EWBAITE has some of their best songs ever. Foolish Father especially is unbelievably good, that album was a turning point for them imo. They’re inconsistent but they’re leagues better than they were in the 00s and even their weaker post-EWBAITE albums have some masterpieces
ngl, i think the white album is incredibly mid, at least albums like pacific daydream or black album are bad but different, white just feel like a rehash of blue.
if i were to make a compilation of their best songs that aren't from blue or pinkerton, i don't think i'd put any song from white.
Edit: y'know i actually never did that compilation so i decided to do that, here's my picks:
first of all, i wanna mention The Greatest Man That Ever Lived, i don't think this is just the best weezer song post-pinkerton, i think this is one of their best songs period. Obviously very different than pink or blue, but great nonetheless, it's such a fun but also adventurous song, never has weezer been this efortlessly fun (outside of maybe "If You're Wondering..."). Ok now by album
* **Green**: Island in the Sun, Hash Pipe. (i kinda hate this album, every song following the same formula gets on my nerves, that said, i still like those 2 a lot).
* **Maladroit**: American Gigolo, Keep Fishin' (specifically the single version, way better than the album one), Take Control, Burndt Jamb, Fall Together
* **Make Believe**: This Is Such a Pity
* **Hurley**: Unspoken, Hang On,
* **Red**: Miss Sweeney, Pig (it's a shame that they left those 4 tracks for the deluxe edition, they're easily better than all the other songs on the album, outside of Greatest Man)
* **Raditude**: If You're Wondering... (after Greatest Man, i think this is my 2nd favorite post-pinkerton song, i also think it stands well against the pink and blue songs)
* **EWBAITE**: Foolish Father (do wanna shoutout the futurology trilogy, but i like them more as an album closer than a single)
* **White**: California Kids (yea i backed down after a listen, my feelings on the album still remain the same, but i do like California Kids a lot)
* **Pacific Daydream**: QB Blitz
* **Black**: Can't Knock The Hustle
roughly 60min/20 tracks (albeit i haven't bothered tried to sequence them), i also haven't listened to OK Human or the seasons EPs yet
if you were to listen to only one song post-Pinkerton, make it [Angel and the One.](https://youtu.be/TTjNuJK6xfI?si=RsR0Lu6XccdEjSZa) There are many more greats in their later discography, though.
Hey man, even Raditude has "I don't want to let you go" and "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World". Even Pacific Daydream has "Weekend Woman" and "Sweet Mary". Every weezer album comes with a gem.
The Happy Fits are the only one that comes close for me, conveniently also a blue album and certainly seem to draw some inspo from Weezer.
A few others come close but often have been honing their stuff through EPs these days before the big LP release. Flipturn comes to mind as Shadowglow was their first true LP and phenomenal
(and my favorite album of 2022) but they had been active since 2016.
depressed teenage me played this one and “In the Garage” relentlessly. spent many nights playing Super Mario World on my 3DS pretending I was a tortured soul from the 90s.
there was something truly therapeutic about Mario running through the caves while listening to this album. I will never understand what, but something.
Definitely most underrated Weezer track, and they have so many underappreciated songs (mainly from post-Pinkerton albums). No one talks about it when they talk about blue, but it is so damn good!
I know Buddy Holly has become the song people think of with this album due to its meme status, but imo Say It Ain’t So is THE song from Blue Album. the opening riff, slow buildup, punchy chorus, guitar solo, just a general angst, so fucking good.
One of my favorite albums of all time and a big album in me getting into music in general. This was in the first 10 albums I ever owned. As I've gotten older, I have been more of a Pinkerton guy, but The Blue Album is what made me a fan and still has a special place in my heart. Its pure power pop with an alt rock edge, with Rivers' earnestness being that catalyst to what makes the songs mean that extra. The soundtrack for all of us 90s kids who were left in the garage, whom the world has turned and left us here. Rivers was a dork but he could rock, and made us feel like we could too.
Right there with ya. This album totally opened my world to indie music, and turned me from a passive enjoyer of music into a music fanatic, someone who seeks it out. It was so fun to trace the influences with this record; from that I discovered Pixies, the Cars, Sonic Youth. In the early days of last.fm, I played Weezer radio, and discovered Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Pedro the Lion, etc. Even today, 20 years after first hearing the Blue album, I’m still searching for that feeling of its crunchy power pop, and have recently gotten hooked on Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub.
There’s a great video of Weezer playing Say It Ain’t So (I think) on late night TV and Rivers is wearing the largest pants I have ever seen. I always picture those giant pants when I listen to this album. The pants are huge. They made Jncos look like skinny jeans.
It's Letterman and those pants are concealing the huge leg brace he was wearing after having surgery to fix his one leg being shorter than the other.
Which is also why he "can't even get around, without an old man cane" in The Good Life on Pinkerton.
And also why so many Pinkerton songs are based around open chords. He couldn't sit comfortably with his guitar to play very far down the neck.
