To continue with our saga, we must look at the next song on the album, “Numbers.”
“Numbers” feels a lot like a classic Weezer ballad. The melody reminds me a lot of something that would come off of the Red album. The way Rivers shouts is in much resemblance of a Pinkerton song, but without the aggression behind it as you might would find in a Pinkerton song. The lyrics are very poetic and reaches the audience on a meaning that a lot of people today can understand.
According to genius.com, “Numbers is a song about every person’s discontent with their inadequacies and flaws, and how none of those things really matter as much as they’d like to think.” This can be supported by the lyrics “I’m a one, I’m a zero / In the end, does it matter? / All we even really know / Is every nail needs a hammer.” It also shows the feeling of incompetence as we as a society are constantly looking at the social lives of other people on social media, as shown by “Look at him, look at her, they’ve got a million likes.” In the end, it doesn’t matter how many likes a person gets. They are all just numbers, some not even really there. A lot of what we think about ourselves, when compared to other people, is all in our heads.
The next song is “Playing My Piano,” which is about the escapism Rivers Cuomo feels when he plays his piano. The song basically explains its meaning, as we see Cuomo neglect his everyday activities because he becomes so absorbed in playing his piano alone in his room. This song gives us as listeners an inside look at what Cuomo is like when writing his music: messy hair, drinking coffee, white-noise playing in the background, etc.
The thing about “Playing My Piano” is that is sounds so much like older Weezer. The melody reminds me a lot of something like Unspoken from the Hurley album or even “Unbreak My Heart” from Death to False Metal. The chorus, where we can find Cuomo belting out about playing his piano, is a lot like the chorus from “Unbreak My Heart.” The tonal range Cuomo has is phenomenal and this is one of the songs where we can really hear what he is capable of with both his writing and his vocals.
Up next on the album is “Mirror Image.” This song is very shorts, and acts as more of an interlude. It actually reminds me a lot of the interlude from the Sam’s Town album by The Killers, aptly named “Enterlude.” Both sing about heaven and being together, though they are focused on different people. While “Enterlude” focuses on being with the audience, “Mirror Image” is about Cuomo’s undying love for his wife and how they will always be together, and how he fears death for they won’t be together when they die.
The song is very sweet and, in my opinion, is unlike any Weezer song I have ever heard. It starts out strong and loud until it dies down into a soft outro, which could potentially be a metaphor for their life together. We see how passionate Cuomo is when it comes to his wife, elaborating that “she is my mirror image / showing me who I am,” as if Cuomo is incomplete without her around. It is definitely a personal favorite of mine.
So that concludes part 2. I hope everyone is enjoying breaking down, what I think is, the best Weezer album out there. Weezer never fails to make a good album, but every song on OK Human is a masterpiece.
Watch out for part 3 of 4 where we will discuss the next three tracks, coming next Tuesday!
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