WEEZER (Blue)
Weezer
1994

Weezer’s self-titled debut turned 30 on May 10th, 2024, the day I am writing this first draft. This album is the mainstream companion to the nerdcore rising of Weird Al Yankovic, They Might Be Giants, and Barenaked Ladies. Enough of the songs have plausible deniability that you can play one or two of them without devolving into a conversation about Monty Python, Mel Brooks, or stale YouTube videos. Almost every band signed to Fueled By Ramen cites Weezer as an influence. If I made a playlist of “the good Weezer songs not on the debut,” it would run about an hour, and every one of those songs is only really good in a live concert setting. Bassist and songwriter Matt Sharp left the band after Pinkerton somewhat acrimoniously, and with him he took all the harmonic complexity that makes the Blue Album more than “catchy.”

I absolutely love this album despite everything. While its relationship to Pixies’ Doolittle betrays them as the commercial correction to Nirvana, Weezer’s appeal lines them up alongside The Cars, Cheap Trick, Kiss. On this album, they’re writing extremely crunchy pop music that sounds phenomenal loud. Sharp and Patrick Wilson (no relation) make a perfect rhythm section responding to Cuomo’s best hooks. And I mean best hooks by a lot – Cuomo never wrote anything quite as complex and interesting as “Holiday”’s soaring, interlacing chorus, very consciously modeled after The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds but sung without any of the beauty of Al Jardine or the Wilsons. It’s yelled more than sung, the “Heart! Beat!” call and response – until the even more explicit Beach Boys breakdown, which is sung in a clean, low baritone.

He never wrote anything as pleasantly catchy as the “Buddy Holly” chorus, either. The verse is kind of a mess, a weird yelp over a fairly simple guitar part. But it builds perfectly into that chorus, the little “Ooh oohs!” setting up that “Ooh wee ooh!” so nicely. And then, of course, that iconic, corny, major key solo. Almost half of this album has been isolated and dissected into memes, maybe none more than “Buddy Holly,” and yet it can’t spoil the fun of just listening to the damn song for me.

Every year I end up relistening to this album and end up with different favorite songs. This time, “The World Has Turned And Left Me Here,” “Undone (The Sweater Song)” and “Holiday” jump out – sometimes, it’s “Surf Wax America,” “In The Garage,” “Only In Dreams.” It’s, admittedly, almost never “My Name Is Jonas,” though I love playing it in Guitar Hero! And it’s almost never “No One Else” though I dig its uptempo groove and the way Cuomo sings “Hou-ow-ow-ow-ouse!” but is Cuomo at his more toxic incel vibe. That ends up dominating Pinkerton, an album I spend very little time with, and then all edge is flushed out by The Green Album in ‘01, making music only for commercials afterward. As I said, there’s some catchy tunes left. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s basically this one album, an album you can warp into the dumbest configurations and then still come back and love. 

KEY TRACKS: “Undone (The Sweater Song)”, “Buddy Holly,” “Holiday”
CATALOG CHOICE: “All My Friends Are Insects,” “The Perfect Situation,” “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”
NEXT STOP: Sincerely, Dude York
AFTER THAT: Little Busters, The Pillows