In the Earbuds: the Blue Album by Weezer

A quintessential album from the 90s.  No discussion of 90’s alternative music could be complete if it doesn’t include Weezer’s self-titled mono-colored debut album from 1994.  Front man and lead songwriter Rivers Cuomo swirled together his loves for Kiss, Slayer, Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991), and apparently the Cars (producer Ric Ocasek’s band) to write these hard rocking gems with great pop hooks.

The single “Buddy Holly” sounds like a poseur using hip hop lingo with a 50’s bebop feel to tell the tale of a young man bemoaning how his girl is getting “dissed.” Here is my humble tribute:

The debut single “Undone (The Sweater Song)” uses grunge to chronicle a relationship unravelling – and Cuomo later admitted that he accidentally ripped off Metallica’s “Sanitarium”. The heavy-chorused “Say It Ain’t So” gets real, talking about the destruction of alcoholism in the family. One of my favorites, “Holiday,” has that classic 3/4 time doo-wop beat underneath an anthemic chorus and sings about getting away from it all, complete with a Jack Kerouac reference. “In the Garage” describes a late-adolescent inner sanctum where he can find refuge from teenage ills.

The influence this album had on a generation of shoe-gazing awkward teenagers (including those that would go on to form emo bands) is inestimable. Please do yourself a favor and get a copy of the Blue album. From there you can move on to the other colors of the Weezer rainbow: Green, Red, and White.