OK Human by Weezer

OK Human is the fourteenth studio album by Weezer. In contrast to typical Weezer releases, the album features no electric guitar, utilizing exclusively analogue equipment and a 38-piece orchestra. It was released on January 29, 2021. Physical copies were initially exclusive to the official web store and would see wide release on February 12. Production and composition Rivers Cuomo has credited producer Jake Sinclair with planting "the seed of an idea" for OK Human in 2017. "Just you and a piano, and an orchestra, and it's gonna be super-personal, quirky songs that only you could write, not worrying about commercial potential at all, adding that Sinclair suggested he listen to the 1970 album Nilsson Sings Newman by Harry Nilsson. Cuomo had previously covered the Nilsson tune "Without You," originally written by members of the '70s band Badfinger. Cuomo said that he was excited from day one of the creative process for OK Human, and that the songs came quickly thereafter, with the album being "about 90% done" before he was made aware of the forthcoming Hella Mega Tour. Early promotion Cuomo first confirmed the album's existence to Zane Lowe in January of 2019. Said Cuomo: "Our next album is not on the grid, we’ve just recorded the basic tracks there’s no click, no grid. We don’t have a real title, but the key word we have to inspire us at the moment is ‘masterpiece’. It’s produced by Jake Sinclair who did the White Album." Cuomo first mentioned the album's working title "OK Human" in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on February 22, 2019, about a week before the release of The Black Album. Cuomo described the album as "piano-based, very eccentric, with strings already recorded at Abbey Road." Cuomo mentioned that his influences for the album were George Gershwin and Harry Nilsson (specifically, Nilsson Sings Newman). Cuomo also confirmed the existence of another project tentatively titled Van Weezer. In a July 2019 interview with All Things Loud, Brian Bell described the album as being "about technology and how it’s running our life". Said Bell: OK Human is unlike anything I’ve ever heard, unlike any other type of music and unlike any Weezer music. In the bass, if you really broke it down to its common denominator, it still goes one, four, five in a major key for the most part. That’s very Weezer, that’s very Sweater Song, but it does it in more sophisticated ways. In an interview with Spanish magazine Mondo Sonoro, Bell described the basis of the album as "a string section", and that the album would also feature acoustic guitars, a Hammond organ, and would sound very "airy and open". Bell also described the album as one of his favorite albums the band has made thus far. In an August 2019 interview with the Spanish blog Binaural, Bell confirmed that the album's string section was recorded before anything else, and suggested that Crush Management would prefer to release Van Weezer before OK Human. Bell, Patrick Wilson, and Scott Shriner sing three-part harmonies through most of the record. Originating in Bell's backing vocal compositions, the trio singing pieces were arranged and further developed by Jake Sinclair. Bell described the process in a February 8, 2021 interview with 91.9 WFPK Louisville, Kentucky: I would sing ideas, like, "here’s my ideas," and- I didn’t realize how good Jake Sinclair was at vocal harmonies. He would come back and three-part almost everything I did. And he wanted the other guys to sing it, meaning Scott and Pat. I’ve always wanted to get Pat to sing a lot more. - Brian Bell, WFPK interview; February 8, 2021 Sinclair produced vocal tracks of all three parts which were used for the sessions. "I just really believed in this album and I wanted to push to get it done," Bell said. The vocals were intended to enhance the "human element" of the record, which the band emphasized in most press materials about OK Human. These vocals are low in the released mix of the album and mixed in mono. Release schedule change In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hella Mega Tour was postponed until 2021. On April 10, 2020, Cuomo stated on the video conferencing platform Zoom that, at the time, the album was 75% complete. He followed this up by stating the album would likely not be released in 2020. On