Weezer's Rivers Cuomo discusses new self-titled "Gold Album"

Weezer's Rivers Cuomo says the band went back to basics for their new self-titled album, known as the Gold Album, by meeting at a bandmate's house and hanging out rather than overthinking the songs. "We just hung out in his living room all day and out on the porch and strummed guitars and told dad jokes," Cuomo told NPR.

The album is Weezer's 20th, continuing a tradition of naming records after colors, Blue, Black, Teal, White, Red, Green, and now gold. Cuomo said the switch from colors to metals came partly from Dungeons & Dragons lore about good, metallic dragons versus evil, colored ones, adding with a laugh that he thinks the distinction is "actual fact."

The record leans on old songwriting partnerships as much as old habits. Cuomo again worked with drummer Pat Wilson, who first co-wrote songs with him on the band's earliest records, including "My Name Is Jonas" and "Surf Wax America." Wilson wrote the lyrics to "Shine Again" himself, a song about finding joy in mundane routines, while Cuomo took the lead on "Hoops," about the daily friction of scanning a QR code just to use a new toaster: "It's hard to survive. A lot of hoops you have to jump through."

The Gold Album follows the band's earlier single "C.E.O." and the announcement of The Gathering, their 2026/27 world tour, both part of the same era. Cuomo said he wants the band to keep working the way this record came together: "We want to go more in the direction we went on this record, so more just showing up in a room," improvising rather than arriving with songs already written.

Weezer (The Gold Album) is out now, one of the week's new rock arrivals tracked on the release calendar.