Weezer released their 20th studio album, “Weezer” — also known as “The Gold Album” — on Aug. 21. Beneath the surface of their newest self-titled album, Weezer introduces something subtly reflective of what it means to keep creating music as they grow older.
Alternative rock band Weezer was formed 34 years ago in Los Angeles, a city frequently referenced in many of their songs, such as 2005’s “Beverly Hills,” 2016’s “L.A. Girlz” and 2019’s “Living in L.A.” Even so, the band’s lead singer, Rivers Cuomo, was born in New York and spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Connecticut. During Cuomo’s last day of eighth grade, he realized that he wanted to be a musician.
“There was a performance by some other … eighth grade boys … And these were kids I knew, and they were just regular kids, and yet, they were playing these instruments, and it just sounded incredible. It was just magic. I was like, ‘I should be able to do this,’” Cuomo recalled on an episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend.”
He played in several bands both in Connecticut and California that eventually faded. However, through his co-workers, he met some of the other founding Weezer band members, including the drummer Patrick Wilson, the bassist Matt Sharp and the rhythm guitarist Jason Cropper — and the rest is history. Since then, Weezer has made many studio albums over the last three decades, including 1994’s “Weezer,” also called “The Blue Album”; 2001’s “Weezer,” nicknamed “The Green Album”; and 2005’s “Make Believe.” Before the latest album, the band released a 2022 series of four seasonal extended plays — Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter — jointly known as the SYNZ project. The exhaustion of the project sparked the creation of “The Gold Album,” which called to abandon overcomplicated experiments and return to their roots.
The best way to describe “The Gold Album’s” opening song, “Say Yes,” is that it sounds bouncy and cheery despite its anxious lyrics. The fast, guitar-driven track establishes a consistent rhythm that quickly turns into an earworm. The album opens with Cuomo half-singing, half-talking.
“Everybody here’s gonna try and drag me down / Make me so scared that I’m never gonna wanna leave this town / Hide my head in the ground,” Cuomo vocalizes.
From the get-go, the band is sensitive with the audience, expressing a sentiment that seems to be about the band’s worth. Later in the song, Cuomo’s falsetto vocals bring us back to the nostalgia of Weezer’s early days. This track foreshadows what the rest of the album continues to express: that they can continue to create meaningful music despite growing older.
This isn’t the last time Weezer reintroduces aspects of their old self in “The Gold Album.” The repetition of “uh-huh” in “We Might as Well Be Strangers” — the fourth track on their new album, featuring Wednesday — takes listeners back exactly 30 years ago to 1996’s “Pinkerton,” Weezer’s second studio album. “Pinkerton’s” second track, “Getchoo,” repeats the iconic phrase, “Getchoo, uh-huh.”
In comparison, in “We Might as Well Be Strangers,” Cuomo sings, “We might as well be strangers, uh-huh / Something came along and changed us, uh-huh.” This chorus gets repeated throughout the track as well. This isn’t the first time bands have used this approach of referencing their older songs to attract newer generations to their music while keeping their original sound alive. Many iconic ‘90s bands, such as Green Day, Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, frequently return to their classic sound under this same exact pressure from die-hard fans who only want to listen to the old hits.
The fifth track, “C.E.O.,” softly ties the album together thematically. In the intro, Cuomo sings, “Cranking out another nineties jam / Wish I could do something new / But nobody wants to hear that / They just want the classics.”
This intro perfectly captures the strange paradox in how we listen to music today. There are many listeners who refuse to hear modern music, solely clinging onto the past. Rock bands from the ‘90s carry this burden of authenticity. Fans make it hard for legacy bands to evolve as musicians. By starting the track with a blunt confession, Cuomo is acknowledging this trend faced by other musicians in their position. Granted, mainstream media and upbeat pop flourish with the new.
This overarching theme of staying authentic stays constant with their eighth track, “The Show Must Go On.” Once more starting in the intro, Cuomo begins, unfiltered, with, “I ain’t fit for duty, I am beat down to the ground / And there’s just one creedler out there listening to our song.”
Since Weezer was formed over three decades ago when Cuomo co-founded the band at 21 years old, it’s easy to say that they aren’t as young as they once were. Regardless, rather than hiding behind studio polish, Weezer chose to rawly express weariness with the audience. This is how they continue to stay authentic, and it paid off.
There are distinctive characteristics of Weezer that have remained persistent since their formation, keeping that garage-sounding energy alive. Decades into their musical careers, the frontman Cuomo retains his youthful voice that makes him sound just like he did when they first formed. The rest of the band members stay true to themselves and where they came from as well, never trying to be something that they aren’t. By staying completely authentic to their signature identity, Weezer proves that you can grow older without losing the core of who you really are.
People are raving about this new album, noting that “it delivers the band’s signature energy for the faithful.” Though some may say that there are a few “filler tracks,” music taste is subjective in itself. Still, critics also claim that such songs are “overpowered by stellar efforts.” Overall, Weezer’s “The Gold Album” has received widely favorable and positive reviews, commended for its return to the band’s classic sound, energy and songwriting. The new album continues to channel Weezer’s signature openness about their insecurities with the audience. This vulnerability is a key component that they have always possessed, cementing their relationship with their longtime supporters after all these years.
Julia Magdei is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the summer 2026 quarter. She can be reached at jmagdei@uci.edu.
Edited by Jocelyn Cosgrove.
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