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Weezer (Blue Album)

Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album) Audio CD

A fair review of the Weezer "Weezer (Blue Album)" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Weezer reviews here, or go back to the Weezer tabs.

Band: Weezer
Title: Weezer (Blue Album)
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-05-10
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: My Name Is Jonas 2: No One Else 3: World Has Turned and Left Me Here 4: Buddy Holly 5: Undone -- The Sweater Song 6: Surf Wax America 7: Say It Ain't So 8: In the Garage 9: Holiday 10: Only in Dreams

classic Weezer
Man have I been missing out. I first heard these songs occasionally on the radio when I was a child but didn't buy the album until recently. The 90's were a great decade for alternative rock and this album is one of those masterpieces. Everything seems to come together perfectly here, the songs make you want to sing along, some have a more "poplike" feel than others but most are strong singles. Some songs like "In the Garage" are great too, though they don't get the same attention. If you like this album you should also buy Pinkerton and just avoid the others. (Unfortunately, Weezer has stopped making good rock music and makes. . . . . ?).

Perfect
Besides having great songs, the album has an amazing sound. There's a reason why this album has stood the test of time to become one of the era-defining albums of the 90s. Green Day might have launched the pop-punk frenzy, but it was Weezer's first album that truly created the sound of pop-punk and set the stage for emo with that famous crrruunch. Thanks in no small part to Ric Ocasak (the singer from the Cars who produced the album), the guitars on the blue album sound trashy and heavy. The beats are straight forward and the album is always chugging forward at an exciting rate. If one is not paying close attention, it's easy to mistake this music for punk, metal, or at least something alternative. But underneath all that noise and dissonance, this is nothing but a great, nay genius pop album, along the lines of a Beatles or Beach Boys record. While most alternative bands at the time were more concerned with merging sounds and creating something heavy and different (Dinosaur Jr. , Nirvana, the Pixies, Alice in Chains), Weezer were just writing straight-forward pop songs. What makes it unique and stand out from the rest is that these pop songs have been given muscle and balls. It's sweet sugar coated in a beautiful trashy metal exterior. So the songwriting might not necessarily be anything we haven't heard before, but the way it's presented makes it sound not only fresh, but undeniably beautiful. In this way Weezer stands alongside Phil Spector and The Jesus & Mary Chain as pop-bands that changed the way pop could sound. Just listen to the opening crunch of "My Name is Jonas" or that wonderful low-fi blast of "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" and try not to be moved. Weezer might have written great songs in the future, but they never were able to recapture this sound again, and that's probably why everyone remains so nostalgic for their past.

