Weezer (The Blue Album)

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Weezer
Weezer cover
Studio album by Weezer
Released May 10, 1994
March 23, 2004 (Deluxe Edition)
Recorded August–September 1993

Electric Lady Studios

New York City, NY
Genre Alternative rock
Length 41:17
Label Geffen Records
Producer(s) Ric Ocasek
Professional reviews
Metascore N/A
Weezer chronology
"Weezer's third demo
(1992)
Weezer
(1994)
Pinkerton
(1996)
Alternate cover
Cover of 2004 double-CD deluxe edition
Cover of 2004 double-CD deluxe edition

Weezer (often referred to as The Blue Album and commonly abbreviated as TBA) is the debut album by Weezer. It was released on May 10, 1994 by Geffen Records. The album was produced by former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek and recorded in Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Weezer spawned the popular singles "Undone - The Sweater Song" and "Buddy Holly", both of which were responsible for launching Weezer into mainstream success with the aid of music videos directed by Spike Jonze.


Pre-recording

After recording The Kitchen Tape in hopes of creating interest in L.A., Weezer eventually attracted attention from major-label A&R reps looking for alternative rock bands while performing on the same bill as the band that dog. They were then signed to DGC Records on June 26, 1993, by Todd Sullivan, an A&R rep from Geffen. While prepping for the forthcoming studio sessions, the band focused on their vocal interplay by practicing barbershop quartet-styled songs, which helped both lead singer Rivers Cuomo and bassist Matt Sharp achieve a newfound collaborative comfort during rehearsals. Sharp, who never sang before joining Weezer, gained his falsetto background vocal abilities. "I had to sing an octave higher than Rivers. After a lot of practice, I started to get it down."

Fifteen songs were rehearsed for the album during early practice sessions in New York in preparation for the Electric Lady Studios album recording. Ten of the songs appear on the album, but four of the songs were cut: "Lullaby for Wayne", "I Swear It's True", "Getting Up and Leaving", and a reprise version of "In The Garage." The other song, "Mykel and Carli", was attempted during the Electric Lady sessions, but was also abandoned. It would be recorded a year later and became a popular B-side, and eventually get a proper release on the "Undone - The Sweater Song" single.


Recording process

The band briefly considered self-producing, but were pressured by Geffen to choose a producer. They ultimately decided on Ric Ocasek. Cuomo explained his choice: "I'd always admired The Cars and Ric Ocasek's songwriting and production skills." During production, Ocasek convinced the band to change their guitar pickup from the neck pick-up to the bridge pick-up, resulting in a brighter sound.

During these sessions, founding guitarist Jason Cropper left the band and was replaced by current guitarist Brian Bell, leading to some speculation about how much Bell contributes to the album. While Bell's vocals are clearly audible on some tracks, Cuomo re-recorded all of Cropper's guitar parts. According to Ocasek, all ten tracks were laid down by Cuomo in one day, each in one take. Cropper's writing credit on "My Name Is Jonas" is earned by his coming up with the intro to the song. Most of the album was written by Rivers Cuomo. Exceptions are "My Name Is Jonas", which was co-written with Jason Cropper and Patrick Wilson, and "Surf Wax America", which was composed and written by Cuomo and Wilson. Weezer touches upon various life experiences of Cuomo, including subjects such as his brother's car accident, heartbreak, jealousy, alcohol and former girlfriends.

The single "Undone - The Sweater Song" was described by Cuomo as "the feeling you get when the train stops and the little guy comes knockin' on your door. It was supposed to be a sad song, but everyone thinks it's hilarious." The video marks one of the early directorial efforts of Spike Jonze, whose pitch was simply "A blue stage, a steadicam, a pack of wild dogs." The video became an instant hit on MTV.

Both "No One Else" and "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" are lyrically connected, with Cuomo describing the narrator of "No One Else" as "the jealous-obsessive asshole in me freaking out on my girlfriend" and claiming that "'The World has Turned and Left Me Here' is the same asshole wondering why she's gone."