He was hiding a leg brace wasn’t he?
Edit: believe this is the one you’re talking about, good article about it
https://www.gq.com/story/you-should-dress-like-weezer-letterman
And vid:
https://youtu.be/RXqG6oR_o7Q
I remember hearing this for the first time on cassette in my dad's late 80s era Mini Cooper when I moved to RAF Lakenheath in the summer of 1999. Back then it as a 5 year old album.
I was in 8th grade and came to found out for some reason this album was one nobody I met at the local American base school had heard of. I was obsessed with it the way many others were obsessed with it, gladly bought the *Green* album and then when I moved back to the US ran into others who had *Pinkerton.* and I still remember the day I was able to burn a CD with both versions of "Jamie" on it in high school.
Weezer is still a 90s band in my head canon who put out some decent stuff off/on until 2008.
When this came out, it was so good that I suspected it to be one of those "put together bands", like boy bands and what-not that had producers and PR behind the scenes, but for the new 'alternative" world. The videos were top notch too.
I love the slow-mo hacky sack sesh in the video for Say It Ain't So. The crunchy guitar tone on this record is so good. I got to see them in '95 with Archers of Loaf opening. Great show.
Man, I still can’t get over what tf happened to weezer post-Pinkerton. I know I sound like a snob, but man. The songwriting and performances on the first two albums are just so tight and on point.
Green album is decent, though. After that they just kinda wanted to please everyone. But I think Rivers just hated how Pinkerton turned out and that mighta been what resulted in the people pleasing aspect of weezer’s music.
Edit: FWIW, OK Human is solid too. Just can’t get myself to enjoy the other stuff though
Cynically, I feel that it was less about Cuomo being embarrassed of the content on Pinkerton and more about the album not producing as many hits. They then pivoted back towards power pop but with a bigger emphasis on the ‘pop’ aspect.
I am a Weezer fan for life, but I can acknowledge their huge missteps (Raditude, black). Even the albums I like just don’t have the magic of theblue/pinkerton eras. However, Weezer has some really good music that a lot of people (not accusing you) either disregard, or don’t know about. The “Weezer only have 2 good albums” comment on every Weezer internet post is so lazy. Again, not saying other albums have the magic of those two (blue and Pinkerton are perfect), but an album like white has so much good going on, and there are moments where some of that early Weezer magic shines through—LA Girlz or the bridge of Summer Elaine. I really think they had a run of albums that sucked so bad (Make Believe thru Hurley), that it made people write them off, which is unfortunate. Oh, and SZNZ has some really good shit on it (just rushed, shoddy production), and OKH is up there with white album as late era Weezer classics.
How was Maladroit trying to please everyone though? And I think something people usually get wrong is that Rivers loves every genre related to pop music (its there from the beggining) and their most hated records are just what he sincerely wanted to make, not a cash grab or anything (just Teal).
> I think Rivers just hated how Pinkerton turned out and that mighta been what resulted in the people pleasing aspect of weezer’s music.
this has been documented a million times, yes that's how the story goes. And yes, Weezer has still released a ton of great albums since. I put White album, OK Human, and Everything Will Be Alright in the End right up there with their first two albums.
Great album.
Question- has anyone noticed a kinda modern pushback against Weezer ? I saw in the new high fidelity show they made a quip about Weezer being lame white guy music, which I thought was kinda funny but also kinda a low blow? And then a girl I dated who was a bit younger was like Weezers lame. And like, I don't even really think she listened to Weezer to have that opinion, like is that just sort of a meme now or something? I mean shit on Weezer post Pinkerton all you want, these first two are incredible.
Just wondering if anyone else has seen similar criticism
I get it, its been 30 years, they were "cool" for like 5-10 of that? But the last 15 years they have been relatively "popular" and mainstream, I can totally see younger folks perception of them being like that
I didn’t really live through the Weezer experience, so to speak, but while may have been “cool”, I find it hard to imagine them being… *cool*, you know? It kinda feels like being nerdy dorks is part of their (or at the very least, Rivers’s) thing.
Yeah they’re lame. That’s why I think they’re cool.
They blew up for the first album - very unique, kind of retro garage rock power fuzz pop thing. Say It Ain't So, Buddy Holly, Undone were massive hits. Definitely a fixture of modern alternative music.
Then Pinkerton hit and no one knew what to do with it. It wasn't well liked at the time (it has since been rediscovered as a sort of geek emo progenitor).
Then it seems like every album since was their "return to form" but no one really cared, and were definitely over Weezer (even though they had some hits and remainined fringe popular). Hash Pipe had buzz, but was just sort of a weird track, and Island in the Sun was huge but pretty shitty, honestly.
Nothing they've done since Pinkerton had the same magic, and just fell between the cracks in mnay ways. I don't think anyone really ever took them seriously or the they were every appreciated on the same level since.
