Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: Weezer – SZNZ: Summer (2022)

So after I learned about the gimmick they’re going for this year, and covered Spring, I feel like I have to cover all of them. So the Summer solstice happened during the work week, so this one isn’t as timely as the last, but let’s see if it captures the feeling of the season.

Weezer is: Rivers Cuomo (vocals/guitar), Patrick Wilson (drums/backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar/backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass/backing vocals)

• Artist: Weezer
• Album: SZNZ: Summer (2022)
• Label: Crush Music/Atlantic Records
• Total Track Time: 23:41

Lawn Chair picks up on that Angel looking down perspective from a few of the Spring songs. It’s very somber with an interpretation of Vivaldi’s Seasons to help imply the change of Spring into Summer when the guitar slide hits and it nearly sounds like graduation music (which is also appropriate). Records this has the heavier Pop Punk sound that they were known for in their heyday. A nice bass groove drives the song as Rivers lists off music guiding his life. So the simple irreverence of Summer where you can just enjoy and follow the tune of your own drummer, so to speak, is the vibe I get from this. Definitely a solid lead single. Blue Like Jazz now this gives me a lot of early 00s Weezer vibes. It’s a jazz infused waltz with crunchy guitar and lyrics that don’t say a ton but gets across summer in the concept of just finding cool things to do, as the chorus says, “Blue like jazz, blue like jazz, Show me how to be cool like that, Blue likе jazz, blue like jazz, Show me how to bе cool like that”.

The Opposite of Me dovetails nicely from the vibe of the last song. Instead of just learning to be cool, this has a rebellious spirit to the guitar driven sound. Learning to be opposite could just symbolize growing up, going from dorky kid to cool kid thanks to a growth spurt or literally just reinventing yourself since Summer during school years was the perfect chance to hit the reset button on who you were and make the next year better/different. Fun song that I could at least dig into and follow along the school days vibe. What’s the Good of Being Good starts off with a goofy sounding marching band bit before going into the vocals. The marching band makes me think this is going back to school, but it could be told from an adult reminiscing perspective. The lyrics are all about accomplishments, medals, awards, all of those, meaning nothing when you have no one to celebrate them with. “What’s the good of being good, When there’s no one who will appreciate, And so you might as well accept the fact, You’re gonna finish last, you’re gonna finish last”, the pessimistic yet tragic perspective has to be from an adult since it’s not often that teenagers are as deeply jaded as the lyrics continue on with. It puts things into an interesting perspective of ‘Glory Days’ of High School and how nothing really mattered.

Cuomoville this probably feels the most out of place, but in Spring, they referenced Romans, Druids, and different interpretations of the Spring solstice. While the songs seems to focus on generalized Roman imagery of feeding people to lions and sacrifice, it doesn’t outright reference Vulcanalia. So this feels like a filler song, but at least musically it’s not jarring or atrocious. Thank You and Good Night is a really good rock and roll beat, and I mean like classic/cliché rock and roll. Kicking off with lyrics about “Rookie Season” I feel like this is supposed to ramp us into the raucous end of summer where Americans go full throttle into Football and energy general goes up toward the end since people try to capture that last little bit of summer. So one last big rager with the boys works well with the music and the title of the song sounds like a nice “til next year” kind of sendoff.

So this album has more of a sound I can personally appreciate whilst keeping very true to the vibe of the season…for the most part. Cuomoville still feels weird and out of place, but they obviously want to do something with the imagery when they bring up Romans and Angels often in these first two albums. Maybe in the grand scheme of the quartet of albums it will make more sense.

Thank You and Good Night along with Blue Like Jazz are great songs. I could imagine them making setlists for years to come. I rated Spring more off of capturing the feeling of the season, aside from how it spoke to me, since the point of these concept albums are more getting across the season vibe. Summer, was better than Spring in all respects (and I’m a cold weather person, fyi). So damn good job!

Final Judgment: 8.05/10