Weezer is doing Weezer things again. Whether you are a fan or not, that’s good. Their newest single, “C.E.O.,” continues what appears to be the theme of their soon-to-be-released 16th studio album, currently known as surprise, surprise, Weezer.
“C.E.O.” is the third song released from the upcoming album. As near as I can tell, band leader Rivers Cuomo is attempting to release what amounts to a greatest hits compilation, only with all new material. If that sounds like a contradiction, welcome to the world of Weezer.
Cuomo and his output have proven to be infinitely debatable. For instance, I just said that the upcoming Weezer (which will be known as the Gold Album – I think this is the seventh color they have used) is number 16.
Weezer’s new single is Rivers Cuomo’s biggest throwback yet
But that is only true if you don’t count Cuomo’s most recent project. In 2022, he released a cycle of four EPs inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. You might count them as four, one, or zero albums.
I won’t get into all the rancor that revolves around the band’s discography. Pick any three fan or professional rankings of their albums at random, and I promise you will get a taste of how much opinions diverge over pretty much everything Cuomo has ever done.
For our purposes today, we are thinking about “C.E.O.” In order to put it in context, we have to consider the two earlier releases from the upcoming Gold Album.
“Shine Again” dropped first, back in April. (April 1, in fact, which I have to believe was some kind of inside joke.) “Shine Again” opens with the kind of grinding chords and riffy stabs that remind us all that Rivers Cuomo grew up a fan of hard rock bands like KISS.
And that, a few albums into their run, Weezer released Maladroit. That 2002 release was their KISS-like album, and “Shine Again” is reminiscent of songs like “Dope Noise.”
Two months later, “We Might As Well Be Strangers” showed. This one features Cuomo singing with Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman, and it calls to mind songs like “Across the Sea,” from their second album Pinkerton.
That sophomore release, once reviled and now revered, moved their sound from the early smart emo alt music of the debut toward more hard rock. Of course, what makes Weezer so special to its fans is the way Cuomo can be both a rocker and a whiny emo shoegazer at the same time.
By doing that, he has done as much to reveal one fundamental truth about rock and roll. Regardless of how gritty and tough a band may appear, they were usually outcast loners at some point. They just happened to have the musical talent to discover, in rock and roll, an outlet that resonated with all the other outcasts roaming around.
Cuomo has never lost that in more than 30 years as a successful recording artist.
And now “C.E.O” goes all the way back to the beginning. In its structure, it is an updated version of “Undone – The Sweater Song,” the first single from the first studio album Weezer (The Blue Album) back in 1994.
“C.E.O.” employs the same alternating spoken-world mumble with a bit of a hooky sung chorus. The twist here is that Cuomo has grown jaded in a different kind of way. Whereas “Undone…” focused on his favorite early theme … the frustrations of a failed love life … thirty years later, he has turned his attention to the music business itself.
In his opening narration, Cuomo laments…
“Wish I could do something new
But nobody wants to hear that
They just want the classics…”
Then he offers his fans this bit of understanding….
“You can’t blame ‘em, really.”
The sung chorus is about the label's CEO and the pressures to produce hits. I suppose if you squint hard enough, the metaphor really is about a sweater coming undone.
“C.E.O.” is both different enough from “Undone…” and far enough removed in time and space to not feel redundant. As such, it works really well. I think I may prefer “We Might as Well Be Strangers,” but all three singles suggest the Gold Album will be well worth the wait.
Maybe the most ear-catching moment in the new song comes in the second verse. Cuomo remembers…
“I was just a kid from Connecticut
Alone in my room playing with a Tascam 688
I miss those days
I was happy…”
I remember those days. Cuomo, at least in his role as frontman of Weezer, wasn’t happy. He may not have been suicidally depressed … he may have even been a tiny bit sanguine in the midst of sadness. But happy? I don’t think so.
Rivers Cuomo knows that way better than I do. He understands the nature of nostalgia. Which is why, if the Gold Album is indeed a greatest hits collection of new material, I can’t think of an artist better suited to actually achieving such an oxymoron of a project.
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