Melodies to Cherish, Lyrics to Forget from TOP: SEAN MURPHY; RICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES for IHEARTMEDIA
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For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, February 28, 2019 | A13 LIFE & ARTS MUSIC REVIEW: ‘WEEZER’ (THE BLACK ALBUM) Melodies to Cherish, Lyrics to Forget FROM TOP: SEAN MURPHY; RICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES FOR IHEARTMEDIA BY MARK RICHARDSON that vary greatly in quality but re- ruses in a spread- skill. “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” main rooted, however indirectly, in sheet. The catchi- which shares a title with a song by the awkward ache of adolescence. ness of these the rapper Jay-Z, is partly an ode THE MODERN ROCK band Wee- At times, the sheer goofiness of melodies and the to the sharing economy (sample zer has a devoted cult following, Weezer threatens to overwhelm ev- force with which lyric: “Leave a five-star review and but its place in the larger world of erything else about the band, and they resolve are I’ll leave you one too”), and it music varies from one year to the when that happens, some fans who impossible to spends much of its time stringing next. When it arrived with its de- formed an emotional bond with the deny, providing together meaningless catchphrases. but album in 1994 (like many of group feel betrayed. The past year, the same kind of The aforementioned “Too Many the group’s records, it was self-ti- which has seen a considerable in- tingle you got Thoughts” describes being over- tled, and like the other self-titled crease in the band’s profile thanks when you solved whelmed with Netflix options—a albums, it was identified by the to its 2018 cover of Toto’s “Africa,” your first algebra familiar-enough feeling, but hardly color of its cover art, in this case has been a serious test for this co- problem. And the an observation that bears repeated blue) the group—led by bespecta- hort. The song became one of Wee- scholarship ex- listening—while “High as a Kite” cled singer, guitarist and song- zer’s highest-charting singles and tends beyond offers loopy observations on the writer Rivers Cuomo—found itself led to a full album of covers, mostly At top, all of Weezer, from left: Pat Wilson, Scott songwriting con- joys of parasailing. And when the squarely at the center of the post- of songs from the 1980s, which Shriner, Rivers Cuomo and Brian Bell. Below, Mr. Cuomo. struction, as ref- songs aren’t banal, they’re simply Nirvana alternative rock landscape. found the band’s members dressing erences to classic meaningless. “The Prince Who From the start, Weezer’s music in “Miami Vice”-style pastel suits away from pummeling guitars and sounds from the past abound. Wanted Everything” has an appeal- appealed to a certain kind of dis- on the sleeve. The media hubbub toward a carefully layered array of “Piece of Cake” is driven by a mel- ing glam-rock shuffle and is more contented teenager, alternating centered on “Africa”—including a keyboard instruments. On the sin- ancholy piano refrain that brings or less about the late singer and slow, tense verses that mused on video starring Weird Al Yankovic— gle “Zombie Bastards,” Mr. Sitek to mind Queen, “Living in L.A.” songwriter Prince, but it’s ulti- alienation with exploding choruses meant that the group’s new album helps Weezer do more with less, as has Mr. Cuomo singing “Feel so mately just a stream of silly, dis- that brought the lonely masses to- of original songs is being greeted he takes power chords and reduces lonely” in the chorus in a way that connected lines. On the one hand gether in a moment of shout-along with higher than usual interest. them, letting them do their work sounds exactly like the Police, and you could say that Mr. Cuomo is catharsis. Mr. Cuomo lived the part Produced by David Sitek, best by suggestion rather than domina- on “Too Many Thoughts in My down-to-earth, writing about the of the nerdy outcast, his self-aware known as the studio mastermind tion so the song resonates as much Head” Mr. Cuomo offers a line small things that consume so many songwriting steeped in corny jokes, behind the rock band TV on the “bigger” than it actually is. from “Everybody’s Talkin’,” the of us day to day, but the effect here creepy sexual obsession and a fasci- Radio, “Weezer” (referred to as the In terms of the sheer memora- Fred Neil song made famous by is often like scrolling through a dull nation with the lives of the rich and Black Album, based on the color of bility of the tunes, the Black Al- Harry Nilsson as the theme from acquaintance’s Facebook feed. Soon famous. The key to Weezer’s