Two weeks ago Weezer put out their second album of 2021, and both of them are wonderful return to forms. OK Human is their take on trying to sound like Nilsson Sings Newman, filtered through the lockdown. Van Weezer is a celebration of 80s guitar metal-pop with a Fountains of Wayne edge.
Putting out two albums in a calendar year always seems like a very impressive thing – a bit of a flex. And it’s different to putting out a second album within 12 months of the other. John Lennon put out Imagine 9 months after Plastic Ono Band, but one is very 1970, the other 1971.
What other calendar-year pairings deserve to be celebrated? Costello’s 1986? Taylor’s 2020? (I know, the Beatles got there first)