Blast from the Past: Weezer's Weezer

Self-titled albums are supposed to be a coming out party. They should introduce a band with such bombast that never once will you question or forget the name of that band or that album. In the past it's worked for hundreds of bands, though some have failed miserably, but never before has a been attempted three self-titled albums that's just ludicrous. But lo and behold, just yesterday Weezer stamped their name on another album, gave it a different colored cover, and have plunged into the worst album in the band's existence. Okay, maybe it's Make Believe, but it's really too close to call. Between the green album and the red album, Weezer have done more to tarnish their image then any self-titled album in the history. But why would they have done this? Why would they have taken the self-titled album and released a mockery of themselves? The first go at self-titling went so amazingly well! The blue album is still revered, still adored, still beloved, and yet now we have red and green crap ruining a band that was once great.

Like most of you, my introduction to Weezer came from their wildly popular video for "Buddy Holly". It was such a fantastic clip, especially to kids that were bred on re-runs of Happy Days, but the song still stands out even in this day and age. "Buddy Holly" was an anthem for a generation, a theme song, and it launched Weezer's self-titled blue album to the world at large. That there would be nine other power-pop gems was a thing of beauty. "My Name Is Jonas", "Undone (The Sweater Song)", "In the Garage", these are all classic rock anthems, all of which I can sing every word to and I;m sure most of you can do the exact same thing. At thirteen years old this album was revolutionary and would be one of the first albums I ever owned.

Throughout the blue album Rivers shows off a penchant for writing a power-pop song. The verse-chorus-verse works perfectly within these songs, it's led by a verse about a girl or an awkward situation, it's followed by a sing-a-long chorus meant to be sung as loud as humanly possible, and it's all wrapped up neatly with another verse of quirky lyrics. Pure pop perfection! On top of that you have these insane guitar solos, pounding bass lines, thumping drums, all of which unite to form 10 of my favorite songs ever. It's one of those perfect albums where you don't skip anything! How many of those can you say you own? A dozen or so? I guarantee they are out numbered a hundred to one in almost all of your collections.

On the red album Rivers and company throw it all away. Instead of giving us glistening, quirky lyrics they give us some form of magnetic poetry. It's nonsensical, it doesn't add up, and it proves that Rivers isn't nearly as revealing or honest with us as he once was. The music is the same retread Weezer songs from the last three albums. All of it couldn't hold a torch to what they had on the blue album. No, the time of Weezer has passed but at least we have the blue album to fall back on and to keep us warm at night. At least we still have that. Forget the red album go out and buy another copy of the one true Weezer album.
Weezer - "My Name Is Jonas"
Weezer - "Buddy Holly"
Weezer - Undone (The Sweater Song)"
Weezer - "Surf Wax America"