I liked Weezer's first two albums , then they sold out and went pop and not in a good way. I from time to time will check back in on them and see if there is any hope. Their last album was not re-assuring. So they put out a cover album. I guess if you really had to cover Toto's "Africa" then they did it justice. I am more invested in "Everybody Want's to Rule the World". I was guessing the problem with this one would be the the vocals . The Tears For Fears version was sung with resonate emotion and we are getting Rivers , just kinda whine through it. They do capture some of the sounds right and play the right notes, it just doesn't have any feeling behind it. They continue to get the sounds right, but lack any feeling with "Sweet Dreams" . Really after Marilyn Manson did we need another cover of this ?
They do a better job with "Take on Me" . He comes close enough to hitting the falsetto part. "Happy Together' doesn't really capture the subtle melancholy on the verses, but they haven't put much feeling into any of the songs so why should this be different. "Paranoid" is good due to guitarist Brian Bell taking over the mic to do a better Ozzy than Rivers would be capable of. "Mr Blue Sky" is one of ELO's secondary hits. I have no investment in it and it's too happy of a song for me. TLC's is a much better choice, as his dead pan white boy voice creates the needed sense of irony. Hopefully this version will be the years's gay anthem.They once again capture the needed sounds for "Billie Jean" . He is singing more like a Weezer song which works.
They close the album with "Stand By Me" . I feel like they could have made a better choice here, but they seem to make the best of it. I'll give this album a 7 as it feels like while they capture the sounds they rarely are invested in putting any feeling into it. It's better than the last album of originals , so that is worth something I guess.
