Weezer

So 2020 was going to be the year of Van Weezer - the big riffs rock album Weezer made as an homage to the metal bands they loved growing up - until, thanks to the global pandemic, it suddenly wasn't. The entire time, however, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo was busy at the piano, writing a very different album that referenced another vital musical touchstone of his youth: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

On March 1st, Weezer are set to release The Black Album. To tide fans over until then, Rivers Cuomo and co. have just unveiled a surprise 10-track covers LP which they’ve dubbed, The Teal Album. The tracklist comprises mainly of 80s-themed covers, kicking off with the band’s chart-topping version of Toto’s “Africa” and also featuring renditions of Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, a-ha’s “Take On Me”, and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. Other notable covers include Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky”, Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, and TLC’s “No Scrubs”.

High off a successful 2018, Weezer is already putting their stamp on the coming year. The band has announced that their forthcoming album, The Black Album, will arrive on March 1. It’s the follow-up to 2017’s Pacific Daydream. Weezer has already released the album’s first single, the strange “Can’t Knock The Hustle.,” and now they have unveiled the second single “Zombie Bastards.”