April 16, he explained the premise to a fan as "very much a day in the life of , but from a very private place." On May 14, Cuomo shared a photo via Snapchat of a studio, with visible sheet music titled "Dead Roses". On May 15, Cuomo confirmed in an interview with Mike Jones of the radio station DC101 that the string section was the first to be recorded for the album and that, at the time of the interview, only his piano parts were yet to be completed. On August 13, Weezer formally announced that Van Weezer was being postponed until May 2021, simultaneously hinting that OK Human would release in the meantime, tweeting "More music coming for you Humans real soon, Ok?" On October 1 through the streaming platform TikTok, Cuomo revealed that the band had a photo shoot earlier that day, later confirming it to be "for the OK Human artwork and the whole album cycle". On November 16, Cuomo confirmed to users of Riverchat that the album was complete, adding that the radio mix for the first single was in the mixing process. Marketing On January 5, Cuomo gave more info on the album to the users of Riverchat, describing how the album's instrumentation shifted over time to include a full orchestra (as opposed to only strings, as initially conceived). He also confirmed that the album had more than ten tracks. The same day, Barry Summers of the video production company Fantracks confirmed on Facebook that an upcoming "AR Sci Fi Movie Musical Adventure" based on OK Human would begin casting the following week, providing rough concept art for the video. On January 10, a preorder page for the vinyl pressing of the album was discovered on the website for the UK record store chain HMV, with a given release date of January 29 . The page was removed hours after it was discovered. On the same day, a post reviewing the album was found on a Hungarian blog which reinforced the January 29 release date and implied that the album would have 12 tracks. On January 12, several members of the Weezer Fan Club reported receiving 3½-inch floppy disks, mailed from a Los Angeles shipping center. The disks were labeled "Masterpiece" with the additional text: "Hi Human, open ReadMe.txt". The disks contained a photo of Rivers Cuomo's face superimposed over that of Bill Gates, as well as ASCII art by Joan G. Stark and a website URL: http://everythingthatfeelssogoodisbadbadbad.com/ The URL led to a Spotify playlist including a track titled "ReadMe.txt" and attributed to "=m=asterpiece" consisting of a female synthesized voice reading a message (likely an allusion to the track "Fitter Happier" from Radiohead's OK Computer): All my favorite songs are slow and sad All my favorite people make me mad Everything that feels so good is bad bad bad All my favorite songs are slow and sad. I don't know what's wrong with me The first letter of each subsequent track on the playlist spelled out "OKHUMAN". The band's Twitter and Instagram promoted the playlist shortly thereafter with the message "Put a playlist together of all my favorite songs, enjoy!" On January 18, OK Human was formally announced with a release date of January 29, with the lead single, "All My Favorite Songs" releasing on January 21. The announcement was initially announced through the website www.okhuman.space, which prompted users to solve a series of increasingly complex CAPTCHAs before revealing the album's release date. A brief teaser for "All My Favorite Songs" was released on YouTube January 19. The cover art for OK Human was illustrated by artist Mattias Adolfsson. Rivers Cuomo confirmed in September of 2020 that he first discovered Adolfsson's work in a comic shop, and subsequently commissioned Adolfsson to illustrate an original piece for the album. The illustration originally featured Cuomo with shorter hair, but was apparently redrawn to reflect his longer hair style as seen in promotional photos for the album cycle. This earlier version was the version initially unveiled on the promotional website okhuman.space. Track listing All songs written and composed by Rivers Cuomo, except where noted. Original album track listing No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "All My Favorite Songs" Cuomo, Ashley Gorely, Ben Johnson, Ilsey Juber 3:23 2. "Aloo Gobi" 3:04 3. "Grapes of Wrath" 2:51 4. "Numbers" 3:21 5. "Playing My