SZNZ: Summer
By. Weezer
Release Date: June 21, 2022
I am here with round two of reviews for Weezer’s season collection — today’s record, SZNZ: Summer. The last two records will be dropping on Sept. 22, 2022 and Dec. 21, 2022. Make sure you are signed up for our email list to get notifications when the reviews drop because if those records are anything like the first two…we are gonna have a lot of fun stuff to talk about it!
As I mentioned in my SZNZ: Spring review, I knew that these records were gonna be some sort of acid trip, but once again, here I am shaken at how weird and not good this record was.
Right off the bat though, I liked this record a lot more than I did the spring one; not Weezer’s best, but better than spring. I have actually been listening to this record a lot so I could get a good overall for the review, whereas the spring one I think I only listened to once MAYBE twice cuz that is all I could handle.
Jumping into the record itself, some of these lyrics are just batshit crazy and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I have picked some of my favorites to share with you because I just can’t believe someone sat down with a pen and paper and wrote this stuff down.
“Cause Heaven is so dull
Lawn Chair, track 1
Too many grapes, too many harps…
Well, I’m gonna stand up and call you out
You’re a punk-ass, oh my God, there is no doubt”
These are my favorite lyrics because that is how I felt about SNZN: Spring.
“Hats off to you
Blue like Jazz, track 3
You solved the Rubik’s Cube…
I can’t play sixteenth notes
My mothers boy
Learning his IOUs”
“Walking in these hallowed hallways
What’s the Good of being Good?, track 5
Bearded masters on the wall”
“Everyone laughed at me
Thank You and Good Night, track 7
like I was a chipanzee…
While I’m up in the sky
waving my goodbye
Toodle-oo, toodle-oo…
Ain’t no kids on crutches”
There were a few lyrics that were kinda cool and deep, but they just sound ridiculous in these songs.
One upgrade that this record had was that the song titles didn’t suck as hard as they did on the spring record. Now they are not all gold (Lawn Chair and Cuomoville I’m looking at you) but all the titles fit the songs and at the end of the day, didn’t sound like band pieces.
The layout of the record was a little wonky for me. One thing done right for the spring record was that it had a spring sound to it; it wasn’t GOOD but you could tell that it was embodying spring not only from the actual sound of the songs but from how the album itself was organized.
I didn’t get summer from this record AT ALL! A song with good summer vibes should be able to be played at full volume with all the windows rolled down — not one of these songs passed that test.
The opening track, Lawn Chair, still had that spring-ish vibe, which makes sense to have as the opening track, but then everything else after that just felt heavy. It felt like this album was an anger ballad as opposed to something meant to represent the season of summer. I just don’t personally associate summer with anger.
Although I didn’t get summer from this record and it is by no means a ‘good’ album, there were two songs off of here that I actually didn’t mind and could see myself listening to on a regular basis — these are Records and The Opposite of Me.
The reason that I find myself playing Records on repeat is that it is just an easy listen. Out of everything off of this album, I find myself just putting this song on and, respectfully, feeling nothing. There are no emotions that I feel, there is nothing smart and technical I can say about it and I don’t really even register the lyrics — I just like it and find it to be a good listen.
The Opposite of Me on the other hand is kinda a bop if I am being honest. It is super upbeat and fun but also has those rises and falls to it that give variety that keeps the listener engaged. I also just LOVE the energy it gives off. Like, you know for a damn fact if Weezer wrote this song in 2006 it would have been the title track for Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Play this song and close your eyes, you will 100% be able to see all the wacky clips from that movie playing in a montage.
The worst song off of this album hands down in Cuomoville. Absolutely everything about it is horrible; the lyrics, the pacing, the melody and harmonies and just the overall sound. This song is so bad and I always forget how bad it is until I hear it. I really have nothing nice to say about it but just wanted to highlight that it is THE WORST!
I don’t think I mentioned this in the spring review, but I am really living for the cover art for these albums — I know it is a super simple concept but there is something about it I just love. Seeing the same scene just in different seasons is something so special because I don’t think people realize how the same shot can be different yet equally as beautiful throughout the year.
Reminds me a lot of Brian Geihl’s Minnesota Tree design/art that I just fell in love with the first time I saw it.
Overall, was this album good…no. But was it better than spring… a million times yes! I actually found some things about this second installment of the season collection to be tolerable and enjoyable which just makes me really excited about Fall and Winter. The downfalls of this record are that I didn’t like that the season of summer was not represented super well and that still only two songs stuck out and were actually good; 2/7 isn’t the best ratio of good and bad songs for an album to have. At the end of the day, SZNZ: Summer gets a 2/5 which is just .5 more than I rated SZNZ: Spring.
So as of right now, summer is in the lead of being the best out of this collection at a booming 2/5 stars. The next two albums are on their way and maybe there will be a trend, maybe they will just keep getting better and better by the season!
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