It Blue Me Away!

The Blue Album, as I call it, is Weezer’s first release and my first album I ever owned by the band. Yeah, yeah, the album is really called their self-titled release, but they came out with another one in 2001 with the same title only in another color, so that one’s called The Lime Green Album and this one’s called The Blue Album. I’m starting to talk out of my a$* now. Okay, so I started listening to Weezer about…a couple weeks or so ago and have been hooked on them. A couple years back I heard their most famous songs Hash Pipe and Island In The Sun and thought they were good songs, but I didn’t want to give it up and buy the CD since I wasn’t really into music back then. A week ago, I saw this album on the shelf in my local library (our library is so awesome that there are movies, computer games, and CDs besides the books and magazines…hahaha) and I had read a couple recent reviews on some Weezer CDs from a couple reviewers, but I think mainly it was Aerocat, and so I thought that I should give the band a shot. I took The Blue Album home with me and have been hooked on it ever since.

I think there is nicotine coming out of my speakers each time I listen to the CD because I always turn it back on after it finishes. The Blue Album is my favorite Weezer album even surpassing Pinkerton in my eyes and way passing Maladroit. As I am yet to listen to The Green Album, I can’t say if that is better than this one, but so far, The Blue Album is the best by far. Weezer is an awesome band and mixes the best of grunge rock with really melodic guitar notes. The band is sort of a cross between Nirvana and Jimmy Eat World in a way. The lyrics that are written by Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer and guitarist, are wonderful and playful yet serious at the same time. Weezer is one of the best bands of the nineties and started with The Blue Album in 1994 when Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and similar bands started losing their touches, but yet this CD didn’t make a big stir in the music world (I don’t think) so this makes The Blue Album one of the most underestimated albums of all time since this is such an incredible record that has to be heard to be believed.

The whole CD is shining with brightness and nothing can stop it, but it does get snagged in one area: running time. All of Weezer’s CDs are pathetically too short (in the half an hour range) and The Blue Album is nothing different. I like my CDs long, but this one doesn’t cut it. It stops shortly after it starts and it sucks. Most songs are two or three minutes long—basic running times for normal songs, but they are so good that I just want to listen to them forever. I remember saying in my review of Against All Authority’s 24 Hour Roadside Resistance review that it was the album that I could turn on and listen to the whole thing without skipping songs and even listen to it hours on end and I have to reinstate that statement for this review. Weezer’s The Blue Album is a CD that you can put on and read a book or do homework or listen to on a trip constantly and repeatedly. I’ve had the CD for a couple weeks and I’ve listened them it the whole way through at least five times a day. That’s really good. I’m neglecting my playtime with all of my other CDs to listen to this Weezer CD. Someone shoot me.

Weezer consists of Rivers Cuomo at the microphone and lead guitar with Brian Bell helping Rivers with some guitar work and back up vocals and Matt Sharp with his bass guitar in hand and Patrick Wilson behind the drumset and together they make beautiful music. Rivers Cuomo has one of the softest, assertive, and spellbinding voices that I’ve ever heard and it’s a delight to hear him singing his heart and soul. The lyrics that he writes are also very gentle and smooth with comical tones in Undone—The Sweater Song and he even writes serious, masterpieces of tracks like Say It Isn’t So and Only In Dreams. I was reluctant to try Weezer since everyone loved them and being a guy who doesn’t like what everyone else likes, I was skeptical of their “indie/hard rock” roots that in the early years sound a lot like Jimmy Eat World lyrics and vocals and Nirvana and Foo Fighters style of music writing that sounds more like Emo than hard rock as they are known for in their recent singles. I own all of Weezer’s records and The Blue Album is to Weezer as Clarity is to Jimmy Eat world meaning that this is a classic record and should be in any fan’s musical collection because a CD like this doesn’t come along every fortnight.

