WEEZER: Ok Human (POP): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Even if his name doesn't ring a bell, chances are you've already crossed Weezer's path. Indeed, 'Island in the Sun', from the "Green Album", is likely to have traveled through your ears via your favorite FM radio (unless you listen to Classic Radio) or television, having been used as music for a commercial for La Banque Postale in France.

Yet this American band, created in 1992 around its leader Rivers Cuomo, is not stingy in its efforts since "OK Human" is already its fourteenth album. Weezer has followed the same trajectory as Coldplay, seeing the nervous alternative rock of its first albums give way to a more mainstream pop. "OK Human" is pushing the envelope a little more. The more perceptive may have already noticed the Americans' humor, the title of their album referring to a certain "OK Computer" (Radiohead). This title is explained by the themes it addresses, which deal with the feelings of isolation, alienation and loneliness felt by humans clinging to their technology.

And to illustrate this theme, Weezer puts computers in the closet and returns to an analog recording. Only acoustic instruments are tolerated in this "OK Human", reinforced and almost supplanted by a 38-piece orchestra. In view of the result, one thinks that a little less technology is definitely not harmful.

For, since its turn towards more pop waters initiated with the "Green Album", the band's productions have alternated between excellent ("Green Album", "White Album") and mitigated. The recipe being more or less the same, small songs in a short format of two to three minutes, rarely more, the difference lies essentially in the inspiration, some compositions generating an inexplicable well-being when the dullness of others only inspire boredom.

"OK Human" is in the first category because it is a compendium of powerful hits, sometimes melancholic ('Numbers', 'Playing My Piano', 'Bird with a Broken Wing', 'Dead Roses'), sometimes sunny or light ('All My Favorite Songs', 'Grapes of Wrath', 'Screens'), Here Comes the Rain'), irresistibly evoking the English pop of the greatest, starting with the Beatles (whose title 'Here Comes The Rain' refers to the English 'Here Comes The Sun'), but also the Kinks, Coldplay and even Queen (the end of 'Playing My Piano'). No decrease in intensity is to be deplored, the twelve titles being listened to with the same pleasure.

With its simple melodies, addictive choruses, sumptuous orchestrations and a song that sometimes makes you spleen, sometimes makes you smile, "OK Human" is a little nugget of symphonic pop not to be missed under any circumstances. - Official website

WEEZER

OK HUMAN

ATLANTIC RECORDS

POP