I’ve never really been that into music. Don’t get me wrong, I love chilling with a good song while drinking a beer or vibing to some good tunes while on a long drive. God knows that I would go insane if I had to sit at work for 8 hours a day without some kind of music blasting through my headphones. When I say I’m not that into music, I mean that I don’t obsess over it – I don’t have a clear cut favorite song or band, I don’t know the names of the band members of bands I like (I seriously had to look up Rivers Cuomo’s name before even writing this post), and half the time I don’t even know the name of the song playing on my iPod. But if there is one thing I know about music, it’s this: Weezer’s Blue Album was (and still is) the absolute shit.
I consider three albums to be the most critical to my formative years as both a young adult and music listener: Weezer’s The Blue Album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication, and Blink 182’s Enema of the State. And while Californication and Enema of the State were both awesome albums in their own respect, they came out in the summer of 1999. I got my first CD player (HA REMEMBER THOSE GUYS?!) in 1997, meaning that I had 2 years to pretend to form musical tastes before those albums came out. You know what came out before 1997?
The Blue Album came out on May 10th, 1994, meaning that it will be 20 years old this Saturday. By the time I got that amazing piece of technological mastery in 1997, my sister already owned The Blue Album; all I had to do was sneak into her room, steal it, and never give it back. At that point, the album was already 3 years old, so I’m pretty sure she didn’t even care that I took it. I regret nothing.
The Blue Album was my gateway to the world of alternative rock. It remains the blueprint #pun that I judge any alternative album against.
I’m not going to pretend like I can do some kind of in depth analysis of the lyrics or tell you about how a specific guitar riff particularly pulled at my heart strings #pun. I will tell you that this album rocks #pun, plain and simple. I will tell you that there is no part of a song I have more fun singing at the top of my lungs than “This waaaaaaaay is-a-waterslide-away-from-me-to-chase-her-fuller-everyday! Hey!” in the 3rd verse of Say It Ain’t So, when the words flow #pun out of Rivers’ mouth #pun like velvety chocolate syrup. I will tell you that every time I hear the name Jonas, I think of Weezer (sorry Nick, Kevin, and Joe, I’m not sorry). I will tell you that when I found out this morning that the album was 20 years old, I was shocked, excited and delighted, all at the same time and to varying degrees.
I listened to Weezer for 3 straight hours at work today. I started with The Blue Album, and it’s still as good as I remember. Greatness never fades; it just ages like a fine wine.
After listening to The Blue Album, I moved on to the rest of their work. It never really compared, but then again, it’s difficult to match perfection incarnate. The only unfortunate thing about The Blue Album is that Weezer released this masterpiece as their debut album, and the band constantly had to live up to the expectations that came from such a fantastic start.
The nostalgia runs deep with The Blue Album. All I know is that I’m going to sit down on my couch tonight tonight, crack open a beer, watch some basketball on my flat screen TV, and blast some more Weezer from my iPod. Party like it’s 1994.
Image by Tomsin83
