At the time of its 2005 release, “Peace” was perhaps the most thematically thoughtful song Weezer had put on an album in the near-decade since Pinkerton. A lot of that has to do with Cuomo’s refrain — “I need to find some peace” — which refers to Cuomo’s then-nascent experiences with Vispasanna meditation. The acoustic guitar in the verse seems to represent […]
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Like Hamlet is a young man’s play, Pinkerton is a young man’s album. Surely anyone can appreciate either (and at any age), but there’s a very hormonal, angsty, testosterone-motivated facet to both (at their respective cores, even), and at least in Pinkerton‘s case, that the vast majority of its acolytes are male and discovered it during their teens is […]
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Back in 2005, on the eve of Make Believe‘s release, guitarist Brian Bell remarked that the record’s second track, “Perfect Situation,” sounded like “Green Plus” to him. He was right — I can hear some traces of Green in “Situation” (namely its reuse of the opening bars from “Simple Pages,” more or less verbatim), and it’s a […]
The great “In The Garage” is a rare entry in the all-too-shortlist of Weezer songs with harmonica, which also includes the esteemed likes of “Mykel & Carli,” “Pig,” “Wanda (You’re My Only Love),” “My Name Is Jonas” and “Freak Me Out” (one of these is not quite like the others). The mouth organ riff that begins […]
Thursday, August 14, 2008
This song is part of Songs From The Black Hole, a collection of songs that the band never finished. In the wake of The Blue Album‘s commercial breakout, Rivers Cuomo was disappointed to find that the mainstream had largely misunderstood the record, shocked to find the band had been misconstrued as a novelty act with a […]
I’m not sure how this song originally leaked, but by the time of its official release on Rivers Cuomo’s Alone demo compilation of 2007, “Lover In The Snow” was a familiar recording to Weezer die-hards. It’s a rare artifact from the Dark Ages of Weezer, the 1997-1999 period during which Cuomo quietly remodeled his craft after the […]
“Private Message” is a song from the band’s aborted Early Album 5 sessions, which transpired during the spring and summer of 2002 (both predating and following the release of Maladroit). It’s a love song with some pretty mystifying couplets, especially when heard in succession: I want you so badly Too bad that you slammed me And […]
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Pinkerton is the closest Weezer has ever come to a bona fide concept album, but I still think Blue has a kind of continuity to it. Between songs like “In The Garage” and “Only In Dreams,” there’s a common theme of the outcast nerd archetype (leading to the fake genre many claim Weezer birthed: “geek rock”), in spite […]
The Weezer discography is one fraught with criminal omissions. Why didn’t “We Go Together,” “Broken Arrows” or “Diamond Rings” make Maladroit? How did songs like “O Girl” manage to elude The Green Album, or official release of any kind? How can a song as good as “Longtime Sunshine” have been recorded and attempted time and again, […]
…And in the opposite corner, we have The Green Album. Whereas a gloriously on-edge, unhinged performance like “Getchoo” highlights exactly why Pinkerton is so satisfying even a dozen years on, by 2001 Rivers Cuomo had changed directions. In his mind, that approach now represented the sophomore slump, his biggest commercial failure; while many would be […]