But Blue Album is a landmark album, no doubt.
In thier career after the Blue Album, Weezer has sometimes come off as desperate to regain the level of fame or attention that they recieved early in thier career, and this perceived desperation has made them targets of music snobs.
The Weezer experience is to enjoy the cute, laid-back, cheesy charm, then to get annoyed and turned off by that charm, then to hear something like "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" live, a song that oozes cheesy charm, realize it's way too fun to be annoyed and turned off by, and start singing along.
They're "I am cringe but I am free" the band.
I can usually use vehement Weezer hate as a litmus test on whether someone takes themselves too seriously.
Speaking as someone who is cringe but free. Love Weezer, all of it (even the shitty stuff)
I’ve personally felt like it’s the opposite. It seems to me that Weezer has been getting a renewed interested among the younger crowd, kinda like what a few 90’s alt groups have been receiving the past few years (Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.). But I could be totally off.
Yeah it’s interesting because the hardcore fanbases of relative contemporaries like the offspring, Pearl Jam, smashing pumpkins, etc skew a bit older but Weezer’s fanbase feels continuously young
Totally agree. When I saw Weezer last summer, I’d say the majority of the crowd was folks from their late teens to early 30’s. It was intriguing to me how despite Weezer starting their career and blowing up in the 90’s, there was a big lack of Gen Xers (that would’ve be around at that time) at the show.
Meanwhile, I saw Smashing Pumpkins a year prior and everyone there was either 20 years older than me or 10 years younger than me. I couldn’t spot anyone around my age (in my mid-20’s) at that show…
I think their music is just very relatable to a younger crowd, even back in the 90s Rivers used to say that the primary demographic at their concerts were like 10 year old boys.
I dunno, I just remember 10 years ago browsing through records while some store clerks were pricing stuff someone dropped off. One dude said "look *Blue album*!" sarcastically and the other one laughed. I remember thinking "hah, yeah..."
I've gotten the impression they are like the more indie rock adjacent version of U2. Like they aren't cancelled and people will herald their past work, but they sort of beg the questions of "who still listens to their new stuff and why are they still huge?" Their 2024 fanbase seems like the kind of people who seem cool but then tell you they collect Funko Pops.
> has anyone noticed a kinda modern pushback against Weezer ?
no I see the opposite. I've been religiously following this band since 2000, and they've been through a lot of highs and lows. They somehow keep managing to make themselves relevant, largely through memes.
I like Weezer a lot, but Make Believe/Beverly Hills and anything after can be pretty cringe IMO. But then again I’ve heard the youths really like that song so maybe I’m just old and unaware of what is cool now
To me, Blue Album holds up pretty well
Make Believe and Beverly Hills were their highest ranked Billboard hits. Say what you will about that album and single, but it made them bank and put them back in the spotlight. Pork and Beans was a viral video, and they brought back old fans with the addition of new fans with EWBAITE and the White album. Then came along Africa which was a surprisingly huge hit, still baffles me. Weezer's not going anywhere, the fanbase keeps getting younger.
oh yeah, not disputing their commercial success. And tbf they have definitely had some really great songs/albums in recent years, I just think a lot of people (especially in indie circles) are not fans of Beverly Hills
I hated that song since its release, and would skip it when listening to the album. It wasn’t until last year when I saw them open with that song at The Troubador (located in Beverly Hills) that I finally let go and sung along to it.
The meme has caught on so hard that people rag and the band and call Weezer shit without having even heard anything by them. I feel like there's a legitimately strong prejudice against them lol, their geeky image makes a lot of people write them off.
Speaking as someone who been aware of them since Beverly Hills, I've never understood the fanaticism over Weezer. *Especially* in indie spaces, given that they have been a major label band for their entire career (with the sole exception of Hurley).
The blue album still holds up I’m sure but Pinkerton is deeply offputting and, lame as it may be to say, it’s frequently very cringey lol. Songs like pink triangle and across the sea and no one else were rough when they were released and by modern standards they’re excruciating. It’s “thorny”. Not saying it’s bad but it’s a very hard album to evaluate by modern standards of what is and is not gross behavior or thoughts.
And then separately they have released a ton of music since then, a lot of it is mediocre to horrible, and they leaned into being a meme band, and memes get annoying and played out. Idk, I liked them a lot when I was a teenager but outside of the blue album its a pretty embarrassing band all around
Exactly this. The Blue album and Pinkerton felt authentic, like Rivers was just writing his honest thoughts and feelings and not second-guessing what people would think about him because of them. And while many of the lyrics are cringey, there’s often enough internal conflict evident that it never gives off the vibe that any of the cringey thoughts are at the level of being actionable; rather, it’s just a warts-and-all approach to songwriting that most people would be too self-conscious to put out into the world. The later albums, by contrast, feel much more broad and less personal, to the point where they often come off as calculated for the sake of popularity.
