Weezer - Ok Human (Album review)
Sadly, Ok Human is a continuation of Weezer’s terrible form,
the name which is most likely a reference to Radiohead’s classic album Ok
Computer draws on many of the same themes across the album but in the most out
of touch boomer who is afraid of technology kind of way. Rivers is basically
digging up a point that was considered quite relevant twenty years ago and
repurposing it in an on the nose, cringe and out of touch way. Musically the
album sounds like every other recent Weezer album except for an overwhelming
use of strings which do compliment the album in parts but weigh the album down
much more often.
Take the opening track and lead single All My Favourite Songs
which I think is by far the best track despite its many flaws; it’s a heartfelt
and honest song and the strings sit quite nicely on this song as well. It’s got
a catchy and fun chorus but struggles to ever escape the cheesiness of Rivers’
song writing.
The song Grapes of Wrath is truly awful, here Rivers is
reading various classic novels such as Grapes of Wrath and 1984 but instead of
reading the books he’s listening to them on Audible, which apparently was a
good enough idea to write a whole song about it. It’s just so painfully
uninspiring and unaware of how pathetic his faux meta take on technology is; I’m
not even so sure Rivers knows what point he’s trying to make on this one. Then
to add insult to injury the song is so terrible and generic which makes for a
challenging listen.
Next comes the track Numbers, a slower paced song about how
numbers control our life. From being too
tall for something to having an IQ too low to understand something, the whole song
is full of unapologetic cliché. It’s just a super underwhelming cold take once
again that’s boring and littered with cheaply slapped together layers chugging
towards a terrible climax.
Playing my Piano probably takes the title of worst track on
the album. This is effectively a song
about how much Rivers loves playing his piano. In fact he mentions that he gets
so into playing that ‘Kim Jong Un could blow up my city, I’d never know’. All I
can imagine here is that Rivers was sat playing piano and singing whatever came
into his head, the fact that this track made it onto the album surely shows the
band are having a creative drought even by their standards.
The song Mirror Image is one of the better songs but mainly
because it isn’t long enough to develop any of River’s terrible ideas. Before
you have any time to even think about this song though we are already knee deep
in the next song Screens, which you guessed it, is a song about how everybody
is always looking at screens nowadays.
The next few largely forgettable tracks completely detour
away from the message the rest of the album was conveying, did Rivers get bored
of his own point or just give up on the idea? I don’t know but honestly there
is nothing towards the end of this album worth waiting for.
Ok Human is sadly a bland, cringe, out of touch and half
arsed mess. Most of the songs are so cheesy and generic they’re unlistenable
before you even touch on the message the band are trying to convey. Honestly if
a 15 year old wrote this album I would think they needed to mature a little,
the fact that Rivers is a grown adult man is simply embarrassing.
Overall a very poor attempt at making an album that features
some social commentary, Weezer rehash points that have been made thousands of
times before in a much more immature way. I guess if there is a market for a
version of Ok Computer targeted at boomers then this album will do well, but I
can’t see how anyone in 2021 would want to listen to this collection of
terrible and infuriating songs.
14/100
Best tracks – All My Favourite Songs, Mirror Image
Worst tracks – Numbers, Playing my Piano, Aloo Gobi, Grapes
of Wrath, Screens, Bird with a Broken Wing, Dead Roses, Here Comes the Rain
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