We didn't ask for a "Strokes-style" Weezer record, but we're getting one anyway

Rivers Cuomo says the fall and winter albums in his band's Seasons project are reminiscent of The Strokes and Elliott Smith

By Tatiana Tenreyro | July 16, 2021 | 5:40pm

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Is that Julian Casablancas? No! That’s Rivers Cuomo Photo: Kevin Winter

We heard back in February that Weezer were working on a four-album collection called Seasons, with each record being themed around a different time of the year and influenced by a specific artist or band. Rivers Cuomo told Apple Music’s Strombo that there’d be an Elliott Smith-inspired album and a Franz Ferdinand one. Weezer guitarist Brian Bell also teased in an episode of the Consequence Of Sound podcast Kyle Meredith With… that one of the records would be a “Weezer-inspired Weezer album,” whatever that means. But now Cuomo’s revealed a bit more about what fans can expect from Seasons.

During an appearance on Good Morning America on Friday, Cuomo mentioned that the collection is coming out next year, with each album being released on the first day of its corresponding season. He said spring will be “kind of like happy chill,” though didn’t mention what artist it’d be based on (we’re hoping this is the “Weezer-inspired” one). He adds that the band will “move through to dance rock, like a Strokes-style album for the fall, and then sad acoustic, Elliott Smith-style for winter.”

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We have absolutely no clue what a Weezer album inspired by The Strokes would sound like, but now we’re extremely curious. And with Weezer leaning heavily into radio-friendly pop with everything they’ve put out in the past five years, we can’t wait to see if Cuomo remembers how to craft melancholic songs. We’d even argue that though there’s plenty of angst to be heard on The Blue Album and Pinkerton, Weezer has never truly ventured into the sitting-alone-in-your-room-in-the-dark vibes that made Smith an indie icon. (Arguably the closest the band has come is the final track on Pinkerton, “Butterfly.”) But we admire the effort to give us something to listen to while dealing with seasonal depression.

One thing we learned with Weezer’s recent ’80s glam metal-inspired Van Weezer is that Weezer is now pretty damn good at making themselves sound like anything except the classic records that gave them such a huge fanbase in the first place. So, we’ll be eagerly waiting to see if they can emulate other major artists, too.