There are plenty of artists people love to hate, but few attract more sustained criticism than Weezer. The band, which announced its 10th studio album today, gets a very nuanced sort of backlash. In 2010 a Seattle man offered Weezer $10 million to break-up. In the 2015 Pitchfork Reader’s Poll, the site asked, “Should Weezer just go ahead and quit already?” (A not entirely too predictable 64 percent of readers want to give them the boot).
The subtle difference between Weezer hate and Nickleback hate is that the people who hate Weezer also once loved Weezer. “Et tu, Weezer” these fans call out. They feel betrayed by the band because they know the band can do better.
It seems that even Weezer is aware of its salient dilemma and every couple of years the band ushers in a return-to-form color album. The one coming out April 1 is simply called Weezer, but you’ll call it “The White Album” and it includes previously released singles “Thank God for Girls” and “Do You Want to Get High?”
Today, the band unveiled a video for the new song “King of the World,” which features a schlubby guy dressed in royal regalia drinking on the pier and pestering patrons. The song itself is fairly harmless. Rivers Cuomo steps out of his lyrical comfort zone to tell a girl if she were with him, she’d never be sad again. Even through all the saccharine, it’s kind of sweet when he sings “we’ll face tsunamis together.”
The music itself is everything you could ask for from Weezer: catchy, fun power-pop about love and heartache. You can hate Weezer all you want but they aren’t going anywhere. Today, in a statement, Cuomo said, “After 24 years, we still love being in this band and we wanna keep it going for at least another 14 years.”