Weezer - Weezer

Weezer's twentieth album is also their fifth self titled one, and the band have said it is the most collaborative record they have ever made. Rather than Rivers Cuomo handing down finished songs, all four members contributed material and wrote together, which is a genuinely different working method thirty two years into a career.

Kenny Beats and Klas Ahlund share production, an unlikely pairing that pulls the record in two useful directions at once: Beats brings the low end and the space, Ahlund the pop architecture. "C.E.O." arrived first and is the sharpest thing here, a compact and slightly vicious piece of writing. "Shine Again" is the widescreen one. "We Might As Well Be Strangers" features Wednesday and is the closest the album gets to the melancholy that made Pinkerton what it is. "The LA Sound" closes the record with the band examining the city that has shaped every album they have made.

Ten songs, no filler, and the rare late career Weezer album that sounds like a band rather than a solo project with accompaniment.

Black vinyl LP on Reprise Records, made in Canada.