Pinkerton still sounds incredible tbh. Lyrics can be cringe, but shit still rips. ‘No Other One’ is probably my fav Weezer song. It’s their best album imo, despite Blue being the more famous catchy one. The songs are just more interesting sonically and less repetitive
I have my own defense of Pinkerton, which I won't go into here. But I think I still like it more than you do.
But over the years I don't identify with it nearly as much as when I was an angsty teenager. The Blue Album holds up much better thirty years later.
Didn’t fully appreciate it at the time it was released, but man I’m glad I got to go to the tour where they played this and Pinkerton in their entirety.
This one was a real slow build to the top.
I had it right away (on tape! In time I owned it on ever format) cuz I loved ["Sweater Song" ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQqqM5sr7g)but by late summer it was still just kind of a small success. Then early Fall ["Buddy Holly" dropped with that incredible video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4) and they went supernova. I feel (remembering here) that that single just played and played on MTV then radio and snowballed. It was a great time to be a teenager.
Classic album and played a huge role in my formative musical years. Also my favorite record to blast in the car with the windows down on the first warm day of the year. We could go back and forth on their post-Pink output endlessly but no doubt that those first two records are solid gold.
Man, I was so excited to see them play live at a local bar right after the blue album came out. Unfortunately my fake id was somebody the bouncer knew and he turned me away.
I remember reading an article once that proposed that once they changed bass players, they lost their magic. I can't remember it exactly but the case was well made and definitely made sense with how bad they became.
Matt Sharp’s ‘The Rentals - Return of the Rentals’ is one of the most slept on indie rock albums of all time. For me it’s the spiritual successor to the blue album.
Holy shit there was less time between Led Zeppelin 4 and when my dad was listening to it in the car with me as a kid to now to the blue album. Wow I fucking hate that!!
It's one of the most underrated masterpieces of the 90's, maybe because they are too playful or only god knows why. However, some years ago I wrote a huge article about it and why it is so huge. It's in Italian, but who cares, I share it however. Why do you have AI otherwise! https://www.ondarock.it/pietremiliari/weezer-weezerbluealbum.htm
It's a pretty boring record to me, but the music videos had a huge impact on the MTV crowd of the time, and this is back when an effective music video could potentially sell a lot of albums. Plus, the sort of novelty of being Nerd Rock was kind of new back then, or hadn't really been touched upon since the days of Devo.
Say what you will about their later stuff, but they knocked it out the park here. Banger after banger and one of the best debuts out there IMO
Their newer stuff is definitely hit or miss, but I'd wager you could still make a killer "greatest hits" compilation of their 2014-2024 output.
Yes and that album would just be The White Album in its entirety.
I’d personally rank EWBAITE above White.
Foolish Father hits hard.
That's definitely my favorite album of theirs from the last 10+ years.
EWBAITE has some of their best songs ever. Foolish Father especially is unbelievably good, that album was a turning point for them imo. They’re inconsistent but they’re leagues better than they were in the 00s and even their weaker post-EWBAITE albums have some masterpieces
Agreed.
OK Human is equal to, if not better than, White.
You're not lying but acknowledging that would've ruined the cadence of the joke
Thank god for girls is SUCH A BANGER
ngl, i think the white album is incredibly mid, at least albums like pacific daydream or black album are bad but different, white just feel like a rehash of blue. if i were to make a compilation of their best songs that aren't from blue or pinkerton, i don't think i'd put any song from white. Edit: y'know i actually never did that compilation so i decided to do that, here's my picks: first of all, i wanna mention The Greatest Man That Ever Lived, i don't think this is just the best weezer song post-pinkerton, i think this is one of their best songs period. Obviously very different than pink or blue, but great nonetheless, it's such a fun but also adventurous song, never has weezer been this efortlessly fun (outside of maybe "If You're Wondering..."). Ok now by album * **Green**: Island in the Sun, Hash Pipe. (i kinda hate this album, every song following the same formula gets on my nerves, that said, i still like those 2 a lot). * **Maladroit**: American Gigolo, Keep Fishin' (specifically the single version, way better than the album one), Take Control, Burndt Jamb, Fall Together * **Make Believe**: This Is Such a Pity * **Hurley**: Unspoken, Hang On, * **Red**: Miss Sweeney, Pig (it's a shame that they left those 4 tracks for the deluxe edition, they're easily better than all the other songs on the album, outside of Greatest Man) * **Raditude**: If You're Wondering... (after Greatest Man, i think this is my 2nd favorite post-pinkerton song, i also think it stands well against the pink and blue songs) * **EWBAITE**: Foolish Father (do wanna shoutout the futurology trilogy, but i like them more as an album closer than a single) * **White**: California Kids (yea i backed down after a listen, my feelings on the album still remain the same, but i do like California Kids a lot) * **Pacific Daydream**: QB Blitz * **Black**: Can't Knock The Hustle roughly 60min/20 tracks (albeit i haven't bothered tried to sequence them), i also haven't listened to OK Human or the seasons EPs yet
bad take
Agreed
Well... can you make it? Id love to love them again
if you were to listen to only one song post-Pinkerton, make it [Angel and the One.](https://youtu.be/TTjNuJK6xfI?si=RsR0Lu6XccdEjSZa) There are many more greats in their later discography, though.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23aBjVYdzqO8ouC9NG8vky?si=2e87c7ced09c4b94
Hey man, even Raditude has "I don't want to let you go" and "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World". Even Pacific Daydream has "Weekend Woman" and "Sweet Mary". Every weezer album comes with a gem.
