SZNZ: Spring
Anyone paying attention to Weezer over the years could’ve seen *SZNZ* coming. Not only does it make Rivers Cuomo’s sense of craft and tradition almost comically explicit (it opens with a riff on an 18th-century Vivaldi theme and Cuomo singing about how Shakespeare makes him happy \[“Opening Night”\]), but it also gives a kind of historical precedent for his eternal boyishness: He isn’t just a kid wallowing away in his suburban bedroom; he’s a cherub on the wings of a bluebird (“Angels on Vacation”) or Adam before the fall (“The Garden of Eden”). As for the soaring choruses and ripping mandolins, that’s just Van Halen, 200 years ahead of schedule. They’re always funny, but they’re never exactly kidding.
Rivers Cuomo toys with Renaissance Faire shtick on the first of four planned EPs inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
Though this isn’t the “Weezer-inspired” Weezer EP, it’s hopefully a taste of better things to come
Concept albums are not a foreign concept to Weezer -- the band released two of them in 2021, which is more than many acts do in their lifetime -- but their SZNZ project of 2022 is certainly ambitious.
There's something entertaining, even admirable, about the way Weezer leader Rivers Cuomo continues to follow his weirdest whims. The results...
To Weezer’s most avid followers, such a description evoked Green (2001) and Pacific Daydream (2017), where Cuomo adopted a somewhat horizontal stance behind the microphone while his band—polished up by slick, polished rock production—laid back in the grass and played their instruments behind him.
The first of a four-part EP series inspired by The Four Seasons, a famous collection of four violin concertos by 18th century Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, the premise of Weezer’s SZNZ series is as follows: one EP per season.
'SZNS: Spring' by Weezer Album Review by Adam Williams. The full-length drops on March 20, 2022 via Crush Music/Atlantic Recordings