NEW RELEASE BY WEEZER BRINGS SIMILAR TRENDS

To compare, with lament, every subsequent Weezer album to their self-titled debut (released decades ago, in 1994) is a horse now beaten entirely into vaporization but, unfortunately, it continues to be inevitable.

It would be dishonest to consider the band to be entirely devoid of acknowledged talent. That simply can’t be the case. However, Weezer represents an archetype of musicians with loving mass followings but also an overall poor discography relative to contemporaries who boast a similarly devoted base.

Released on Jan. 29, “OK Human,” regretfully enough, only continues a years-spanning trend of unreached potential.

Billed as featuring instrumentals created solely with analog equipment, “Human” shows the group evidently struggling with such an otherwise versatile and unique music medium, creating instead more of their same formulaic alternative sound, repeating practically identically within each track. A revolutionary technique when introduced, electronic production has created countless true modern masterpieces, yet Weezer puzzlingly decided to replace their traditional instruments for older ones, clearly just to be able to say they did.

Weezer also resumes their struggle with lyricism in the new album, with lead writer/vocalist Rivers Cuomo too often delivering flinch-inducing lines of far-too-amateurish nature, making one wonder to what degree they were actually considered before being performed.

The poeticism of a piece should never feel unintended, a mere afterthought, but it is the conclusion a listener may find it difficult to shake as yet another bafflingly worded statement hits the ear. Simplicity in lyricism should not at all be treated as a plague to be avoided; careless simplicity is a different story.

While moments of compelling sound are not too hard to find within the album (notably appearing from the usage of well-placed strings), it is easy to find oneself wishing these moments were accompanied by equally compelling verse.

That said, it is these portions that help prevent the larger work from being anything close to offensively unlistenable. The true, underlying trouble with the album lies in its simple lack of an interesting (or even noticeable) identity. It’s a stumbling block understandable for a group of up-and-coming artists but too low a bar for a band with a well-established career of, at the very least, more evident experimentation.

While Weezer has yet to really justify being treated as a “lost cause,” “OK Human” sadly proves that even still, the group appears unable to rise to that constantly hoped-for expectation that, granted, may have grown too mythicized for their own good.