10 Anticipated Albums Still To Come In 2019
3. The Rentals
If Weezer songwriter Rivers Cuomo is the king of prolific productivity, then their original bassist Matt Sharp is their antithesis. Known for his pink shirt and falsetto vocals on 1994's the Blue Album, Sharp left the band in early 1998.
He now focuses on his own project, The Rentals. The band initially spread false rumours that they were a banned Soviet new wave act, and are best known for their 1995 hit Friends of P. The Rentals have gone under numerous line-up changes over the years, including comedy actress Maya Rudolph and The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney. In 1999, their sophomore Seven More Minutes featured contributions from Blur's Damon Albarn.
The new album will fill the growing niche of songs about tech-guru Elon Musk, as its lead single Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad was released in 2017. The six-minute suburban fable is a departure from the Weezercore meets new wave sound The Rentals came to be known for.
With Sharp the only remaining member, The Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. and The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner have been recruited for their next record. The announcement of their recruitment was also accompanied by news of the albums completion in December 2018.
With two Weezer albums being released at the start of 2019, either The Rentals’ fourth album is going through a very long remixing process, or they are purposefully keeping their distance from his former band.