Oh Rivers! Everyone knows about Rivers Cuomo’s love for everything Japanese, but this time, he went further by recording a complete album in Japanese with the help of Allister’s Scott Murphy.
I have just listened to the song posted below, ‘Homely Girl’, and it’s your typical Weezer song in Japanese, with a catchy power pop chorus and probably very forgettable lyrics — I mean they have a line in English! I have obviously no expertise to know if their Japanese is good or not.
I understand the process for Cuomo, he has been obsessed by Japanese culture forever, he has learned the language after marrying a Japanese woman in 2006 and dating a few others, whom have left some noticeable marks all over his lyrics, remember ‘El Scorcho’ line, ‘Goddamn you half-Japanese girls’? But what about Scott Murphy? He became intrigued by Japanese culture when touring with Allister in 2001, and decided to learn the language. He became fluent in Japanese in 2006, and the band was invited on tour with the popular Japanese band Ellegarden. In 2006, he even recorded ‘Guilty Pleasures’, an album of Japanese and English covers which sold 250,000 copies and led to his eventual signing with Universal Music Japan.
So these two were made for each other! Cuomo heard one of Murphy’s records when touring Japan and voila! Actually, Cuomo had thought about recording a Japanese album for quite some time, and with Murphy’s collaboration, ‘Scott & Rivers’ was finished in 2013, released through Universal Music Japan, and became number one on Japanese alternative chart in its first week! At this point, Cuomo should just become Japanese and move to Japan…
This is what Murphy had to say about the album:’
‘I grew up listening to Weezer, so at first it was a little surreal to be working on a record with Rivers. The album is kind of all over the board. There are some pop songs, Weezer style rock songs, acoustic songs, even a few synth heavy tracks. We were worried at first that it might not make a cohesive record, but after listening to the finished album I think we were both just really proud of the work as a whole. It’ll definitely be hard for non-Japanese audiences to remember the lyrics to these songs, but the melodies are simple and catchy… if anything I think this record shows that the language of music is universal.’
I still have to wonder about this last sentence, as Japanese audiences always have had weird taste… Doesn’t ‘I am big in Japan?’ mean anything anymore?
If you attend a Weezer concert in the near future, expect some Japanese songs, and may be Scott Murphy’s participation? The album is now available in the US and worldwide on iTunes, and in case you can read Japanese, here the tracklist:
1. Break Free
2. Homely Girl
3. Freakin’ Love My Life
4. おかしいやつ
5. 朝は近い
6. 終わりのないこの詩
7. 遠く離れても
8. I Need Somebody
9. はじける
10. ほどけていたんだ
11. Butterfly
Wowie, I Love Weezer!!!!