Weezer Cover “Un-Break My Heart”: An Early Review

Oh, Weezer. Is there no one you won’t cover?

We should have seen this coming when Alien Ant Farm (remember them?) managed to stay relevant for a few more years by covering Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

Take one alt-rock band (who used to have scruples about doing this sort of thing), and one R&B hit everybody’s heard a million times, whether you’re a rock fan, country music lover or R&B enthusiast. Combine the two, and your chance of chart success, blog-o-sphere domination, and cultural infamy are increased tenfold.

Weezer don’t have any problem staying in the news. They also have no qualms about covering artists outside of their comfort zone, from Lady Gaga to Coldplay. But Toni Braxton’s 1996 supermarket anthem “Un-Break My Heart?” That’s stretching the formula about as far as it will go.

We got an advanced listen to the track, which brings the band’s upcoming rarities album, the excellently titled Death To False Metal (due November 2) to a close. And we can tell you this: as awful as it sounds, in Weezer’s hands, “Un-Break My Heart” feels not unlike a vintage Queen song. Really. Take some dramatic chord changes, add some crunchy guitar pomp and circumstance, and let Rivers Cuomo’s sincere-with-a-hint-of-irony vocals take you where you need to go. If you can’t applaud the results, at least applaud the band’s ability to think outside the box, and pull it off.