On January 29th, 2021, the American rock band Weezer released their fourteenth album, “OK Human.” This album is hands down one of the best albums of our entire lives, and I am not just saying that as Weezer’s number one fan.
So, I am gonna break down every song on the album along with the album cover and tell you why everything about this album is so perfect.
The first song on this album is “All My Favorite Songs.” It starts out with this wonderful violin and lead singer’s, Rivers Cuomo’s, angelic voice lamenting about how all his favorite songs are slow and sad. This song is relatable on a whole other level for many people. Someone like my mom, who I joke with often about listening to the most depressing music, found this song to be one of her favorites from the album as she relates to Cuomo’s own music tastes. The song expresses a feeling of guilt in relation to personal feelings, as can be expressed by “I love parties, but I don’t go, then I feel bad when I stay home” and “I wanna be rich, but I feel guilty, I fall in love with everyone who hates me.” The feeling of guilt for not wanting to do anything, especially after being stuck in a pandemic for a year by this time, was all to real for many people and I think Cuomo really captured that in his lyrics. Not to mention that the rhythm of the song just flows so well with everything. I think choosing the violin as one of the main instruments for this song was a smart decision as it gives off that somber but very intellectual sound that you will find present in most of the songs on this album.
“Aloo Gobi” is the second song on the album. The ending of “All My Favorite Songs” continues into the beginning of this one, something that you will find repeated with every song as they all flow into each other in order of the album. “Aloo Gobi” expresses the feeling of not wanting to be around anyone and hating the “same old dull routines.” “Aloo Gobi” is actually and Indian dish made with potatoes and cauliflower, a dish which Cuomo and his wife Kyoko would eat as they find a movie to watch at their local Aero Theatre. Genius.com describes the song as “an ironic take on what Cuomo at the time saw as a boring, dull routine” but has now learned not to take those repetitive moments for granted as the quarantine has shut those moments out of his life during that time. Cuomo says, “when I wrote it, I was just so bored with my social life, but I really took it for granted. That’s all been obliterated now and I sure do miss it! The joke was on me.” This song taught me not to take those small moments for granted, some moments I can’t ever get back.
“Grapes of Wrath” is one of my personal favorites from the album. Each line tells a snippet from certain books such as Lord of the Rings and Moby Dick. The song is about Cuomo finding tranquility in audio books as if he is exploring whole new worlds. The title of the song refers to the 1939 John Steinbeck novel with the same name. The song stemmed from him unable to sleep one night, so he laid there listening to an audio book and the next day, went to write songs in a half-asleep daze, something he commented that people like Thomas Edison and Quincy Jones got their greatest ideas when they were also dozing off during work. The song gives this surreal feeling of escapism as we can picture exactly what is going on in Cuomo’s mind. The line, “Frodo jonesing for the ring,” gives us as listeners the exact replication of Frodo from Lord of the Rings and his desire for the ring by the end of the third book. Along with the violin playing in the background as I have stated before, the song feels very intellectual and like Cuomo knows exactly what he’s talking about.
There are 12 songs total on the album, so for each post I will talk about 3 songs. Expect part 2 of this saga to come out next Tuesday! Feel free to debate in the comments and talk about the album and the songs!
GREENSBORO COLLEGE ART COLUMN 