The second single from the Blue Album was "Buddy Holly", whose music video was also directed by Spike Jonze. It portrayed the band performing at the original Arnold's Drive-In diner from the popular '70s television show, Happy Days. The video combined contemporary footage of the band with clips from the show. Happy Days cast member Al Molinaro]] made a cameo appearance in the video. The video was met with great popularity and heavy rotation on MTV. The video scored four awards at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, including prizes for Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Video.

"My Name is Jonas", deals with Cuomo's brother Leaves who had been seriously injured in a car accident while a student at Oberlin College, and was having problem with his insurance. Jason Cropper earned co-writing credit for coming up with the intro to the song.

The final single, "Say it Ain't So", was again inspired by Cuomo believing his parents split up when he was four because he thought his dad was an alcoholic. The music video, which was directed by Sophie Muller, was less successful than the previous two Spike Jonze-directed videos. It featured the band performing in the garage of their former house, and the bandmates playing hacky sack in the backyard.


Artwork

The album artwork by Todd Sullivan features Patrick Wilson, Rivers Cuomo, Matt Sharp, and Brian Bell standing left to right in front of a plain, blue background.

During an interview for the iTunes Originals compilation Cuomo said:
I remember having a very strong vision for the first album, The Blue Album, what that cover was gonna look like. I never anticipated people would call it The Blue Album, or even Weezer. I just thought of it as an untitled album. It was like the year later that we noticed that everyone was calling it The Blue Album.

The simple image would be used prominently in the advertising of the album. The cover received many comparisons to the Feelies' album Crazy Rhythms. On some vinyl pressings of the album, the cover does not crop off their feet. On the Deluxe Edition case, the feet are presented on the back cover, and the band sold an official t-shirt with a shot of the band's feet after the deluxe edition release. Inside the album booklet, Rivers Cuomo pays tribute to his past metal influences with a photo taken in the group's garage on Amherst (this same garage would be featured in the "Say It Ain't So" music video). A poster of Judas Priest's album British Steel is featured on the left side of the photo, while on the right a Quiet Riot concert poster is displayed. The Deluxe Edition features additional photographs of the band, and hand-written lyrics for each song.


Reception

The album was well-received by critics on its release. Allmusic gave the album 5 stars explaining "What makes the band so enjoyable is their charming geekiness; instead of singing about despair, they sing about love, which is kind of refreshing in the gloom-drenched world of '90s guitar-pop." Rolling Stone praised the album saying "Weezer's Rivers Cuomo is great at sketching vignettes (the Dungeons and Dragons games and Kiss posters that inspire the hapless daydreamer of 'In the Garage'), and with sweet inspiration like the waltz tempo of 'My Name Is Jonas' and the self-deprecating humor of lines like "I look just like Buddy Holly/And you're Mary Tyler Moore", his songs easily ingratiate."

In the years since its release, The Blue Album has risen in stature to become one of the most highly-regarded albums of the 1990s, appearing on many "Best-of" lists. In 2003, Rolling Stone named the album number 297 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Blender named the Blue Album among the "500 CDs You Must Own", calling the album "Absolute geek-rock, out and proud." Non-U.S. publications have acclaimed the album as well: New Zealand's The Movement placed it at number 39 on a list of "The 101 Best Albums of the 90s", and Visions of Germany ranked it number 32 on a list of "The Most Important Albums of the 90s." Reviews of the deluxe edition of the album have also been positive. In 2004, Popmatters gave the album a very positive review and saying "I’d go so far to declare the 'Blue Album' one of the greatest records of the last 20 years."

In naming Weezer one of the 50 best albums of the 1990s, Pitchfork Media summed up the album's critical recognition. Brent DiCrescenzo wrote: "An album so substantial the band misguidedly attempted to tap into its resonance through cover graphics a mere two releases later. In 1994, 70s rock had come to mean either a bastardized version of Led Zeppelin or a bullshit reconstruction of punk rock. As guitar nerds, Weezer sought influence there but found true inspiration in forgotten bubblegum power-pop like Cheap Trick, The Raspberries, 20/20, and The Quick. Most impressively, Rivers Cuomo rescued the thrilling guitar solo from finger-tapping metal and disregarding grunge/punk. A decade later air-guitaring to the album feels far less embarrassing than singing along. With the help of Spike Jonze, Weezer kept joy alive in arena rock, making the critical repositioning of Weezer as some emo touchstone even more absentminded. They called themselves Weezer, knowingly, for chrissakes."