Piano" 2:36 6. "Mirror Image" 1:17 7. "Screens" 2:12 8. "Bird with a Broken Wing" 3:51 9. "Dead Roses" 2:17 10. "Everything Happens for a Reason" 0:24 11. "Here Comes the Rain" 2:27 12. "La Brea Tar Pits" 2:50 Total length: 30:27 Considered for/Scrapped from final album: "Spell It Out" Instrumental #1 "Pacific Sunset" Personnel Weezer Rivers Cuomo - lead vocals, piano Brian Bell - acoustic guitar, organ, backing vocals Scott Shriner - bass, vocal harmonies Patrick Wilson - drums, vocal harmonies Additional musicians Rob Mathes — arrangement, conducting Abbey Road string section Julian Leaper — concertmaster, violin 1 Steve Morris — violin Patrick Kiernan — violin Tom Pigott-Smith — violin Magnus Jonston — violin Pete Hanson — violin Mark Berrow — violin Paul Willey — violin Natalia Bonner — violin Cathy Thompson — violin Kate Musker — viola Andy Parker — viola Lydia Lowndes-Northcott — viola Martin Loveday — cello Dave Daniels — cello Ian Burdge — cello Van Gelder String, wind, and horn sections Lisa Kim — concertmaster, violin 1 Sharon Yamada — violin Joanna Maurer — violin Ann Lehmann — violin Matt Lehmann — violin Jung Sun Yoo — violin Peter Bahng — violin Becky Young — viola Michael Roth — viola Will Frampton — viola Alan Stepansky — cello Joel Noyes — cello Ray Riccomini — trumpet Tony Kadleck — trumpet Eric Ralske — french horn Anne Sharer — french horn John Romano — trombone Ryan Keberle — trombone Tara Helen O'Connor — flute/piccolo Pavel Vinitsky — clarinet/bass clarinet Keisuke Ikuma — english horn/oboe Dan Shell — bassoon/contrabassoon Additional personnel Jake Sinclair — producer Suzy Shinn — vocal producer, engineer Jonathan Allen — chief engineer William Wittman — chief engineer William Carroll — engineer Zach Fisher — engineer Brian Fombona — engineer Perry Margouleff — engineer Paul Pritchard — engineer Maureen Sickler — engineer Rachel White — engineer Lawton Burris — assistant Branko Presley — assistant Karl Wingate — assistant Lazaro Zarate — assistant Andy Maxwell — assistant John Sinclair — mixing, arranger/composer (vocal harmonies) Pete Lyman — mastering Mattias Adolffson — illustration Jasper Graham — package design Brendan Walter — photography, creative direction See also Weezer discography All My Favorite Songs Van Weezer References Apple Music. "Weezer: ‘OK Human’ and Complexity of ‘Pinkerton’ | Apple Music" YouTube. 28 January 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVsTtPSv-yw Wood, Mikael. "Being Rivers Cuomo: Why Weezer’s frontman put his life into a spreadsheet" Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-rivers-cuomo-weezer-teal-album-black-album-20190222-story.html Morgan, Steven. "The Life of Brian – All Things Loud Meets Weezer" All Things Loud. 17 July 2019. https://www.allthingsloud.com/life-brian-things-loud-meets-weezer/ Mondo Sonoro. "Entrevista a Weezer en Bilbao BBK Live 2019" Facebook. 13 July 2019. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2172246899541125 Porcar, Pablo. " Weezer: «Nos funciona confeccionar los discos de forma encadenada»" Binaural. 6 August 2019. https://www.binaural.es/entrevista/entrevista-weezer-nos-funciona-confeccionar-los-discos-de-forma-encadenada/ @weezer. "Quick update on Van Weezer, it is now coming in May 2021 right before the @HellaMegaTour. If you pre-ordered a bundle from our webstore, the merch will begin shipping early next week." Twitter. 14 August 2020. https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1294123815954534400 File:Riverchat-okhuman_01-05-21.png HMV page for OK Human. Archived by Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20210110160200/https://store.hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/ok-human "Január végén érkezik a meglepetés Weezer-album!" Élményem.hu http://elmenyem.hu/zene/januar-vegen-erkezik-a-meglepetes-weezer-album/ ASCII art by Joan G. Stark. https://www.asciiart.eu/computers/smileys @weezer "Put a playlist together of all my favorite songs, enjoy! https://spoti.fi/3sqmRag" Twitter. 13 January 2021. https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1349502794437255168 under exclusive license to Crush Music / Atlantic Recording Corporation for the United States and Crush Music / WEA International Inc. for the world excluding the United States. A Warner Music Company., ℗ 2021 Weezer