Tag Archives: weezer

#989: Weezer – Only in Dreams

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2006 was the year that I listened through Weezer’s Blue Album for the first time. I was 11 years old and had somehow stumbled upon ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘Undone’ and ‘Say It Ain’t So’ through the TV and music video sites that weren’t YouTube. I liked all three. It only made sense to own the album they were on, so I could listen to them whenever I wanted. Every track on there was instantly memorable. The guitars, good. The harmonies, good. The choruses, very nice. And coming through the decked-out speakers my uncle installed for the XP computer, it certainly made for an experience. But at that age, I still didn’t have quite the attention span. My eye had caught the just-about eight minute length of the final track ‘Only in Dreams’ on Windows Media Player. Not to say that everything I had heard depended on how it ended, but a kid doesn’t usually have the patience to sit through that long a song. The wall of feedback at the end of ‘Holiday’ left a brief period of silence, and then the bass guitar riff of ‘…Dreams’ started. And I was pretty much entranced from that point onward. Very hypnotic way to start, which makes those guitar entrances for the choruses really special.

The track is one in which Rivers Cuomo, or at the least the nameless narrator here, is detailing this alluring, mystical lady who he just can’t get his mind off. She seems to be the perfect woman. He’s written the lyric with a second-person narrative, as if addressing the listener. You know, “you can’t resist her, she’s in your bones”. But taking into account the observational takes of women that would be a constant through the band’s discography, I think it’s fair to say it’s all coming from a very personal experience. Cuomo details a fairytale of a man and woman holding hands and floating into the ether, only to wake up, realise that it’s all been a dream and be left disappointed by a lonely reality. Hey, it’s relatable stuff. Could say it may suffer from little sappy. But goodness, the crunch of those guitars that come in during the choruses add so much emotional weight that anything else that happens during this song is justified.

I think we can all agree that the highlight of the entire track is the breakdown that happens about five minutes in. By that point, the singing has finished – you won’t hear Cuomo’s voice again. And starting with the bass guitar again, the track solo rises in intensity with Patrick Wilson smacking on the drums and cymbals and dueling guitar lines, courtesy of Cuomo. This section seems to go on and on, there’s a huge build in tension. You wonder where it’s gonna go. And the release happens when all the guitars fall in, playing the bass guitar riff in unison. It’s a glorious moment, capped off with a spectacular solo, coming to an end in the comedown with Matt Sharp’s bass – just like the track started. That’s how the whole album ends. And that’s how Weezer introduced themselves to the world. Talk about a way to start things off.

#928: Weezer – No One Else

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Not sure if there’s a catchier power pop tune about a possessive and controlling boyfriend than Weezer’s ‘No One Else’, the second track on the band’s Blue Album from 1994. Seeing that title for the first time, your mind go to something like, “Oh, it’s one of those songs where the narrator doesn’t want to be with anyone else than the person they’re currently with.” But then you hear it and realise that a completely different angle is taken. Instead, the narrator doesn’t want his girl to have a life, go outside, or laugh at anyone else’s jokes. And if anyone sees her out in the town, the relationship’s as good as over. Some could say that a track like is a little problematic. I think Weezer fans realise this too. If only the musicality on display was bad, then I would be inclined to like it a lot less. As it stands now, I still see it as a favorite of mine.

Compared to the swaying feel of preceding track ‘My Name Is Jonas’, ‘No One Else’ ploughs on with your standard 4/4 rhythm, falling right into its first verse with a descending guitar riff. Those crunchy-toned guitars take up the soundscape. Rivers Cuomo sings the first verse, bassist Matt Sharp joins in on the chorus with that somewhat iconic falsetto, Brian Bell harmonises on the chorus’s final line and with the return of the opening riff we’re back to the second verse. This has all happened in just under a minute. The track goes under a ‘intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus’ structure, but it subtly adds these layers and changes as the track progresses. Cuomo, Sharp and Bell are all singing together during the second chorus instead of coming in one-by-one. There’s a tension-setting one-chord-playing guitar that comes in during the second verse. Cuomo never sings the chorus the exact same way each time it comes around. Just these little things that keep you engaged while the track goes on.

The track’s side-eye inducing take on relationships makes it something of a precursor to what Cuomo would make a full nose-dive into when it came to writing and recording Pinkerton. But while I think you can somewhat sympathise what Cuomo was going through with some of the lyricism on that record, at least after having read up on the context of what was going on during the making of that album, the narrator on ‘No One Else’ is a straight-up unlikable person. Everything’s just so easy to sing along to though, and it’s full of cathartic moments of tension and release. It’s a sleek three minute package.

#892: Weezer – My Name Is Jonas

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One of the greatest album openers to ever exist? It might just be. I’ve had a physical copy of Weezer’s Blue Album for so long now, almost all of its lyrics and guitar parts and vocal embellishments… guitar feedback, you name it, are all embedded in that thick head of mine. And that album begins with this song, one that I want to say I can remember properly hearing for the first time in 2006 on proper quadrophonic computer speakers that my uncle installed because he was a nerd about that sort of stuff, pausing and rewinding at certain parts because I was so wowed that guitars were playing different things in each speaker.

