Weezer -- Blue Album

10/10

The mid-90's legend rose from nowhere. You got a song stuck in your head. Maybe it was "Buddy Holly." Maybe it was "Undone - The Sweater Song." Maybe it was "May Name Is Jonas." It was probably "Say It Ain't So." Whichever one it was, you probably then immediately realized that this song was done by the same band who recorded all those other songs that got stuck in your head. That band is Weezer, and someone how all of these, and more great songs are found on their miraculous debut album, nicknamed and titled by listeners, Blue. Weezer didn't name it, but I have to say, the album cover sure is blue. As for Blue's musical contents...
Weezer, as stated in the first paragraph, pulled off a miracle here. Album opener, "My Name Is Jonas," lays it all out on the table: huge sounding crunchy power chords, lyrics and singing from frontman, Rivers Cuomo, that somehow sounds both cool and nerdy, fun harmonies, a killer guitar solo in the bridge, and ENERGY. Meanwhile, the rhythm section is tight and rocking, the band sounds perfectly in sync, and there's some acoustic guitar picking and harmonica just to make the song feel even more special. The band asked for and received The Cars' Ric Ocasek to produce, and Blue almost feels like the natural extension of the stuff Ocasek did with songs like "Just What I Needed" and "My Best Friend's Girl" in the late 70's. However, what really makes this a great album aren't just the great songs, but the way they're sequenced.
After the huge, more straightforward and positive energy of "My Name Is Jonas" and "No One Else," "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" introduces a little bit of melancholy, with feelings of loneliness and isolation. These are trademarked aspects of early Weezer's vibe, giving this entire album, and this particular incarnation of the band a certain specific connection to its fanbase. However, the band are also able to keep the singles coming, with "Buddy Holly" and "Undone - The Sweater Song" immediately following. Another miraculous aspect here is that Weezer were not only able to make these songs mainstays on all of the major rock radio stations, but on college alternative ones, as well. I don't think any band has ever been able to split that difference like Weezer did. Cool AND nerdy!
And the energy doesn't flag, with the uptempo, yet strangely contemplative (check that acapella section!) "Surf Wax America," followed by one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded, "Say It Ain't So." "Say It Ain't So" does such an incredible job of feeling both sloppy and polished, with its awkward, angry, cathartic energy feeling like finally telling someone you're angry with off, only to find they had headphones on the entire time. It's incredible.
We then get the fun ode to a nerd finding solace in his garage with the hard-rocking (once again harmonica-sporting), sentimental, "In My Garage," followed by the Green Album-prophesying (outside of the super-weird, super-awesome acapella bridge in place of a guitar solo) pop-rock perfection of "Holiday." I won't start this sentence with the word "finally," as Blue goes by too fast, but next comes the surprisingly emotional closer, "Only in Dreams." "Only in Dreams" immediately highlights how great a loss the departure of bassist and background vocalist, Matt Sharp, was for this band moving out of the 90's. Sharp's incredibly memorable bassline opens the song in a sort of eternal realm, as the full band comes in, and the song shifts and turns through movement after movement. A huge build six minutes in leads to a beautiful guitar symphony catharsis that seems to sum up and conclude every single emotional arc and thread of the entire album. This brings me to my final point.
I'm not a huge fan of emo music when emo music is generally categorized as mopey rock music with a bad, whiney singer. However, there are some great emo bands out there, and you can see how essentially all of them were influenced by this music, by the chord changes, by the leads, by the songs structures, by Cuomo's (not in any way bad) singing and heartfelt lyrics. The blueprint for all of that stuff is here, and just one more marker of how great this album is. Blue can be anything to everyone. That's almost impossible to pull off. But in 1994, Weezer did it.


1994 DGC
1. My Name Is Jonas 3:23
2. No One Else 3:14
3. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here 4:26
4. Buddy Holly 2:40
5. Undone – The Sweater Song 4:55
6. Surf Wax America 3:04
7. Say It Ain't So 4:18
8. In the Garage 3:56
9. Holiday 3:26
10. Only in Dreams 7:59