Jeanne Ryan Reviews Weezer’s New Release of Covers Called ‘The Teal Album’

Apparently with the success of their remake of the song 'Africa' the guys from Weezer decided to make a whole cover album based on popular songs. I am under the belief that you will know if you like a song within the first minute or so, but understandably some songs don't jive with you right away and take a second or third listening too.

Spotify put together a sample of the songs on the album and so to be fair I did listen to the full versions of the songs to give them each a fair shake. I pretty much had the exact same opinion of them as I did when I listened to the sample.

I give 6 out of 10 songs a thumbs up which just so happen to be the first 6 songs on the album . Weezer  has a very unique pop rock sound that fits so well with these songs even though three of them were sung by a duet backed by a band. Here is my breakdown.

THUMBS UP!

1. Africa-(Toto) * Awesome job, kept the original vibe of the song when it came out and were able to maintain the soft vocals which captivated listeners with the original.
2. Everybody Want's to Rule the World* (Tears For Fears)- I love Tears For Fears so the fact that I like this version is saying a lot, even though the lead singer of Weezer sings the song in a much higher pitch.
3. Sweet Dreams are Made of This * (Eurythmics)- Pretty brave move on Weezers part to try and duplicate this pretty iconic song. I love that they had the guts to do it and pulled it off.
4. Take on Me (A-Ha) * This is one of those one hit wonder songs that stays with you through the decades. Bubble gum Top 40 and I love it.
5.  Happy Together (The Turtles)* I am not a huge fan of the song of the original song but both are palatable.
6. Paranoid ( Black Sabbath) * Ozzy Osbourne would be proud, he loves remakes of his songs and for that it is a thumbs up for me too.

THUMBS DOWN:

1. Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)- I don't like this song no matter who is singing it.
2. No Scrubs(TLC) - I can't even give them credit for trying to sing this song because this version is so bad, but to be nice the girls from TLC are hard to imitate.
3. Billie Jean (Michael Jackson) - Nope! Leave it alone nobody can sing a M.J .song period.
   
4. Stand By Me- (Ben E King) I am not a huge fan of the song to begin with, but I do appreciate the fact that it is a classic, and they did an average job on the remake.