Weezer (The White Album)
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| Studio album by Weezer | |||||
| Released | April 1, 2016 | ||||
| Format | Digital, CD, LP | ||||
| Recorded | Summer 2015 - early 2016 at Infrasonic Sound, The Lair, Studio X, United Recording and The Village |
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| Genre | Alternative | ||||
| Length | 34:05 | ||||
| Label | Crush Music/Atlantic Records | ||||
| Producer(s) | Jake Sinclair Ryan Spraker/Scott Chesak (add. production on track 2) Alex Goose (add. production on track 3) Jonny Coffer (add. production on track 9) |
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| Metascore | 71 | ||||
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Weezer also known as "The White Album," is Weezer's tenth studio album. It was revealed on January 14th, 2016 and was released on April 1st. A digital-only deluxe version was released on October 7th, 2016. The album garnered a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Rock Album.
Overview
The White Album is the band's tenth album and it seems to have one foot in the future and one in the past. After the disappointing sales of the previous album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End, the band left Republic Records and joined Crush Music. A new producer was signed, Jake Sinclair, whom the band met during the recording for Raditude. He is a self-confessed weezer fan who posted on allthingsweezer.com after the album was announced. The album has some classic-sounding songs like the Pinkerton style "Do You Wanna Get High?" and the The Blue Album-sounding "L.A. Girlz." There are also some new and modern sounding tracks like "Thank God for Girls" and "Jacked Up." Rivers has said that he was pushing for the new sound, while Jake wanted more classic style songs.
When work began for the album, Rivers showed his Dropbox account to Jake, which had almost 250 songs and demos. Only one song would make the cut: "California Kids", which set the tone and beach theme of the album.
The album received a bonus track in Japan and a digital deluxe version with four extra tracks was released on October 7th. The album was nominated for the Best Rock Album Grammy on December 5, 2016.
Writing
Much of the album's lyrics come from Cuomo's stream of consciousness diary as well as his experiences living in California. He also used tinder to meet up with people and then wrote about his experiences.
Cuomo annotated the lyrics of "Thank God for Girls," "Do You Wanna Get High?," and "King of the World" on the site genius.com. He was featured on the SongExploder podcast, where he detailed the writing and development of "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori". "Do You Wanna Get High?" was written about Cuomo's girlfriend in 2000, the same subject as "O Girl" and "O Girlfriend." It shares a similar name with COR#351 (October 2001, "D'ya Wanna Get High?"), but on Facebook Cuomo said the music was written from 2014-2015. "King of the World," which is about Cuomo's wife Kyoko Ito Cuomo, was annotated by both of them together. "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" is about two mothers Cuomo met at his daughter's school.
Fans on allthingsweezer.com have matched up some White album lyrics (particularly sections of "Endless Bummer" and "Prom Night") with stream of consciousness writings on Cuomo' now-defunct tumblr page.
Bandmate Brian Bell cowrote "Endless Bummer" and "L.A. Girlz" .
Release
On October 20, 2015, "Thank God for Girls" was played live at a small iHeart Radio show in Burbank, California. This was followed by an official single release on October 26th. A week later, on November 2nd, the song "Do You Wanna Get High?" debuted on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show on Apple Music. The song was officially released the following day. In interviews, Cuomo insisted that these songs were not part of a new album and that they were just two songs. In January of 2016, weezer.com became a blank white screen and the band's Facebook and Twitter pages posted blank white pictures. A video was posted to the band's youtube channel that was a white screen with static in the background. On the morning of January 14, the album was announced as The White Album with a release date of April 1 in addition to a new song and video for "King of the World".
Producer Jake Sinclair revealed himself on allthingsweezer.com as user "wannabeezer" and began to share insight on the new album. As a weezer fan himself, his goal was to make a weezer album that would change the third album on people's rankings. Two more songs were released before the album: "L.A. Girlz" on February 16th, and "California Kids" which leaked on Apple Music for a short amount of time. The latter was a remake of the 2014 Scott & Rivers song "California." The song was officially released on March 9.
Unlike past albums, the album would not be leaked until a day or two before release. On release, it received critical praise and fan acclaim, and the band launched a Summer tour with Panic! at the Disco.
