Review - Weezer (Blue Album)
Catchy music makes the world go round, right? I mean, we have these songs that just stick in our heads, whether it be the jangly guitar riff, the lyrics, the vocals, or any aspect of that song in fact. But catchy music can be awful. It can be derivative, trite, unnecessary, cliche, lacking any true emotional bearing. This overload of just plain bad catchy songs means that when you find just one that goes against this, that has this innate musical quality that can simultaneously move you, and force you to sing along with the chorus, it's made that much more special. Try finding 10 of them. Now try finding 10 of them on one album.
That's The Blue Album for you. From the roaring call to arms of 'My Name is Jonas' to the lavish 'Only in Dreams', Weezer have concocted this Power Pop masterpiece. It has all you need to just get into an album; awesome guitar riffs, witty lyrics and just ridiculously catchy choruses. Try getting 'Buddy Holly' out of your head after a few listens. It doesn't happen easily.
This was the first Weezer album that I listened to. I know, shock horror, I'm late to the party. I already had on my iPod 'Island in the Sun', which I found passable, I had 'Beverly Hills', which I thought was cool, and I had 'Pork and Beans', which I found hilariously awesome. Now getting into Weezer in concept alone is a difficult task. I mean, in looking at Weezer you cannot avoid the huge dispute between fans as to their musical quality as time passed. I wanted to see the best album, try and find a good point to continue the enjoyment I had with those 3 singles. Blue Album fit that purpose. It was the most lauded release, had the highest ratings, had 'Buddy Holly', a song that as of a few weeks ago I had never heard, only heard of. It seemed perfect. It was.
I listened to this album once, thought it was OK. 'Buddy Holly' was alright I guess, 'In the Garage' was the first song to grip me, probably because of the lyricism. Now before giving an album a score out of 5, or really giving it a look, I need to hear it at least twice. All the way through, no stops. Then it can be shuffled, but this time I look at the lyrics, let them sink in. I didn't need to look at the lyrics after the second listen. They were in my head.
The more I listened to this the more I yearned for a change in my life, being born a decade earlier, experiencing the decade of music that was the 1990s first hand. It became this insane musical revelation that only built upon my love of 90s music, probably stemmed from Built to Spill's There's Nothing Wrong With Love. Now TNWWL was released in 1994. Same as this. On Last.fm I have a list of the best album every year since I was born. After 4 plays of Weezer's debut, TNWWL was toppled. This was a milestone in my musical appreciation.
In this album I found some sort of solace, sentiments in the lyrics that seemed to resonate strongly with me, as if they had tumbled out of my head and into my speakers. 'No One Else' grabbed me in this way, as did 'Buddy Holly'. I started thinking about my life, the ways in which these songs told me more about myself. Now I know in saying that I reveal a cliche in music reviewing, that being the 'emotional connection that revolutionized my life'. It's not like that. I didn't change my lifestyle, I just reflected more on it, a concept that would grow stronger upon my discovery of Weezer's next album, Pinkerton.
I'm not sure how else I can say to you that this album is a masterpiece. Maybe it can be illustrated in the fact that for about a week or two, everyday I would have one Weezer song in my head. Different songs, always present in the back of my mind. Music that can do that is special. Catchy songs come and go. Masterful songs always stay.
5 stars.
Labels: 5 stars, blue album, weezer
