Weezer Rock Irony-Free “Unbreak My Heart”

Posted by Ray Padgett at 2:00 pm Add comments

Oct 262010

Whether they’re putting out an album with a Lost actor on the cover or offering to do a “deluxe” band breakup for $20 million, Weezer busts out WTF LOLs on the regular. Their just-unearthed cover of Toni Braxton’s 1996 hit “Unbreak My Heart” could be seen in the same vein if the band wasn’t so gosh-darn sincere. Rivers Cuomo, who posted the MP3 over at the band’s forum, rocks a serious falsetto over crunchy guitars. The backing vocals that drop at song’s end raise it to a level way beyond irony.

“I loved that song,” Cuomo told American Songwriter. “It was actually Rick Rubin’s suggestion. We both loved that song and we both thought it would be great for Weezer, and for my voice, and it’d be great to do like a rock version of it with more of an alternative aesthetic. And you know, just the way I would sing it versus in the way Toni Braxton would sing it. And I love the way it came out, and I think probably the rest of the band really does not like it, and that’s probably why it didn’t make our fifth record, in 2005 when we were recording it.”

Download “Unbreak My Heart” below. The rarities album, Death to False Metal, drops next Tuesday.

MP3: Weezer – Unbreak My Heart (Toni Braxton cover)
[audio: News1010/26UnbreakMyHeart.mp3|artists=Weezer|titles=Unbreak My Heart]

Check out more Weezer at their website or MySpace.

Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.