]''. After several delays, the album was released on [[March 1]], [[2019]].
==Overview==
===Writing===
{{Quote|The [White and Black albums] were kind of born at the same moment. We were performing at some TV show, and my manager came in the dressing room and said, “All right, you’re not gonna like this, but how about we call this album the White Album?” and I kind of groaned. And then he said, “And that means the next album can be the Black Album!” and I was like, that’s cool, I’m in. That’s all it was.|Rivers Cuomo|[[Black Album bio - November 2018|interview]] with Scott Heisel, November 2018}}
Cuomo first spoke publicly about the ''Black Album'' when appearing on Zane Lowe’s radio show in February 2016, saying the "White Album is cool ‘cause then next we can do a Black Album and it'll be like super dark. Already working on those songs. I just love contrast."<ref>Camp, Zoe. "Weezer Share "L.A. Girlz," Rivers Cuomo Says He's Already Working on "The Black Album"" ''Pitchfork''. 17 February 2016. https://pitchfork.com/news/63610-weezer-share-la-girlz-rivers-cuomo-says-hes-already-working-on-the-black-album/</ref>. The frontman followed up in March, saying of [[Weezer (The White Album)|''The White Album'']], "[[Jake Sinclair|Jake [Sinclair]]], our producer, was very much the voice of conservatism, on the side of the old-school fans... He won on [White], and I'm gonna win on the next album, which is the Black Album." He added that he had already been working on the record for 6 months.<ref>Wood, Mikael. "Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo is getting ‘comeback’ fatigue" ''Los Angeles Times''. 25 March 2016. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-ms-rivers-cuomo-20160327-story.html</ref>

In April, Cuomo gave more detail about the sound of the Black Album which he said would be coming out in a year. “The next album is going to feel like an urban environment, night-time and gritty and hopefully a lot more modern sounds, synthesized sounds, samples maybe. I like to break away from the distorted power-chord thing but it’s hard ‘cos it works so well”<ref>Shutler, Ali. "Rivers Cuomo talks about Weezer’s “gritty” ‘Black’ album" ''Upset Magazine''. 5 April 2016. Archived by ''Wayback Machine'' https://web.archive.org/web/20170823163231/https://www.upsetmagazine.com/news/read/rivers-cuomo-talks-about-weezers-gritty-black-album/ from the original: https://www.upsetmagazine.com/news/read/rivers-cuomo-talks-about-weezers-gritty-black-album/</ref>. In another interview in April, he said that the Black Album would "require new psychological techniques, new writing techniques, new places to hang out, like Echo Park and Silver Lake. Psychoanalysis is going to play a big role. It's going to be more R-rated, with maybe swear words for the first time on a Weezer album"<ref>Hedegaard, Erik. "The Dream Life of Rivers Cuomo" ''Rolling Stone''. 7 April 2016. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-dream-life-of-rivers-cuomo-20160407</ref>. Cuomo later described the album's sound as "Beach Boys gone bad."<ref>"Weezer are already working on new material: “I’m thinking of swearing”" ''DIY''. 20 April 2016. http://diymag.com/2016/04/20/weezer-new-material-black-album</ref>

The announcement of ''[[Pacific Daydream]]'' in August of 2017 drew into question ''the Black Album's'' status, but in a talk with Zane Lowe, Cuomo explained: "Initially, these songs were set aside in a Dropbox folder called "beach" until this folder started growing faster than the Black Album one did, and the album really came together." However, he insisted that the Black Album was still coming and was "pretty much ready." In November 2017, Cuomo commented in an interview with ''Vulture'' that "if ''Pacific Daydream'' was one big step away from Weezer’s history, then ''The Black Album'' is ten of those."<ref>Riesman, Abraham. "Rivers Cuomo Is Still Lonely" ''Vulture''. 1 November 2017. http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/weezer-rivers-cuomo-interview-lifehacks-pacific-daydream.html</ref>