lon- its sleeve) has some welcome sonic bum is an upper-tier Weezer re- the film “Midnight Cowboy.” enough, it’s time to close the tab. gevity is that it has never changed tweaks. Mr. Sitek is known for pro- lease. Mr. Cuomo is famously a But it’s not always a pleasurable and shows no interest in growing ductions stuffed with detail that student of what makes a pop song sensation to have a song stuck in Mr. Richardson, the former up. For a quarter-century, Weezer spread attention across many pro- work, taking a scientific approach your head, and the Black Album is executive editor of Pitchfork, is a has reliably serviced its audience, cessed instruments. For Weezer, to his craft in which he catalogs filled with lyrics that might make writer and editor living in releasing a dozen studio albums this means that the focus shifts ideas for verses, bridges and cho- you resent Mr. Cuomo’s melodic Brooklyn, N.Y. ART REVIEW A GLITTERING EDUCATION IN THE JEWELER’S CRAFT BY LAURA JACOBS jumble of tools, gem- stones and pearls. Small display cases New York that flank the bench GOLD beater’s block, repoussé explain “Cold Work- hammer, solder pick, bezel pusher, ing,” “Stone Setting” and, most burnishers, pliers, the torch and provocatively, the impor- the kiln. Over millennia these tools tance of “Practitioners as have hardly changed. Eternal as Researchers.” Ms. well are the elemental metals and Nixon informs us that precious stones they work into “contemporary jewel- wearable form. It all happens at ers who study ar- the jeweler’s bench, where age-old chaeological evidence techniques are tantamount to al- and incorporate an- chemy and earthly treasure is cient goldsmithing tech- hand-wrought into adornments of niques in their work are spirituality, sovereignty and sta- largely responsible for the tus. For anyone who has ever won- resurgence of these A ‘Kul Oba’ brooch (c. 1875), left, by Castellani & Sons; above, a bronze-antler tiara (2014) by Gabriella Kiss. dered what goes into the making methods.” This is fasci- of the finest jewelry—and why it nating. Castellani & an Etruscan antefix (a cal portraiture traditionally carved pixel-like Lego pieces—an ac- has always been so costly—“A Sons, the revered Ital- rooftop architectural in stone, shell or glass to show knowledgment of the role digital View From the Jeweler’s Bench” at ian firm that produced detail). Nearby, the how artist Nicole Jacquard makes screens now play in showing jew- the Bard Graduate Center Gallery the 19th century’s most magnificent “Kul Oba” it personal: Laser-engraving family elry to the world. is a gem of an education. coveted revival jew- brooch (c. 1875), a photos onto thin sheets of mica, In “Power and Prestige” Gabri- The exhibition is subtitled “An- elry, never figured Castellani & Sons she then sets them in enameled ella Kiss rethinks the crown. Her cient Treasures, Contemporary out how the an- reconstruction of oval frames. The result is a ghostly tiara of bronze antlers and gem- Statements,” and it is principally a cient Etruscans an earring from a spin on the scrapbook. “Value and stone raindrops (2014)—haunt- dialogue between past and present achieved their spec- Scythian tomb, Fashion” addresses the “symbiotic ingly sylvan—suggests an elf prin- on the essential subjects of mastery tacular filigree gran- shows just how relationship between synthetic and cess in Tolkien. The show’s final and imagination. Juxtaposing the ulations of gold. That huge jewelry could genuine gemstone jewelry, with section, “Archetypes and Attach- work of 12 contemporary jewelry came in the 1930s, get in ancient one encouraging further elabora- ments,” embraces the sentimental artists with a number of definitive and the answer was times. Equally tion of the other.” Two ornate pen- aspect of jewelry, its role as emo- historical pieces, the curator Sasha cupric oxide. magnificent is Jea- dant necklaces—an 18th-century tional touchstone or talisman. This Nixon—who received her master’s Like the facets of nette K. Caines’s amethyst and glass paste beauty, is a charmed realm of symbolic degree from the Bard Graduate a brilliant-cut soli- pair of cascading and a Tiffany & Co. diamond ex- shapes and engraved words, of Center in 2018 and developed this taire, the show’s gold “Bird” ear- travaganza circa 1900—meet their lockets containing images of loved show from her qualifying paper— other sections cir- rings, made in millennial incarnation in Ashley ones. Ms. Cheung’s “Secret-locked shows how these artists repurpose cle the jeweler’s 2018 especially Buchanan’s “Iconic Decorative Locket” (2016) is a solid gold oval long-ago forms and techniques to bench. “The Lure for this exhibition.