Weezer was certified gold in just under seven months after its release on December 1, 1994. It was certified platinum on January 1, 1995; since then it has gone three times multi-platinum in the United States. As of December 2007, the album had sold 3,146,000 copies in the US (Weezer's best-selling album to date), peaking at #16 on the Billboard 200. In 2003, the album was ranked number 297 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. A 2-CD deluxe edition was released in 2004. Also in 2003, Pitchfork Media named The Blue Album the 26th best album of the 1990s.

Critics

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Reviewer Rating Review date Author
Allmusic 5/5 stars5/5 stars5/5 stars5/5 stars5/5 stars (5/5) Not listed Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Amazon Not given Not listed Jim DeRogatis
Amazon (deluxe) Not given Not listed Jerry McCulley
BBC Not given March 1, 2004 Richard Banks
BlogCritics Not given September 14, 2008 Jon Jacobs
BlogCritics (deluxe) Not given July 1, 2004 Matthew Parten
IGN 9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars9.0/10 stars (9.0/10) April 16, 2004 Chris Carle
Rolling Stone Not given May 5, 1994 Paul Evans
Rolling Stone (deluxe) 4.0/5 stars4.0/5 stars4.0/5 stars4.0/5 stars4.0/5 stars (4.0/5) April 19, 2004 Christian Hoard
Pitchfork Media 10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars10.0/10 stars (10.0/10) February 27, 2017 Jillian Maples

Individual songs

Song (and reviewer) Rating Review date Author
"Buddy Holly" (Allmusic) 5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars (5.0/5) Not listed Stewart Mason
"Say It Ain't So" (Allmusic) 5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars (5.0/5) Not listed Tom Maginnis
"Undone - (The Sweater Song)" (Allmusic) 5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars5.0/5 stars (5.0/5) Not listed Tom Maginnis
Paperface (Teenage Victory Songs) Positive (The Very Best) February 20, 2010 Teenage Victory Songs
"Undone - (The Sweater Song)" (Billboard Magazine) No rating given - positive September 24, 1994 Larry Flick


Track listing

Template:Blue Album previews

Original album track listing
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "My Name Is Jonas"  Rivers Cuomo/Patrick Wilson/Jason Cropper 3:24
2. "No One Else"  Cuomo 3:04
3. "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here"  Cuomo/Wilson 4:19
4. "Buddy Holly"  Cuomo 2:39
5. "Undone - The Sweater Song"  Cuomo 5:05
6. "Surf Wax America"  Cuomo/Wilson 3:06
7. "Say It Ain't So" (Remix)Cuomo 4:18
8. "In the Garage"  Cuomo 3:55
9. "Holiday"  Cuomo 3:24
10. "Only in Dreams"  Cuomo 8:00
Total length:
41:17
Dusty Gems and Raw Nuggets (Deluxe Edition, Disc 2)/Weezer (Rarities Edition) track listing
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Mykel and Carli" (B-Side)Cuomo 2:53
2. "Susanne" (B-Side)Cuomo 2:47
3. "My Evaline" (B-Side)trad. arr. by Sigmund Spaeth 0:44
4. "Jamie" (from DGC Rarities)Cuomo 4:20
5. "My Name Is Jonas" (Live B-Side)Cuomo/Wilson/Cropper 4:19
6. "Surf Wax America" (Live B-Side)Cuomo/Wilson 3:39
7. "Jamie" (Live Acoustic B-Side)Cuomo 4:03
8. "No One Else" (Live Acoustic B-Side)Cuomo 3:29
9. "Undone - The Sweater Song" (Kitchen Tape)Cuomo 3:23
10. "Paperface" (Kitchen Tape)Cuomo 3:01
11. "Only in Dreams" (Kitchen Tape)Cuomo 5:47
12. "Lullabye for Wayne" (Pre-Production Tape)Cuomo/Wilson 3:36
13. "I Swear It's True" (Pre-Production Tape)Cuomo 2:57
14. "Say It Ain't So" (Original Album Mix)Cuomo 4:17
Total length:
49:15






Personnel

See also


External links