(1) My Name is Jonas - begins with a gorgeous punk-folk like riff, dissonance and mic sound kick in before the guitars finally hit and Rivers screams quite amateurishly "My Name is Jonas!" The song is probably the most "punk" on the album, and moves ahead straightforwardly. The magic occurs in the bridge, where the same riff is played, but a noisy Nirvana-like solo is played over it and the drums start pounding heavier and heavier, so a certain melodic tension builds up and when it releases, its absolutely magical. 10/10
(2) No One Else - a very straightforward pop song but the lyrics are very childish and cute, even romantic in their own way. "I want a girl who will laugh for noone else. When I'm away she puts her makeup on the shelf. "
(3) The World Has Turned and Left Me Here - Beginning with a drum hiccup, the sound here is incredible. Just trashy beautiful pop noise. Then there's the lyric "The World has turned and left me here just where I was before you appeared and in your place an empty space has filled the void behind my face". It's such a simple lyric but it's horribly, horribly sad. The breakdown in this song where another coda-like chorus enters and Cuomo shouts "Do you believe what I'm saying Now!" is pure genius. 10/10
(4) Buddy Holly - Cuomo almost didn't want this song on the album, and you can sort of see why he might have been against it. It's the most ordinary song here. It sounds corny, like a rip-off of some old 60's rock tune. And yet, for all its ordinariness, it's so undeniably catchy and so expertly written that it's impossible not to fall in love with it, from the very first listen. You may not appreciate or like the song anymore, but can you deny the simple power it had over you the first three times you heard it and sung those lines with him "Wee oo I feel just like Buddy Holly uh oh and I'm Mary Tyler Moore. " The synth line which leads into the chorus is one of the simplest and fabulous touches (especially and most effectively in that wicked bridge when everything quiets down for 2 seconds). One of their biggest hits and the defining song on the album. When people think of Weezer, this is the song. 10/10
(5) Undone - This is my personal favorite on the album, actually my personal favorite Weezer song of all time. I've listened to it so many times that for a while I didn't care for it, but then after going back to it, even if it didn't have the same effect on me that it once did, I can't deny that it is the simplest and most effective song they ever wrote, both lyrically and musically. It is just as beautiful, strange, and perfect as Radiohead's "Creep". Just one perfect riff played over and over and over, a killer chorus, a scary breakdown, and an ending of strange high pitch feedback which only feeds into the feeling of the song. But above everything else is Rivers at his lyrical best. "If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away. Watch me unravel. I'll soon be naked. Lying on the floor! Lying on the floor! I've come undone!" I think those are the saddest lines a man has ever sung. 10/10
(6) Surf Wax America - this is just a great pop punk song, and as cheap and one-dimensional as it is, it's written so well that you can't not like it. This is everything that Weezer strived for with their their "pop" comebacks of The Green Album and Make Believe and Raditude. The chorus sound like something the Beach Boys might have written. 10/10
(7) Say It Aint So - This is the song that everyone usually marks as their favorite at one time or the other. The more you listen to it, the better it gets, and then it sort of peaks, clutches onto your soul and won't let go. Rivers sounds sad and tortued as he mutters those three-word sentences. "I can't confront you I never could do that which might hurt you - try and be cool. " The cathartic shout of the chorus "Say It Aint Soooo" is the sort of line that launches an emo-movement because it's that damn good and that damn sad. But who knows what he's actually singing about? The song hardly makes sense. And that's partly what's so sad about it. There's a certain personal ambiguity to it that most emo-bands forgot to learn from. The bridge here is absolute genius, it's a heavy metallic change in tone when Cuomo yells at his dad, "Dear Daddy, I write you, in spite of years of silence. " One of the best individual moments on the album. 10/10
(8) In the Garage - This is a sort of heroic song with a big chorus and funny little verses. It sounds like Weezer was going for an anthem here, but missed the mark a little. The good thing is, even though they missed it, the end result is something really personal and special. The lyrics show Cuomo's nerdy side here, and without this one song, they might not have been pinpointed as the shy nerds that they were.
(9) Holiday - This is another song along the lines of Surf Wax America and Buddy Holly. It's one of the poppiest, if not the poppiest song on the album. If it didn't have such heavy guitars, it probably could have been written by the Beach Boys. There's a sunshiny innocence about it "Let's go away for a while you and I to a strange and distant land. " It's often cited as the worst song on the album, but it's hardly that. It's just another work of pop genius. 10/10
(10) Only In Dreams - Oh God, before I begin, how many people have a love affair with this song? It's just a beautiful thing, there's moments in this song that rip you apart, and there's moments that put you back together again, and there's a time in your life where you just can't stop listening. And yet it's the only time on the record where Cuomo stumbles. That chorus "Only in dreams you'll see what it means reach out our hands. " You have to admit, there's a certain lyrical and even musical weakness to that chorus, as if Cuomo just sort of came up with it on the fly and pasted it in to the song That said, everything else is take-your-breath away gorgeous, from the opening bass line, to the soft playful romantic verses, to that two and a half minute cathartic build up which is nearly orgasmic in its release. The best and worst song on the album. 10/10.

the only best weezer cd!
I do not like all the others. In my opinion this is Weezer's only best CD they, have put out. They have changed their sound since "Blue", and that's why. I'm only a fan of this one. It is such a great album.

Key tracks:

Buddy Holly
Surf wax America
My name is Jonas

Buy it if you're a fan or love 90's rock. .

Weezer transcends themselves
This is the incredible one. Weezer is good band who has produced a few really good albums and one incredible one.

All ten tracks are sing a long garage band masterpieces, and I haven't yet met anyone who doesn't like this album. You would have to really hate rock music to not like this one. In fact, you might have to hate America not to like it. It is that good.

WEEZER! Need I say more...?!
This is obviously Weezer's first album, containing the hits Buddy Holly, Undone (the Sweater Song), My Name Is Jonas, Say It Ain't So, In The Garage. .

Oh wait, I'm listing all of them. . . well, they're all hits to me!

This CD is an excellent way to get started on Weezer. See where they came from, what they sounded like when the began, and then follow their progression as they continued. Their sound never REALLY changed, it just got more refined. This CD is a great mix of that classic garage-punk (grunge) sound without going too heavy. Cuomo sounds great as he belts out his emotions through the microphone, and the music behind every song fits so well, you'll be thinking to yourself, "Wow! What took me so long to buy this CD?!"

So, in case you haven't gathered by now, I would definitely suggest buying this CD. It's that grunge sound without getting overly heavy or just outright stupid, which means ten tracks of great music.

You can see a complete list of all Weezer discography, or go back to the Weezer tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.