Weezer Is: Rivers Cuomo (Vocals, Guitar), Brain Bell (Guitar, Vocals), Matt Sharp (Bass, Vocals), and Patrick Wilson (Drums)

My Name Is Jonas starts out the album with a polite acoustic line that immediately leads into a guitar riff of the same melody that repeats most of the song with one of the catchiest choruses ever made. It’s a perfect opener that makes you vision what comes next in the record—pure goodness. The guitar is certainly the best part of the song, but you really can’t forget the bass that mimics everything that the guitar does but with a slower, slightly obscured style. The drums are also pretty sweet and very well choreographed and mastered with echo waves of cymbals and crisp taps of the snare. The song is generally faster paced than some of the later songs on the album, but it’s pretty slow compared to some of the later work the band did. My Name Is Jonas is a perfect addition to the CD and one of my many favorite Weezer songs. Buddy Holly is track number four and has received a number of cult followings as being everyone’s favorite song by Weezer and I have to agree. This song is modestly perfect in every way with posture, integrity, and rewarding vocals in every sense. The lyrics are just fabulous while the guitar chords by Bell and Cuomo are flawless. The drums could have been worked on a little bit more especially with more snare and cymbal interpretation, but they still fit the song very well. The chorus of Buddy Holly is my favorite of the whole CD and sort of makes me think that Rivers wrote it about how he looks like legend of rock and roll Buddy Holly.

Another reviewer said that Undone—The Sweater Song was overrated as being Weezer at their finest hour and how it’s not nearly as wonderful as the rest of the songs, but I think that it accomplishes what it sets out to do: appeal to fans of rock. The song is moderately slower than a lot of the songs on the CD, but it still keeps the rock and roll feel with slow guitar riffs and bass lines, but faster tempo of drumming and when the chorus happens it picks up a bit, but if you’re looking for a faster paced song than you might get restless and disappointed. I like this song not just because it’s humorous out of stupidity, but also because the chorus is really catchy. The lyrics are comedic because Rivers is singing about how if you hold on to a string that hanging off of his sweater has he walks away than it will unravel and he will be “naked lying on the floor”. It’s a weird song, but simply phenomenal nonetheless. Say It Ain’t So isn’t the name of a familiar line in a popular Blink-182 song, it’s actually one of the best songs on the entire record, but how do I choose favorites when I love all the songs the same. Say It Ain’t So is a really slow song, but is chopped up with equally brisk paced parts with generic slow moments, but whether or not that’s your cup of tea, the results are satisfying. The guitar work is top of the line and of the highest caliber and I personally love it (and wish I could strum as nicely). The song sounds more like it should be a Jimmy Eat World song more than you will ever know and I love it because it’s so different, shy, and proof of how smaller budgets make incredible albums.

Closing tracks to me make or break an album. Sometimes bands (or artists) have a solid release, but mess up at the end with a rushed, stapled, stale song just to tie up loose ends, while others just let the good times flow and don’t care about time restrictions or lyrical tie-ups and Weezer is one of those bands that do this. Only In Dreams is the closer of the CD and the longest one (six or seven minutes—I honestly don’t remember). A majority is a short instrumental, but a big chunk have lyrics and good ones at that even if I really don’t believe what Rivers is wailing about, but I can only imagine that it’s romantic troubles (since that’s the subject of most of his songs). The song has hearty guitar riffs with bass strumming mixed in to help the guitar make a message of pain and loathing while the drums just finish the job with terrific and catchy beats that sound like a lot of time and effort went into them and overall it shines and polishes the finish of the release and makes me want to come back for more—I still am hungry for more despite how I own all of the bands’ albums (except Weezer’s The Green Album, which I should be getting one of these days in the mail).

1. My Name Is Jonas
2. No One Else
3. The 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

Climax/Finale/Conclusion/Get The Fuxk Out Of Here

In closing, I would just like to say that I am very happy that I came to own this CD and I owe it all to the dedicated reviewers that have reviewed most of all of Weezer’s CDs like Aerocat and MattA75. Weezer (1994) is a daringly provocative and sort of seductive release by Weezer and I think that it is an instant classic among Weezer’s fans as sort of a cult CD if I’ve ever came across. The Blue Album is their best record and I don’t care if you beat me over the head with a cripple’s fake legs to try and prove to me that Pinkerton is their finest, but I love this one even if the previously mentioned one is really good. If you want to be addicted to a CD for a long time and one that has some of the best rock and roll songs of all time, go and buy Weezer’s The Blue Album because this is what rock is all about.

Jason