Weezer (Blue Album)

Weezer (commonly known as the Blue Album) is the debut studio album by the American rock band Weezer, released on May 10, 1994, by DGC Records. It was produced by Ric Ocasek of the Cars.

Weezer formed in Los Angeles in 1992, and initially struggled to engage audiences, who were more interested in grunge. In November, they recorded a demo, The Kitchen Tape, which brought them to the attention of DGC owner Geffen Records. Weezer selected Ocasek to produce because of his work with the Cars. Most of the album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City between August and September 1993. The group treated the guitars and bass as a single, 10-string instrument, playing in unison. Guitarist Jason Cropper was fired during recording, as the band felt he was threatening their chemistry; he was replaced by Brian Bell.

Weezer was supported by the singles "Undone – The Sweater Song", "Buddy Holly", and "Say It Ain't So", whose music videos became MTV hits. The album received critical acclaim and reached number sixteen on the US Billboard 200, and was certified triple platinum in 1995. It remains Weezer's best-selling album, having sold at least 3.3 million copies in the U.S. and more than 15 million copies worldwide by 2009. It has been named one of the best albums of the 90s by several publications. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it number 294 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Background
Weezer was formed on February 14, 1992, in Los Angeles by singer and guitarist Rivers Cuomo, drummer Patrick Wilson, bassist Matt Sharp, and guitarist Jason Cropper. Although they performed future hits including "Undone – The Sweater Song" and "Say It Ain't So", Cuomo said they struggled to engage audiences, who wanted to see grunge bands instead.

In an effort to create buzz around Los Angeles, Weezer recorded a demo, The Kitchen Tape. This attracted attention from major-label A&R reps looking for alternative rock bands to perform on the same bill as That Dog. Weezer were signed to DGC Records on June 26, 1993, by Todd Sullivan, an A&R rep from Geffen Records.

Recording
While preparing for the studio sessions, Weezer focused on their vocal interplay by practicing barbershop quartet-style songs, which helped Cuomo and Sharp feel more comfortable collaborating during rehearsals. Sharp, who had never sung before joining Weezer, developed his falsetto: "I had to sing an octave higher than Rivers. After a lot of practice, I started to get it down."

Weezer rehearsed 15 songs in New York City in preparation for the Electric Lady Studios sessions. Four songs from this rehearsal would not be attempted for the album: "I Swear It's True", "Getting Up and Leaving", a reprise of "In the Garage", and "Mykel and Carli", an ode to the sisters Mykel and Carli Allan, who ran the Weezer fanclub. Weezer later recorded another version of "Mykel and Carli" as a B-side for the single "Undone – The Sweater Song", with the Weezer collaborator Karl Koch.

Weezer considered self-producing the album, but were pressured by Geffen to choose a producer. They decided on Ric Ocasek, who had played with the Cars. Ocasek convinced them to switch their guitar pickups from the neck to the bridge, resulting in a brighter sound. Sharp and Cuomo imposed several rules on recording, banning reverb and insisting on all downstrokes on guitar. According to the engineer Chris Shaw, the "overriding concept" was to treat the guitars and bass as a single, 10-string instrument, playing in unison. Weezer insisted that the guitars were mixed as loudly as those in Radiohead's 1992 song "Creep", burying some vocals.

During the recording, Cropper learned that his girlfriend was pregnant and began acting erratically. Koch said: "He wasn't handling it well … He always said he was fine, and then 20 minutes later he'd be up on the roof of Electric Lady screaming or something." Sharp said later that "whatever it is we were setting out to do, it felt like it was gonna be much more difficult if he stayed". Sharp and Cuomo felt that Cropper would likely leave Weezer eventually and so wanted to remove him before the release of their debut, as they "wanted things to be very stable for the audience". According to Cropper, Cuomo told him he could not allow him to jeopardize the work and asked him to leave. In 2014, Cropper said Cuomo had made the right decision.

Cropper left after recording was complete, and was replaced by Brian Bell. While Bell's vocals appear on some tracks, Cuomo re-recorded all of Cropper's guitar parts. Ocasek recalled: "Rivers came in and said, 'I’m firing the guitar player, and I’m going to do all his guitar parts over.' I said, 'You can’t do that!' But he did. In one take." Bell is credited for playing guitar in the liner notes, while Cropper received a credit on "My Name Is Jonas" for writing the intro.