The acoustic riff, written by the band’s original guitarist who left before the album was finished, that starts everything off is all jolly and unassuming. Then Rivers Cuomo comes in with the track’s first line alongside the band proper, and from then on it’s a whole different ball game. With its 6/8 timing, the track has this huge swaying momentum – heave-hoing back and forth with that wall of crunchy guitars. And the fact that this track doesn’t have a real chorus means that there isn’t a break or change of some sort. Sure there are those parts where the guitars fade and let the acoustic riff come in, but then they launch back into the frame again. Every section seamlessly rolls into the next, culminating with that final “Yeah, yeah, yeaaaargh”. Musically, it really throws you all over the place. Pulling and pushing, lifting you up and then gently placing you down.

Sometimes I kind of forget that there are words to this track that you have to follow. The lyrics aren’t necessarily about one thing. They touch upon nostalgia, childhood… memories in general. One main point in there is when Cuomo recollects a phone call he received from his little brother who had (then) recently been in an accident at work. But there’s such an towering confidence in the delivery of these words that it’s easy to let them just wash over you. Melody’s fantastic. I remember reading somewhere that after Kurt Cobain killed himself, kids found their next musical saviours in Weezer when the Blue Album arrived. And dammit if “My Name Is Jonas” didn’t get their hopes up when they popped the album into their computers, then I don’t know what more they could have wanted.

#687: Weezer – Keep Fishin’

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So I completely forgot to do this yesterday. I was on my laptop almost all day too so I’m not sure how that happened. But we carry on, it’s nothing to get hung about.

Some time, I’ll say in about 2005, I was watching Kerrang! and the video for ‘Keep Fishin” came on. I would have been nine going on ten and I knew who the Muppets were. Weezer, not so much. But I thought the song was good and the video was good for comedy value too. YouTube was on the verge of being created, so the music video site I knew was the LAUNCH media site that was run by Yahoo! (If anyone remembers that who’s reading, you have my respect). I was able to watch a majority of my favourite videos on there. If they weren’t region-locked. But I remember showing ‘Keep Fishin’ to my good friend back in primary school and we would laugh and joke about what was going on. And through those repeated viewings I steadily began to appreciate that this was a great song. Good hook. Swinging rhythm and memorable melodies/vocal harmonies. That’s really all you need. And I think that was the first song by Weezer that I had ever heard.

Fifteen years on, I still care about Weezer a little. The Blue Album and Pinkerton are undisputed classics. The band’s last release that I was really into was The White Album, some great songs on that. Their new album’s due to be out in about May(?), if I remember correctly. I’ll listen, but I’m not counting down the days towards it or anythin’. Maladroit, the album that ‘Keep Fishin’ appears on, is all right. It saw the group return to a heavier/metal-influenced edge to their music after the relatively tame Green Album. That works well for some songs on there more than others. There are only a select few tracks on it that I’m into, ‘American Gigolo’ is one. ‘Dope Nose’ is another.

Listening to Maladroit for the first time, I was unsettled that the version of ‘Keep Fishin’ on there wasn’t quite the same as the one in the music video. It sounded a lot more rough, less sleek. Kinda messy in some aspects. Turned out that the band re-recorded the guitars, bass and drums for the single release. I’m sure that there are many people who prefer the album version to that of the single. I am not one of those people. So I’ll just clarify that it’s the single version of the track that I’ve grown accustomed to for the past fifteen years.

Here is that album version if you want to compare.

#630: Weezer – In the Garage

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When Weezer signed to Geffen Records in 1993, frontman and singer-songwriter Rivers Cuomo was assumedly stoked about the whole situation. So much so that he wrote two songs about the ordeal. Whichever one he wrote first can be argued but alongside ‘Holiday’, ‘In the Garage’ was written. Both appeared on the band’s blue debut album a year later.

The two songs connect to each other so much (subject matter wise) that they are put right next to each other in the tracklist, although whilst ‘Holiday’ is a much more uptempo and jubilant affair, ‘In the Garage’ slows things down and takes more of an introspective look on Cuomo’s feelings about being signed. The garage is that of Amherst House in Los Angeles where the members of Weezer lived and would hold their early rehearsals; the track is a dedication to that place. Rivers Cuomo is a nerd and heavy metal fan and a bit of a recluse and he’s proud to declare it here. In the garage he’s able to geek out on Dungeons and Dragons and worship his KISS posters without being judged by his peers. It’s a wholesome track. Has a very warm sentiment.

Much like all of the other tracks on the album, the song is characterized by a wall of sleek guitars (all provided by Cuomo) although here, there is a touch of harmonica and a fuzz bass in the second verse to change things up a bit. It’s a fine listen. It’s a popular one amongst Weezer fans. It’s probably not my personal favourite on the album. The whole thing is a 10/10 so you can’t go wrong.