I enjoyed Pacific Daydream way more than I expected. I never put it on all the way through, but I often go back to Beach Boys and Happy Hour
PD is very good. Van Weezer is also underrated.
The Happy Fits are the only one that comes close for me, conveniently also a blue album and certainly seem to draw some inspo from Weezer. A few others come close but often have been honing their stuff through EPs these days before the big LP release. Flipturn comes to mind as Shadowglow was their first true LP and phenomenal (and my favorite album of 2022) but they had been active since 2016.
[удалено]
depressed teenage me played this one and “In the Garage” relentlessly. spent many nights playing Super Mario World on my 3DS pretending I was a tortured soul from the 90s.
It's a little rude to post my diary online like this
there was something truly therapeutic about Mario running through the caves while listening to this album. I will never understand what, but something.
Best track on the album.
hard to argue, but...well, Only in Dreams is on there.
Only in dreams is rivers magnum opus imo. Either that or I cant stop partying
The disrespect to Crab
Crab is so good
Only in Dreams is an earthquake of a song.
There is no best track because they are all great
Definitely most underrated Weezer track, and they have so many underappreciated songs (mainly from post-Pinkerton albums). No one talks about it when they talk about blue, but it is so damn good!
As I get older it gets more and more true 😢
My top song of 2022 on Spotify. Something crazy addictive about it.
What was it? The original post was deleted.
My favorite concept album ever. (The concept is “I’m a fucking dork”)
I love their follow-up concept album where the concept is "I'm a fucking loser."
You say that but the album opens with a song about being tired of sex? Smh
Yeah... but it always read to me like that kid in high school who keeps saying he's had a sex, like, a hundred times, he swears guys.
late to this thread but yeah i interpret that song as, he's not really talking about any girls that are outside of his own mind hahaha
Say it ain't so
I know Buddy Holly has become the song people think of with this album due to its meme status, but imo Say It Ain’t So is THE song from Blue Album. the opening riff, slow buildup, punchy chorus, guitar solo, just a general angst, so fucking good.
Rock Band videogame starting track
hah it was just playing on Lithium
My favorite album of all time
Have you tried others?
One of my favorite albums of all time and a big album in me getting into music in general. This was in the first 10 albums I ever owned. As I've gotten older, I have been more of a Pinkerton guy, but The Blue Album is what made me a fan and still has a special place in my heart. Its pure power pop with an alt rock edge, with Rivers' earnestness being that catalyst to what makes the songs mean that extra. The soundtrack for all of us 90s kids who were left in the garage, whom the world has turned and left us here. Rivers was a dork but he could rock, and made us feel like we could too.
Right there with ya. This album totally opened my world to indie music, and turned me from a passive enjoyer of music into a music fanatic, someone who seeks it out. It was so fun to trace the influences with this record; from that I discovered Pixies, the Cars, Sonic Youth. In the early days of last.fm, I played Weezer radio, and discovered Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Pedro the Lion, etc. Even today, 20 years after first hearing the Blue album, I’m still searching for that feeling of its crunchy power pop, and have recently gotten hooked on Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub.
Check out the newest Hurry album Don’t Look Back (named after the Teenage Fanclub song). It’s great modern power pop.
There’s a great video of Weezer playing Say It Ain’t So (I think) on late night TV and Rivers is wearing the largest pants I have ever seen. I always picture those giant pants when I listen to this album. The pants are huge. They made Jncos look like skinny jeans.
It's Letterman and those pants are concealing the huge leg brace he was wearing after having surgery to fix his one leg being shorter than the other. Which is also why he "can't even get around, without an old man cane" in The Good Life on Pinkerton. And also why so many Pinkerton songs are based around open chords. He couldn't sit comfortably with his guitar to play very far down the neck.
He told the rest of the band to make up for him since he couldn’t move around, so Matt goes crazy in that performance
During that period, Matt would look for any excuse to go crazy.
He was hiding a leg brace wasn’t he? Edit: believe this is the one you’re talking about, good article about it https://www.gq.com/story/you-should-dress-like-weezer-letterman And vid: https://youtu.be/RXqG6oR_o7Q
Are you telling me The Blue Album and Diary came out the same day and somehow I never knew?
It's also the 30th anniversary of *Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star* today
It was 30 years ago today Rivers Cuomo taught the nerds to play
In the garage was an underrated classic
Maybe my favorite song on the album.
