Type “blue album” into Google and, despite the search engine’s depreciating quality, there’s one result that rises above the fray. Above Joni Mitchell and the Beatles stands Weezer’s major record debut, a self-titled masterpiece that launched the band into alternative pop stardom.
In 10 songs and fewer than 42 minutes, the California band stepped into a landscape defined by the bleakness of post-metal alternative rock and made things brighter — at least on the surface. Weezer existed at the precarious balance of surf rock, college radio and pop punk. They wore their nerd-dom on the outside and let their depression simmer under upbeat melodies until it was time to let it breathe through emphatic shouts or low rumbling vocals.
The band has gone through permutations since then, embracing its dork chic aesthetic and evolving as critcs and audiences embraced or rejected the earnestness of some records (Pinkerton) and detached pop appeal of others (whatever piece of garbage “The Girl Got Hot” came from). It’s easy to see Weezer as a sketch comedy punchline or meme cover band now, because that speaks to the band’s ubiquitousness. And that began in 1994 with the carefully plucked guitar opening of My Name Is Jonas.
There are no bad songs on the Blue Album. Ranking them is a purely subjective exercise. But here, as that album hits its 30th birthday, feels like as good a place as any to look back and drop them into order.
10
Holiday
Dec 2, 2017; Fort Lauderdale Beach, FL, USA; Rivers Cuomo of Weezer performs during the Riptide Music Festival. Mandatory Credit: Ron Elkman/USA TODAY NETWORK
A perfectly good, if disposable, piece of pop rock ephemera. The fact we’re starting here is a testament to the Blue Album’s quality. There are no misses here. Holiday was proof Weezer could write a throwaway anthem, mixing alt rock, a little bit of hair metal and Broadway musical showmanship.
9
Surf Wax America
Dec 2, 2017; Fort Lauderdale Beach, FL, USA; Weezer performs during the Riptide Music Festival. Mandatory Credit: Ron Elkman/USA TODAY NETWORK
Weezer was great at walking a fine line between celebration and dismissal. Their rhythm and lyrics on the Blue Album often told competing stories. Was Surf Wax America a surf rock anthem? On the surface, sure — a pretty damn good one, too. Was it also mocking popular bro culture, a club dorks like the guys in the band could never join? A little, probably!
8
No One Else
Weezer performs on Saturday, April 13, 2019 at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.
Shot…
7
The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
Apr 28, 2022; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Weezer lead vocalist Rivers Cuomo drummer Patrick Wilson guitarist Brian Bell and bassist Scott Shriner react following their performance at the 2022 NFL Draft. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Chaser. The delusional, possessive, mysogynistic boyfriend from No One Else has been dumped, leaving behind a self-pitying shell. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here pats the back of the narcissistic [expletive] while mocking him behind his back. It was a song you could wallow in or use as inspiration to be better. It’s a cautionary tale of believing your own bull[expletive], how comforting it can be from the inside and how sad it looks from the outside.
6
In the Garage
Jan 1, 2019; South Bend, IN, USA; Recording artist Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer performs in the first intermission of the 2019 Winter Classic hockey game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
A song about a literal safe space, the spot where frontman Rivers Cuomo could be the anti-rock star — just a dude with some KISS posters and Dungeons and Dragons gear, trudging through life. It’s indulgent but honest, taking the open reflection of the unglamourous life hoisted by the alternative rock of the early 1990s and making it available to the quiet dorks among us.
Alice and Chains had heroin. Weezer had X-Men comics.
5
Buddy Holly
June 22, 2018; West Palm Beach, FL, USA; Rivers Cuomo of Weezer performs at the Coral Sky Amphitheatre. Mandatory Credit: Ron Elkman-USA TODAY NETWORK
A radio smash and an MTV staple, thanks to Spike Jonze’s Happy Days video:
Buddy Holly was testament to the band’s ability to blend themes while creating a pop rock juggernaut. Rivers Cuomo wasn’t like the rest of us, but he was capable of finding a middle ground everyone could enjoy. Weezer was a prism that bent light depending on how we looked through it; Buddy Holly was the brightest color on that spectrum.
4
Undone - The Sweater Song
Dec 2, 2017; Fort Lauderdale Beach, FL, USA; Rivers Cuomo of Weezer performs during the Riptide Music Festival. Mandatory Credit: Ron Elkman/USA TODAY NETWORK
The band’s breakthrough single showed off the pastiches of 1980s alt rock — detached lyrics over what appeared to be low-effort rhythms. But the chorus, dumb as it may have been, proved Weezer’s ability to connect with fans and to make the mundane anthem-worthy. Undone – The Sweater Song is an aesthetic.
In parts, it’s sophomoric high school band drivel. As a whole, it works for reasons I still don’t quite understand.
3
My Name is Jonas
June 14, 2016; Miami, FL, USA; Recording artist Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer performs during a concert at Bayfront Park Ampitheater. Mandatory Credit: Ron Elkman/USA TODAY NETWORK
This is your introduction to the Blue Album. Undone may have brought you here, but My Name is Jonas is where Weezer lays its design bare for the world to see. You have the quiet-LOUD setup that follows in the footsteps of Nirvana, the simple, driving riffs of 1980s punk and low-key despondent lyrics cast in a sunny tone. The intro, former guitarist Brian Cropper’s lasting contribution before his firing, is an iconic riff that sets up the duality of the album in front of it.
Is Weezer earnest? Indulgent? Hard? Enigmatic? Anxious? Detached? Simple? Deep? Happy? Depressed? Social? Withdrawn?
On the Blue Album, the answer was yes.
2
Only in Dreams
June 22, 2018; West Palm Beach, FL, USA; Rivers Cuomo of Weezer performs at the Coral Sky Amphitheatre. Mandatory Credit: Ron Elkman-USA TODAY NETWORK
Nearly 20 percent of the Blue Album’s run time is dedicated to the album’s closer, an ethereal slow burn that crashes together like a thunderstorm and never overstays its eight-plus minute welcome. It’s a tale of longing for the crushingly shy, a culmination of all the awkwardness and faux-bravado that played out across the nine songs than preceded it. It begins with a driving, almost taunting bass line and ends with all four members of the band weaving together in a tight, lovely braid.
1
Say It Ain't So
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo sings on the Palladium’s outdoor stage.
A reflection on the cycle of parenthood and a bonafide karaoke jam for the nerdiest among us. There’s a particular release that comes with screaming the chorus, a raw catharsis based in Rivers Cuomo’s issues with his father but can be broadly applied to anything.
The soft-soft-loud formula has never worked as well for Weezer as it does here. While this may not be a technical masterpiece or have the nuance of the band’s other songs on the album, I can’t deny its place at the top of my favorites.
