Weezer: SZNZ Abbreviated

One of the most oldest and most enticing thought exercises in pop music is: What if (artist) had released the best songs from (double album) as a single disc instead?  Pre-Internet, folks used their cassette decks to create their own truncated versions of likes of The Beatles' White Album ("Revolution 9" has to go, for sure) and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (sorry, "Jamaica Jerk-Off"), some out of artistic vision, others because the tape just wasn't long enough to hold all the songs.

Now, with mp3s and streaming, we have the ability to curate everything for ourselves, which means even a single album could be reduced to an EP of your faves, with the shuffle feature making it so the order doesn't even have to be the same every time. Here's where I could detour into a healthy digression about the negative consequences of that total freedom, but I'll resist the temptation.

Our good friends Weezer - who are not typically known for restraint - spent 2022 on the SZNZ project, releasing one 7-song EP for each season. At 28 total songs it's the equivalent of a double album. Suffering from what Professor Skye dubbed "Fatigueezer" (a.k.a. Weezer Fatigue, the condition of being worn down by the sheer amount of material Weezer relases), I gave each of the EPs a cursory listen as they came out, and then moved on. But recently my completist nature nudged me to download all four EPs, burn them as a double album, and really give them a good listen.

I found mostly what I expected, which was that the EPs were incosistent, both within themselves and between one another. (That said, Autumn is pretty darn good front-to-back). My mind could not avoid going back to that atavistic thought exercise: What if SZNZ had been a single album? 

And what's more, what if it adhered to the Weezer rule of including only 10 songs per album? (Eleven of their fifteen albums follow this rule) And, what's even more, what if I kept them in the order of the seasons, starting with the songs from Spring, and progressing forward from there?

Below, you'll find what I came up with. I think this makes for a top tier Weezer album, at least up there with The White Album and OK Human. 

(You can listen along on Amazon Music Unlimited.)

1. "Wild At Heart" (Spring)

We start off in a happy, optimistic mood.

2. "A Little Bit of Love" (Spring)
And keep it going.

3. "The Sound of Drums" (Spring)
A variation on a tried-and-true Weezer theme, the power of music. Which leads well into...

4. "Records" (Summer)

With shout-outs to Rihanna, Lana (Del Ray), and Nirvana, it's sort of a sequel to 2008's "Heart Songs."

5. "The Opposite of Me" (Summer)

Here's where we get into the self-loathing section of the album. This one reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George starts doing the oppoiste of everything he would usually do.

6. "Can't Dance, Don't Ask Me" (Autumn)

Another great Weezer outsider anthem in a long line of them: "I always wish that I was doin' what somebody else is doin'"

7. "Get Off on the Pain" (Autumn)

Closing out the self-loathing suite.

8. "Should She Stay or Should She Go" (Autumn)
Now we shift toward a doo-wop number that takes the point of view of Adam in the Gaden of Eden. 

9. "The One That Got Away"  (Winter)

Features that unmistakable Weezer build-up. You'll know what I'm talking about it when you hear it.

10. "Dark Enough to See the Stars" (Winter)
These last three songs are a direct contrast to the hopefulness that opens the album, with this one reflecting the sense of lonely reflection that comes in wintertime. That said, it warms my heart to hear harmonica on a Weezer song again.