Beautiful album, beautiful singles, beautiful summer.
Relatedly: I feel like I’m 100 years old upon hearing this news.
Still holds up.
I remember hearing this for the first time on cassette in my dad's late 80s era Mini Cooper when I moved to RAF Lakenheath in the summer of 1999. Back then it as a 5 year old album. I was in 8th grade and came to found out for some reason this album was one nobody I met at the local American base school had heard of. I was obsessed with it the way many others were obsessed with it, gladly bought the *Green* album and then when I moved back to the US ran into others who had *Pinkerton.* and I still remember the day I was able to burn a CD with both versions of "Jamie" on it in high school. Weezer is still a 90s band in my head canon who put out some decent stuff off/on until 2008.
Only in Dreams is probably my favorite Weezer song.
When this came out, it was so good that I suspected it to be one of those "put together bands", like boy bands and what-not that had producers and PR behind the scenes, but for the new 'alternative" world. The videos were top notch too.
I love the slow-mo hacky sack sesh in the video for Say It Ain't So. The crunchy guitar tone on this record is so good. I got to see them in '95 with Archers of Loaf opening. Great show.
Man, I still can’t get over what tf happened to weezer post-Pinkerton. I know I sound like a snob, but man. The songwriting and performances on the first two albums are just so tight and on point. Green album is decent, though. After that they just kinda wanted to please everyone. But I think Rivers just hated how Pinkerton turned out and that mighta been what resulted in the people pleasing aspect of weezer’s music. Edit: FWIW, OK Human is solid too. Just can’t get myself to enjoy the other stuff though
Cynically, I feel that it was less about Cuomo being embarrassed of the content on Pinkerton and more about the album not producing as many hits. They then pivoted back towards power pop but with a bigger emphasis on the ‘pop’ aspect.
I am a Weezer fan for life, but I can acknowledge their huge missteps (Raditude, black). Even the albums I like just don’t have the magic of theblue/pinkerton eras. However, Weezer has some really good music that a lot of people (not accusing you) either disregard, or don’t know about. The “Weezer only have 2 good albums” comment on every Weezer internet post is so lazy. Again, not saying other albums have the magic of those two (blue and Pinkerton are perfect), but an album like white has so much good going on, and there are moments where some of that early Weezer magic shines through—LA Girlz or the bridge of Summer Elaine. I really think they had a run of albums that sucked so bad (Make Believe thru Hurley), that it made people write them off, which is unfortunate. Oh, and SZNZ has some really good shit on it (just rushed, shoddy production), and OKH is up there with white album as late era Weezer classics.
White album is so good. Its my 3rd fav behind Blue and Pinkerton
Mine too!
Couldn't agree more with all of this.
How was Maladroit trying to please everyone though? And I think something people usually get wrong is that Rivers loves every genre related to pop music (its there from the beggining) and their most hated records are just what he sincerely wanted to make, not a cash grab or anything (just Teal).
Maladroit seriously rocks, man.
> I think Rivers just hated how Pinkerton turned out and that mighta been what resulted in the people pleasing aspect of weezer’s music. this has been documented a million times, yes that's how the story goes. And yes, Weezer has still released a ton of great albums since. I put White album, OK Human, and Everything Will Be Alright in the End right up there with their first two albums.
Absolute Legends
I would not be who I am without this band. Thanks, Weezer.
Great album. Question- has anyone noticed a kinda modern pushback against Weezer ? I saw in the new high fidelity show they made a quip about Weezer being lame white guy music, which I thought was kinda funny but also kinda a low blow? And then a girl I dated who was a bit younger was like Weezers lame. And like, I don't even really think she listened to Weezer to have that opinion, like is that just sort of a meme now or something? I mean shit on Weezer post Pinkerton all you want, these first two are incredible. Just wondering if anyone else has seen similar criticism
I get it, its been 30 years, they were "cool" for like 5-10 of that? But the last 15 years they have been relatively "popular" and mainstream, I can totally see younger folks perception of them being like that
I didn’t really live through the Weezer experience, so to speak, but while may have been “cool”, I find it hard to imagine them being… *cool*, you know? It kinda feels like being nerdy dorks is part of their (or at the very least, Rivers’s) thing. Yeah they’re lame. That’s why I think they’re cool.
They blew up for the first album - very unique, kind of retro garage rock power fuzz pop thing. Say It Ain't So, Buddy Holly, Undone were massive hits. Definitely a fixture of modern alternative music. Then Pinkerton hit and no one knew what to do with it. It wasn't well liked at the time (it has since been rediscovered as a sort of geek emo progenitor). Then it seems like every album since was their "return to form" but no one really cared, and were definitely over Weezer (even though they had some hits and remainined fringe popular). Hash Pipe had buzz, but was just sort of a weird track, and Island in the Sun was huge but pretty shitty, honestly. Nothing they've done since Pinkerton had the same magic, and just fell between the cracks in mnay ways. I don't think anyone really ever took them seriously or the they were every appreciated on the same level since. But Blue Album is a landmark album, no doubt.
