There’s a certain magic about cover songs. At their best, a good cover allows a band to put their own unique stamp on a classic, providing a new angle from which to view the original. Failing that, covers allow artists to pay a fitting tribute to a fellow artist who has inspired them. These tributes can even be genuinely moving; it’s for this reason that Nirvana’s version of The Man Who Sold The World is one the bands most played songs on Spotify.

With the Teal Album, Weezer falls short of either of these admirable goals. Instead, they offer a collection of covers devoid of any heart or soul. The original songs generally stripped of their identity, leaving us with eleven equally vapid and lifeless songs. Weezer also failed to add anything of note to their borrowed songs which completely lack flair or creativity.

The resulting album sounds like anything a half competent Friday night covers band could cobble together given an evening on a guitar tab website. Instead of providing their listeners with a unique experience, Weezer are content to just point at some well-liked songs and ask “do you remember these?”

Recommendation: Don’t bother. Reminisent of Weezer at their late-00s laziest except this time, they aren’t even playing their own songs.

Rating: 2/10

Check out: The original versions of these songs.