Weezer (the Teal Album)

It's hard to justify a covers album most of the time. The source material is probably going to be good, so the album won't be bad per se. The collective "why??" is the most common reaction -- any good song played competently won't be worth a bad review, but at the same time there's no reason to care about this new(er)(est) interpretation.

No album in recent memory embodies this reaction more than the latest from Weezer. It's simultaneously of our time and hopelessly dated in and of our time. Artistically, there is absolutely nothing of substance here. There are no hidden gems, no creative reworkings, nothing recast in a contemporary light. The clear intention was to do the exact opposite -- to play some of the most iconic hits note for note, with nearly the same instrumentation in the most straightforward pub rock style. Until very recently (insert year of choice here) nobody would have taken this seriously as a "real" album, it would have been a fan club only release or something exclusively sold on tour. Maybe it would be even be given away as a bonus CD with a proper album or DVD.  There would most certainly be no money in a covers album so clearly half assed, so it would be marketed as a cheeky bit of fun for hardcore fans. 

These days, there's no money to be made in recorded music anyway, albums are more of a touring loss leader than ever before. Still, I expect albums to exist for better reasons than "made on a Twitter dare".