Out of the blue, Weezer have delivered their best album for more than 20 years, and it’s not even the highest profile record they released this year. Two albums in a year is impressive work for any band, and their classic rock sandpit experiment, Van Weezer, is also lots of fun. Spoiler, though, it’s not my number 1. As for OK Human itself, it’s an ode to the pandemic hermit, as viewed through that very particular Rivers Cuomo lens. The pandemic, and lockdowns specifically, have fuelled a lot of good art, but Rivers is one of the few artists who seems actually to have enjoyed being forcibly shut away for months on end. He might bemoan the “same old dull routines” (on ‘Aloo Gobi’), but I don’t believe he means it. The joy of thoughts and time and books is so explicit, especially on the wonderful ‘Grapes of Wrath’. Perhaps the only downside for Rivers is our yet further increased reliance on technology, as most starkly highlighted on ‘Screens’: “Everyone stares at the screens / I miss my friends / I miss my family.” Weezer have always been a band that would rather try and fail than stay in lane, but OK Human’s orchestral chamber pop (and occasional ratpack piano ballad) definitely pushes the envelope more than usual. It’s all recognisably Weezer, but on a much grander scale. I love every track: for me it now sits alongside their first three (masterpiece) records.