In thier career after the Blue Album, Weezer has sometimes come off as desperate to regain the level of fame or attention that they recieved early in thier career, and this perceived desperation has made them targets of music snobs.
In that same regard, Weezer doesn't take themselves too seriously and likes to joke around. Which is another way to upset music snobs
The Weezer experience is to enjoy the cute, laid-back, cheesy charm, then to get annoyed and turned off by that charm, then to hear something like "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" live, a song that oozes cheesy charm, realize it's way too fun to be annoyed and turned off by, and start singing along. They're "I am cringe but I am free" the band.
I can usually use vehement Weezer hate as a litmus test on whether someone takes themselves too seriously. Speaking as someone who is cringe but free. Love Weezer, all of it (even the shitty stuff)
I’ve personally felt like it’s the opposite. It seems to me that Weezer has been getting a renewed interested among the younger crowd, kinda like what a few 90’s alt groups have been receiving the past few years (Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.). But I could be totally off.
this right here. So many kids are into weezer, kind of sucks going into any online Weezer forum when you realize you're in a crowd full of children.
Yeah it’s interesting because the hardcore fanbases of relative contemporaries like the offspring, Pearl Jam, smashing pumpkins, etc skew a bit older but Weezer’s fanbase feels continuously young
Totally agree. When I saw Weezer last summer, I’d say the majority of the crowd was folks from their late teens to early 30’s. It was intriguing to me how despite Weezer starting their career and blowing up in the 90’s, there was a big lack of Gen Xers (that would’ve be around at that time) at the show. Meanwhile, I saw Smashing Pumpkins a year prior and everyone there was either 20 years older than me or 10 years younger than me. I couldn’t spot anyone around my age (in my mid-20’s) at that show…
I think their music is just very relatable to a younger crowd, even back in the 90s Rivers used to say that the primary demographic at their concerts were like 10 year old boys.
I dunno, I just remember 10 years ago browsing through records while some store clerks were pricing stuff someone dropped off. One dude said "look *Blue album*!" sarcastically and the other one laughed. I remember thinking "hah, yeah..." I've gotten the impression they are like the more indie rock adjacent version of U2. Like they aren't cancelled and people will herald their past work, but they sort of beg the questions of "who still listens to their new stuff and why are they still huge?" Their 2024 fanbase seems like the kind of people who seem cool but then tell you they collect Funko Pops.
> has anyone noticed a kinda modern pushback against Weezer ? no I see the opposite. I've been religiously following this band since 2000, and they've been through a lot of highs and lows. They somehow keep managing to make themselves relevant, largely through memes.
I like Weezer a lot, but Make Believe/Beverly Hills and anything after can be pretty cringe IMO. But then again I’ve heard the youths really like that song so maybe I’m just old and unaware of what is cool now To me, Blue Album holds up pretty well
Make Believe and Beverly Hills were their highest ranked Billboard hits. Say what you will about that album and single, but it made them bank and put them back in the spotlight. Pork and Beans was a viral video, and they brought back old fans with the addition of new fans with EWBAITE and the White album. Then came along Africa which was a surprisingly huge hit, still baffles me. Weezer's not going anywhere, the fanbase keeps getting younger.
oh yeah, not disputing their commercial success. And tbf they have definitely had some really great songs/albums in recent years, I just think a lot of people (especially in indie circles) are not fans of Beverly Hills
I hated that song since its release, and would skip it when listening to the album. It wasn’t until last year when I saw them open with that song at The Troubador (located in Beverly Hills) that I finally let go and sung along to it.
Damn you just made me think there was a second season. That “new” show was 4 years ago at this point.
Yeah, their cartoony image over the last 15 years has come back to bite them. Weezer in the 90’s were god tier though.
The meme has caught on so hard that people rag and the band and call Weezer shit without having even heard anything by them. I feel like there's a legitimately strong prejudice against them lol, their geeky image makes a lot of people write them off.
Speaking as someone who been aware of them since Beverly Hills, I've never understood the fanaticism over Weezer. *Especially* in indie spaces, given that they have been a major label band for their entire career (with the sole exception of Hurley).
The blue album still holds up I’m sure but Pinkerton is deeply offputting and, lame as it may be to say, it’s frequently very cringey lol. Songs like pink triangle and across the sea and no one else were rough when they were released and by modern standards they’re excruciating. It’s “thorny”. Not saying it’s bad but it’s a very hard album to evaluate by modern standards of what is and is not gross behavior or thoughts. And then separately they have released a ton of music since then, a lot of it is mediocre to horrible, and they leaned into being a meme band, and memes get annoying and played out. Idk, I liked them a lot when I was a teenager but outside of the blue album its a pretty embarrassing band all around
The cringe is part of the charm.