On October 5th, a digital deluxe version was announced to release on the 7th. It contained previously released "I Love the USA" as well as the previously announced "Fake Smiles and Nervous Laughter" which later received a vinyl release in December. It also includes two new tracks, "Friend of a Friend" and a new remix of "Jacked Up" featuring Fitz of Fitz and the Tantrums & Nadya of Pussy Riot.
The album was nominated for the Best Rock Album Grammy on December 5, 2016.
The album was released digitally as well as on CD and vinyl. The first 400 vinyl copies were colored blue, green, and white. The next 4000 copies were colored all white. All other copies are black.
Track list
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "California Kids" | Rivers Cuomo/Dan Wilson | 3:25 |
| 2. | "Wind in Our Sail" | Cuomo/Ryan Spraker/Scott Chesak | 2:53 |
| 3. | "Thank God for Girls" | Cuomo/Alex Goose & Bruce Balzer/Craig Balzer/Bill Petti | 3:30 |
| 4. | "(Girl We Got a) Good Thing" | Cuomo | 3:25 |
| 5. | "Do You Wanna Get High?" | Cuomo | 3:27 |
| 6. | "King of the World" | Cuomo/Jarrad Kritzstein | 3:24 |
| 7. | "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" | Cuomo | 3:25 |
| 8. | "L.A. Girlz" | Cuomo/Brian Bell/Luther Russell | 3:29 |
| 9. | "Jacked Up" | Cuomo/Hugh Pescod/Jonny Coffer | 2:53 |
| 10. | "Endless Bummer" | Cuomo/Bell/Russell | 4:14 |
Total length: |
34:05 | ||
Bonus tracks
| Digital Deluxe Version | |||||||||
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| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 11. | "I Love the USA" | Cuomo/Sam Hollander | 3:10 | ||||||
| 12. | "Jacked Up" (Remix feat. Fitz of Fitz and the Tantrums & Nadya of Pussy Riot) | Cuomo/Pescod/Coffer | 2:56 | ||||||
| 13. | "Friend of a Friend" | Cuomo | 2:58 | ||||||
| 14. | "Fake Smiles and Nervous Laughter" | Cuomo | 3:26 | ||||||
| Japanese edition bonus track | |||||||||
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| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 11. | "Prom Night" | Cuomo | 3:34 | ||||||
Reception
Critics
| Reviewer | Rating | Review date | Author |
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| Pitchfork Media |    (6.2/10)
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April 1, 2016 | Zoe Camp |
| Allmusic | (4.5/5)
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Unlisted | Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
The White Album was received well, but not as well as the previous album Everything Will Be Alright in the End. Allmusic praised the quirky lyrics and Jake Sinclair's production in its 4.5 star review, and NME awarded the album 4 stars for taking itself less seriously compared to the dramatic pretenses of EWBAITE. Pitchfork gave the album a 6.2, disparaging the new sounding songs and claiming most of the value was found in the throwback tracks.
Individual songs
| Reviewer | Rating | Review date | Author |
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| "California Kids" (Teenage Victory Songs) | Mixed | May 14, 2016 | Teenage Victory Songs |
| "Do You Wanna Get High?" (Teenage Victory Songs) | Positive (The Grand Playlist) | November 6, 2015 | Teenage Victory Songs |
Fans
The White Album is very well loved by fans. Although lead single "Thank God for Girls" remains divisive, the album is seen as a continued return to form while fixing the problems of it's predecessor.
Personnel
- Rivers Cuomo – guitars, lead vocals
- Patrick Wilson – drums
- Brian Bell – guitars, backing vocals
- Scott Shriner – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Christopher Wray - synthesizers
- Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick - vocals
- Nadya Tolokno - vocals
- Ryan Spraker - piano and additional production
- Scott Chesak - piano and additional production
- Alex Goose - organ and additional production
- Jonny Coffer - piano and additional production
- Jake Sinclair – production, engineering
- Suzy Shinn - engineering
- Tanner Sparks - engineering
- Welsey Seidman - assistant engineering
- Claudius Mittendorfer - mixing
- Pete Lyman - mastering
See Also