Van Weezer: Difference between revisions

'''''Van Weezer''''' is the upcoming fifteenth studio album by [[Weezer]]. The title is a reference to the band [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen Van Halen], as the album features a focus on heavy guitars and more arena-rock styled songs. Originally slated for release on [[May 15]], [[2020]], the album was postponed until [[May 7]], [[2021]] due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

==Overview==

[[Rivers Cuomo]] first publicly mentioned the album title ''Van Weezer'' while discussing the band's progress on the album ''[[OK Human]]'' in an interview with ''Los Angeles Times'' in February of [[2019]], indicating that the album was inspired by Van Halen.<ref>Wood, Mikael. "Being Rivers Cuomo: Why Weezer’s frontman put his life into a spreadsheet." ''Los Angeles Times'', 22 February 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-rivers-cuomo-weezer-teal-album-black-album-20190222-story.html</ref> When asked about Weezer's two upcoming albums in an interview with ''Billboard'' published [[March 1]]st, Cuomo said: "One was mostly done before the Black Album. It’s currently called ''OK Human'' and was produced by Jake Sinclair, who did our White Album. The other one, I’m depressed thinking about it. I have this huge emotional block. It’s called ''Van Weezer'', and it’s basically a super-rock album. Like the Blue Album, but more guitar riffs."<ref>Ginsberg, Gab. "Rivers Cuomo on His Data-Driven Approach to Weezer" ''Billboard''. 1 March 2019. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8500614/weezer-rivers-cuomo-data-driven-approach-interview</ref>

[[Brian Bell]] acknowledged the album's existence in various interviews throughout [[2019]]. In an August interview with Spanish blog ''Binaural'', Bell suggested that [[Crush]] Management would prefer to release ''Van Weezer'' before ''OK Human''.<ref>Porcar, Pablo. "[Entrevista] Weezer: «Nos funciona confeccionar los discos de forma encadenada»" ''Binaural'', 6 August 2019. https://www.binaural.es/entrevista/entrevista-weezer-nos-funciona-confeccionar-los-discos-de-forma-encadenada/</ref>

On [[April 9]], it was revealed in [[List_of_Rivers_Cuomo_video_streams#Island_in_the_Zoom|a Zoom chat with fans]] that a single for the album was originally scheduled to be released either that day, or the next, but had been delayed (likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic). [[Karl Koch]] posted on the [[Weezer Fan Club]] Facebook group asking for footage of people involved in the outbreak, and that a deadline would be on [[April 15]], leading fans to speculate that the footage would be used for an upcoming video. The next day, on [[April 10]], Cuomo mentioned that there would be a [[Homie]] song on ''Van Weezer'', as well as a bonus track originally written around [[1992]].<ref>Clay, Tiffany. "Rivers Cuomo Island In The Zoom 4-10-2020." ''YouTube'', uploaded by Tiffany C, 4 October 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23lKoWnxEVc</ref> It was also revealed that all the album's tracks were fully mastered, with the only track ordering left to be determined. On [[April 14]], Cuomo sang a small segment of the song, "[[I've Thrown It All Away]]", during [[List_of_Rivers_Cuomo_video_streams#Island_in_the_Zoom|a webinar with fans hosted by Cuomo on the video platform Zoom]], for which co-writer [[Jason Cropper]] was present.<ref>"04-14-20 Rivers Cuomo Zoom Jason Cropper Lonely Girl, Cant Fight this Feeling, Purification of Water." ''YouTube'', uploaded by stupidsuck1010, 18 April 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOkTmq3x87s</ref> On [[September 2]], Cuomo confirmed via [[Riverpedia archive - 09/02/2020|a Riverpedia entry]] that the 1992 song "[[I've Thrown It All Away]]" had recently been recorded with the band. The article was later [[Riverpedia archive - 09/06/2020|updated]] on [[September 6]] to specify that it would be on the album. On [[September 3]], Cuomo confirmed via [[Riverpedia archive - 09/03/2020|another Riverpedia entry]] that "[[Sheila Can Do It]]" was the aforementioned Homie song appearing on ''Van Weezer''. On [[April 17]], during [[List_of_Rivers_Cuomo_video_streams#Island_in_the_Zoom|a Zoom chat with fans]], Cuomo stated that the release of ''Van Weezer'' had been postponed (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The postponement was formally announced alongside the release of the second single, "[[Hero]]", on [[May 6]], 2020.

On [[May 1]], Weezer posted an image to their social media accounts of a piece of paper with the date of [[May 6]] written on it.<ref>@weezer. ''Twitter'', 1 May 2020, 4:27 p.m. UTC, https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1256319393010798593</ref> Many assumed this was signaling the release of the next single, "[[Hero]]", as the image lined up with an additional request by Karl Koch for the Fanclub to provide videos of people "passing a blank piece of paper from left to right". These suspicions were confirmed on [[May 4]] when the band updated the photo to feature the song's name written above the date.<ref>@weezer. ''Twitter'', 4 May 2020, 1:00 p.m. UTC, https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1257354314802237449</ref> On [[May 2]], producer [[Suzy Shinn]] posted a snippet of a song to her Instagram account.<ref>Weezer B-Sides "Weezer - One More Hit [clip]." ''YouTube'', 4 September 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toBrCApBFXk</ref> It was later revealed in an ''[[Island in the Zoom]]'' conference that same night that the snippet heard was from the track "[[One More Hit]]". On [[August 21]], Cuomo confirmed via a [[Riverpedia_archive_-_08/21/2020#One_More_Hit|Riverpedia entry]] that the song would no longer be on the album, adding that it was "In talks with a video game." On [[May 7]], it was revealed that Weezer would appear as guests on the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' on [[May 10]], and that the ''Van Weezer'' track "[[Blue Dream]]" would be unveiled during [[Weezer TV appearance: 05/10/2020 - The Simpsons|the episode]]. A short instrumental clip of the song could be heard.

==Track listing==