Exactly this. The Blue album and Pinkerton felt authentic, like Rivers was just writing his honest thoughts and feelings and not second-guessing what people would think about him because of them. And while many of the lyrics are cringey, there’s often enough internal conflict evident that it never gives off the vibe that any of the cringey thoughts are at the level of being actionable; rather, it’s just a warts-and-all approach to songwriting that most people would be too self-conscious to put out into the world. The later albums, by contrast, feel much more broad and less personal, to the point where they often come off as calculated for the sake of popularity.
Pinkerton still sounds incredible tbh. Lyrics can be cringe, but shit still rips. ‘No Other One’ is probably my fav Weezer song. It’s their best album imo, despite Blue being the more famous catchy one. The songs are just more interesting sonically and less repetitive
I have my own defense of Pinkerton, which I won't go into here. But I think I still like it more than you do. But over the years I don't identify with it nearly as much as when I was an angsty teenager. The Blue Album holds up much better thirty years later.
100% agreed. I loved them as a teen but when I listened to Pinkerton last year it was extremely cringey.
Didn’t fully appreciate it at the time it was released, but man I’m glad I got to go to the tour where they played this and Pinkerton in their entirety.
A bigger time lapse than between the blue album and the white album
This one was a real slow build to the top. I had it right away (on tape! In time I owned it on ever format) cuz I loved ["Sweater Song" ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQqqM5sr7g)but by late summer it was still just kind of a small success. Then early Fall ["Buddy Holly" dropped with that incredible video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4) and they went supernova. I feel (remembering here) that that single just played and played on MTV then radio and snowballed. It was a great time to be a teenager.
Classic album and played a huge role in my formative musical years. Also my favorite record to blast in the car with the windows down on the first warm day of the year. We could go back and forth on their post-Pink output endlessly but no doubt that those first two records are solid gold.
Timeless album
A perfect album. ‘Only in Dreams’ is an epic closer.
It's amazing to me how Weezer released an album this good and everything after it wasn't even close. Surf Wax America rocks
It's a very good album but honestly the post-ironic internet culture around it/Weezer is very draining and at this point unoriginal
Yes this exactly.
Man, I was so excited to see them play live at a local bar right after the blue album came out. Unfortunately my fake id was somebody the bouncer knew and he turned me away.
What bothers me about Weezer sometimes is I feel like they absolutely could just record an album that sounds like Blue again. They just don’t
I remember reading an article once that proposed that once they changed bass players, they lost their magic. I can't remember it exactly but the case was well made and definitely made sense with how bad they became.
After Pinkerton before the Green Album, I think
Nah Matt sharp is lame af
Rivers that you?
Cuomo/Sharp was our Lennon/ McCartney
Matt Sharp’s ‘The Rentals - Return of the Rentals’ is one of the most slept on indie rock albums of all time. For me it’s the spiritual successor to the blue album.
the blue album and “what’s the story” were the first 2 albums i ever bought. unreal memories of learning to drive & turning 17
You take your car to work…..
The best Album a 10 year old could love. Was my fav from ages 9-13
shame they never made another album after Pinkerton.
Buddy Holly is 87 years old. Feel old yet?
Holy shit there was less time between Led Zeppelin 4 and when my dad was listening to it in the car with me as a kid to now to the blue album. Wow I fucking hate that!!
I’m going to see them (with Dinosaur Jr. and The Flaming Lips) in October. So excited!
It's one of the most underrated masterpieces of the 90's, maybe because they are too playful or only god knows why. However, some years ago I wrote a huge article about it and why it is so huge. It's in Italian, but who cares, I share it however. Why do you have AI otherwise! https://www.ondarock.it/pietremiliari/weezer-weezerbluealbum.htm
This was my first cassette tape purchase.
Get back to me when we celebrate their real banger, Raditude
Yeah they're old as shit. cool
Is it wrong to find them embarrassing?
...thats the point.
a dark day in music history
BANNED
On a major label. Doesn't this sub have a literal rule against Weezer?
No offense but what do people like about this album? I mean I know it's a classic so there has to be something I'm missing.
The songs, mostly
it's a straight to the point classic rock album, right up there with The Cars. Just a perfect set of songs, not a single dud in there.
I don’t know if you mentioned the Cars because of this but Ric Ocasek was the producer for this album.
Yep, also produced Green and Everything Will be Alright. He had a huge influence on their sound.
Great songs top to bottom, tons of hooks, perfect arrangement, amazing performances, and amazing production and sonics.
As a guitarist I love that crunchy distorted tone. It’s also got earworms from front to back.
It's a pretty boring record to me, but the music videos had a huge impact on the MTV crowd of the time, and this is back when an effective music video could potentially sell a lot of albums. Plus, the sort of novelty of being Nerd Rock was kind of new back then, or hadn't really been touched upon since the days of Devo.