Album: Weezer (The Blue Album)
Released: 1994
In a time where the embers of grunge were dying out, along with the sad demise of Kurt Cobain, Californian quartet Weezer were conjuring up something a lot more left-field. They've come to be known as the stalwarts of emo music, even though they were hardly self-loathing. They come across as a more nerdy, college rock band, and along the way they have amassed a fanbase of relatable clever clogs. Vocalist Rivers Cuomo is a Harvard graduate, don't you know? He's a "loser" like you.
My Name Is Jonas gets things underway, and is a strong opening track for a debut album. The riffs are heavy without being too brutal for the listeners. It's this kind of pop sensibility that brings in fans of Weezer from a load of different subcultures. No One Else continues this trend, incorporating pop punk influences with its thrashing power chords, sounding a little like The Offspring. Most rock fans know Buddy Holly (the song, as well as the young and tragically lost pioneer of rock n'roll), and if you've heard it or seen the video set in the cafe from Happy Days, you already know it's a big tune, stretching out into a set of more obscure guitar sounds. Undone - The Sweater Song is supposedly the song that Rivers Cuomo is most proud of, and it's easy to see why. It has a more melodic feel to it than the previous songs on The Blue Album, ending up in a lovely mess of shredding and feedback.
Just like Buddy Holly, Say It Ain't So is another huge single from the record, with some of my favourite guitar performances in it; no matter how simple it is to play, it just sounds killer. The chorus is huge too, the kind that festival crowds would be singing along to nowadays rather than Radioactive or Pompeii. Holiday is the closest thing this album has to filler, but even so, it's not one I'd be skipping over, and halfway through briefly changes from a rock song to something resembling a barbershop group. Closing number Only In Dreams is built around another beautiful melody, incorporating the quiet-loud-quiet-loud method. It's eight minutes of alternative rock genius, which amalgamates pretty much every impressive characteristic of the rest of the songs on this album, therefore creating a fully evolved track. This is Weezer's "final form". And just like that, the album ends, and I find myself wanting a lot more, which is one of very few things I can find myself moaning about with The Blue Album.
I seriously love this album. These guys are incredibly talented, and they don't settle for that three chord bullshit. The power pop they deliver is built around odd time frames and fantastic harmonisation. Weezer made guitar solos cooler, even though you wouldn't usually put the words "Weezer" and "cool" together, but maybe they were so uncool that they were cool. In more recent times, they've never quite reached the level of fame they once had in the 90's, but their ninth album Everything Will Be Alright In The End has received strong praise, so could we be seeing an old school emo revival? Maybe they can show Vampire Weekend what college rock really is.
Rating: 9/10
Recommended songs: My Name Is Jonas, Undone - The Sweater Song, Say It Ain't So, Only In Dreams
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