294. Weezer, "Weezer (The Blue Album)"

 

I owned this album on CD.  At the time, it just seemed to me like a brilliant pop-punk album and I liked a lot of the songs and didn't think about it too much.  I also loved Pinkerton, Weezer's much-maligned but far more interesting second album.

Look at the cover of this album!  If you guessed this was going to be a nerd-rock adventure, you were so right.  Now that I listen to it again with 20-something years of separation, it's a lot darker than I used to think.  And there's a gimmick I didn't pick up on - are we making fun of the popular kids and their dumb music, or are we trying to become them?  From "In the Garage":

I've got a Dungeon Master's Guide, I've got a 12-sided die
I've got Kitty Pryde, and Nightcrawler too
Waiting there for me, yes I do, I do
I've got posters on the wall, my favorite rock group KISS
I've got Ace Frehley, I've got Peter Criss
Waiting there for me, yes I do, I do

In the garage, I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage, where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage

I've got electric guitar, I play my stupid songs
I write these stupid words, and I love every one
Waiting there for me, yes I do, I do

There are all the geek signifiers at the beginning - the D&D references, the Kitty Pryde comic book mention (not the rapper Kitty Pryde, who later just became Kitty, for copyright reasons, I assume), etc. Then the lonely guy chorus and then the self-deprecating part about how he writes these stupid songs that will, of course, make him one of the popular kids one day.

But it wasn't this ambiguity that made this album a hit, it was the straight-ahead brilliant pop songs sung over absolutely crunching distorted guitars, songs that would stick in your head forever.  And the videos!  So great.  Remember Spike Jonze's video for Buddy Holly?

Hmm, maybe this is only Extremely Special if, like me, you grew up watching "Happy Days" as a kid.  If you didn't, this probably doesn't have the same resonance for you.

Weezer was fronted, of course, by Rivers Cuomo, who is famously eccentric but seems mostly harmless (his well-documented obsession with Asian women notwithstanding).  He writes the kind of songs that can make you feel they are specifically about you and that he knows exactly what you are going through, and I think that's forged a connection with his fanbase that may not be super healthy on either end.  Anyway, I can still remember singing loudly along to "Undone - The Sweater Song" with my ex-wife in the car in the late 90's.  She's gone now.  Weezer is still touring.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Well of course and, as Stephen points out, it's probably accurately placed.  In fact, it's one of the very few albums that barely moved positions from the last list.

[EDIT: As my current wife reminds me, it was her I was singing loudly with in the car to "Undone," and not my ex.  Sorry!  She took it very well, I must say.  I have a terrible memory and the album came out in the 90's, shoot me.]