In October of 2017, Cuomo reported that ''the Black Album'' was nearly complete and that he hoped it would release in May of the following year.<ref>Moore, Sam. "[https://www.nme.com/news/music/weezer-the-black-album-rivers-cuomo-update-2154323 Rivers Cuomo gives update on Weezer’s ‘Black Album’]" ''NME''. 28 October 2017</ref> In spring of 2018, the band began preparing the single "[[Midnight]]" for release. In late May, however, the band released a cover of "[[Africa]]" by Toto, intending it as a fun single to promote their forthcoming tour. Instead, the cover became one of the band's most successful singles ever, delaying the release of "Midnight" until it was ultimately scrapped entirely.{{Citation needed}}<!--Cite email here--> "The whole Black album got scrapped. I really liked it, my manager really liked it, but nobody else on earth liked it. So we ended up having to shelve the whole thing." Cuomo recalled in November of 2018.<ref name="heisel">Heisel, Scott. [[Black Album bio - November 2018]]</ref>

Following the dissolution of the planned ''Black Album'', the title was instead given to another in-progress album, a collaboration with producer [[Dave Sitek]]. "This album was known as the [[Dave Sitek|Sitek]] album for most of the time we were working on it," said Cuomo, "then we just decided to take the Black title and stick it on this one, and it fits pretty well."<ref name="heisel" /> Sitek greatly influenced the direction of the album. "One of the main themes on the album is drugs," Cuomo told iHeartRadio,<ref>"Weezer Talks Black Album, Drugs, New Tour, and More! | Exclusive Interview" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAWoBEwFUNg</ref> "which is strange because I don't do drugs but the producer, Dave, does a lot of drugs. So I was just kinda hanging around with him and seeing what he's into and it was just so hilarious and weird and inspiring, so I wrote from his perspective as, like, this crazy person and, it was a lot of fun me to step into his shoes. As a songwriter I feel like these days I'm more like a portrait painter, like I'm bored of writing about myself so I just like to study somebody else and write from their perspective, that's how I get inspired."
===Promotion and release===
On October 9th, a (since removed) Yelp profile was created and shared by the official Weezer Twitter account. All of the reviews contained the words: <blockquote><i>"Can't knock the hustle!<br>
Hasta luego<br>  
Hasta luego <br> 
Hasta luego <br> 
adios." </i></blockquote>

All of the establishments reviewed notably contained the word "black" in their name. Later that day, the profile was deleted. The next day, a tripadvisor profile was created, continuing use of the word "black."<ref>@RiversWentz ''Tripadvisor'' profile. https://www.tripadvisor.com/members/RiversWentz</ref> These reviews were later revealed to contain lyrics from the album's lead single "[[Can't Knock the Hustle]]".

The phrase "Can't knock the hustle" is the title of a [[Wikipedia:Can%27t_Knock_the_Hustle|song]] by rapper {{Wikipedia|Jay-Z}} off of his [[1996]] album ''[[Wikipedia:Reasonable_Doubt_(album)|Reasonable Doubt]]''. Jay-Z also has another famous album (that was intended to be his last) called [[Wikipedia:The_Black_Album_(Jay-Z_album)|''The Black Album'']]. It is unknown if this is a deliberate homage.

It was mentioned in an interview with ''The Woody Show'' on [[October 11]] that the sound of the album would be a mix of the Beastie Boys, Beck, and Weezer.<ref>Ballesteros, Arthur. "Weezer debuts new song “Can’t Knock the Hustle” starring Pete Wentz" ''104.5 FM KFOG''. 11 October 2018. http://www.kfog.com/2018/10/11/weezer-performs-live-on-the-woody-show-debuts-new-song-cant-knock-the-hustle/</ref> In January 2019, several music news outlets stated that the album would be officially titled ''Invasion Of Privacy''.<ref>"Invasion Of Privacy (The Black Album)" ''Rough Trade''. https://www.roughtrade.com/us/weezer/invasion-of-privacy-the-black-album/tape</ref>. This was reverted shortly thereafter. The cause of this error is unknown.

In an interview with ''Dazed'', Cuomo indicated a hope that the album would be out in May of 2018 and that it was nearly complete.<ref>Eloise, Marianne. "Rivers Cuomo on dark thoughts, Post Malone & being prolific" ''Dazed''. 27 October 2017. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/37880/1/rivers-cuomo-on-dark-thoughts-post-malone-being-prolific</ref> On [[February 2]], Cuomo stated on an Australian Radio show that ''The Black Album'' was coming [[May 25]], 2018.{{Citation needed}} He also said that it was very similar to ''[[Pinkerton]]'' writing wise and that ''[[Pacific Daydream]]'' would be the modern day [[Homie]]. 

The first song to be released for the album was the single "[[Can't Knock the Hustle]]" on [[October 11]], 2018. A second song, "[[Zombie Bastards]]", was later released on [[November 21]], along with the album's release date of [[March 1]], [[2019]]. Two more tracks, "[[High as a Kite]]" and "[[Living in L.A.]]"", were released back to back on [[February 21]].

To promote ''Black'', the band released an island in the game [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnite Fortnite] called Weezer World.<ref>Porter, Jon. "Fortnite’s latest collaboration is with aging rock stars Weezer" ''The Verge''. 1 March 2019. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/1/18245926/fortnite-weezer-black-album-collaboration-creative-mode</ref> The map was made by Fortnite creative mode map-making team Cre8 and contained multiple minigames and activities, featuring the music of ''Weezer's'' ''Black'' Album. Activities included a hoverboard park and a golf cart target shooting game.<ref>https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb5SZ6bQpOA</ref>

==Scrapped tracks==
In a November 2017 interview, Rivers mentioned the song "[[Runner-Up]]", which he called ''Pinkerton''-esque, also saying "my piano is in there, but then there are all these electronic, dark elements that sound like nothing we’ve ever done." In May 2018, Rivers played a new song at a solo-acoustic set called "[[Cardigan Disaster]]", which matched the descriptions of the Black Album as the song includes the lyrics "midnight in the city" and featured swearing. It was later revealed to have been the intended first single for the album. At one point, the video eventually used for "[[Can't Knock the Hustle]]" was intended for this song under the new title "[[Midnight]]". 

==Reception==
===Critics===
====Individual songs====
{{The Black Album song reviews}}

==Track list==
{{Track listing
| total_length    = 37:39

| title1          = [[Can't Knock the Hustle]]
| length1         = 3:41
| writer1         = [[Rivers Cuomo]]
| title2          = [[Zombie Bastards]]
| length2         = 4:11
| writer2         = Cuomo/[[Rami Yacoub]]
| title3          = [[High as a Kite]]
| length3         = 3:48
| writer3         = Cuomo/[[Josh Alexander]]
| title4          = [[Living in L.A.]]
| length4         = 3:38
| writer4         = Cuomo/[[Jonny Coffer]]/[[Jerome Williams]]
| title5          = [[Piece of Cake]]
| length5         = 3:17
| writer5         = Cuomo
| title6          = [[I'm Just Being Honest]]
| length6         = 3:57
| writer6         = Cuomo/[[Ammar Malik]]/[[David Hodges]]
| title7          = [[Too Many Thoughts in My Head]]
| length7         = 4:03
| writer7         = Cuomo
| title8          = [[The Prince Who Wanted Everything]]
| length8         = 3:23
| writer8         = Cuomo/[[Brian Bell]]/[[Luther Russell]]
| title9          = [[Byzantine]]
| length9         = 4:09
| writer9         = Cuomo/[[Laura Jane Grace]]
| title10         = [[California Snow]] 
| length10        = 3:32
| writer10         = Cuomo
}}

==Personnel==
*[[Rivers Cuomo]] – lead vocals, piano
*[[Patrick Wilson]] – drums, lead guitar
*[[Brian Bell]] – guitars, backing vocals, keyboard
*[[Scott Shriner]] – bass guitar, backing vocals, synthesizers
*[[Dave Sitek]] - production, engineering
*Lisa Boldyreva - assistant engineering
*Matty Green - mixing
*Eric Boulanger - mastering
*Michael Beinhorn - pre/post production
*Jason Hiller - additional guitar engineering
*KoOoLkOkAk - additional production ("Can't Knock The Hustle")
*Money Mark - keyboards ("Can't Knock The Hustle" & "Byzantine")
*[[Jonny Coffer]] - co-production ("Living in L.A.")
*Jerome Williams - additional production ("Living in L.A.")
*Todd Simon and Sam Robles - horns ("The Prince Who Wanted Everything")

==See Also==
* [[Weezer (The White Album)]]
* [[Pacific Daydream]]
* [[Black Album bio]]
* [[Black Album bio - November 2018|Black Album bio (Interview with Rivers Cuomo and Dave Sitek)]]
==References==
<references />

{{Navbox Black album}}
{{Discography}}

[[Category:Weezer albums]]
[[Category:2019 releases]]
[[Category:Self-titled records]]