Artwork
The album artwork, photographed by American glamour photographer Peter Gowland, features Wilson, Cuomo, Sharp, and Bell standing in front of a plain, blue background. Cuomo stated that, while the band liked the photo, Sharp was not happy with the way his head looked. A Geffen art director used Adobe Photoshop to swap out the head with one from another shot. The image was used prominently in the advertising of the album. The cover received many comparisons to that of the Feelies' album Crazy Rhythms, which Weezer had no prior knowledge of. Instead, according to band historian Karl Koch, Cuomo was inspired by the cover of a "super-cheap truck-stop Greatest Hits of the Beach Boys" cassette, which featured the Beach Boys with striped shirts in front of a blue background. The cover has become a part of Internet culture, with it being a center of many memes, usually accompanied by the song "Buddy Holly", from the album.

On some European vinyl pressings of the album, the cover does not crop off the band members' 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, Cuomo pays tribute to his past metal influences with a photo taken in the group's garage on Amherst Avenue, Los Angeles (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 handwritten lyrics for each song.

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

Release
The Blue Album was released on May 10, 1994. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) just under seven months later, on December 1, 1994, and was certified platinum by the RIAA on January 13, 1995. The Blue Album was certified 2× platinum by the RIAA on August 8, 1995. The album was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA on November 13, 1998. The album peaked at no. 16 on the Billboard 200. As a single, "Undone – The Sweater Song" peaked at no. 35 on the UK Top 40, and "Buddy Holly" and "Say It Ain't So" peaked at no. 12 and no. 37 on the UK Top 40 respectively. In the U.S., "Buddy Holly" peaked at no. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart.

A deluxe edition of the album was released on March 23, 2004, comprising the original album and a second disc, Dusty Gems and Raw Nuggets, containing B-sides and rarities. As of December 2007, the deluxe edition had sold 86,000 copies. The second disc is also available separately.

Critical reception
The Blue Album received critical acclaim. Rolling Stone praised the album in its year-end review, saying, "Weezer's Rivers Cuomo is great at sketching vignettes (the Dungeons & 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." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was less complimentary and awarded the album a "neither" rating. The Washington Post concluded that "Weezer alternates between being agreeably irreverent and merely bratty... 'Buddy Holly' is a pleasant piece of retro-rock—actually, it sounds more like early 10cc than any song the Crickets ever performed".

The "Buddy Holly" video won four awards at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, including prizes for Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Video. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 294 on its updated “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.

Legacy
The Blue Album has become one of the most highly regarded albums of the 1990s, as well as of all time, appearing on many "best of" lists. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 294 on its 2020 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It was previously ranked at 297 in 2003, and 299 in 2012.  In 2002, the readers of Rolling Stone ranked the album the 21st greatest 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: Visions of Germany ranked it number 32 on a list of "The Most Important Albums of the 90s". In November 2011, the Blue Album was ranked number three on Guitar World magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1994, with Bad Religion's Stranger than Fiction and the Offspring's Smash in first and second places respectively. The album also peaked at number 25 on Guitar World's "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.

Reviews of the album when its deluxe edition was released have reflected its rise in stature, continuing to be positive. In 2004, PopMatters gave the album a very positive review, saying, "I'd go so far to declare the 'Blue Album' one of the greatest records of the last 20 years." And Rolling Stone reiterated its original positive review by further describing it as "big, vibrant pop-rock that would inspire thousands of emo kids". Blogcritics gave the album 10/10 and described it as "one of the most important debut albums of the last ten years".

In naming Weezer the 26th best album of the 1990s, Pitchfork summed up the album's critical recognition: "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, 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."

NME credited the album as a formative influence on melodic emo. AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album 5/5, calling it "a great record, but more than that, it's a great record emblematic of its time, standing as one of the defining albums of the '90s."

The band performed the album in its entirety during the Memories Tour in 2010 and is set to do so again during the Voyage to the Blue Planet Tour in 2024. On March 15, the band performed the album in its entirety at the Lodge Room in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles as a pre-kickoff of the Voyage Tour, with Dogstar as the opening band. Former bassist Matt Sharp attended, and Dominic Fike sang and played "Say It Ain't So" with the band as a surprise.

Accolades
( * ) designates lists which are unordered.

Personnel
Credits taken from CD liner notes, except where noted.

Weezer
 * Brian Bell – guitar (credit only), vocals
 * Rivers Cuomo – vocals, guitars, harmonica
 * Matt Sharp – bass, vocals
 * Patrick Wilson – drums

Production
 * Ric Ocasek – producer
 * Chris Shaw – engineer
 * Hal Belknap – assistant engineer
 * David Heglmeier – assistant engineer
 * Daniel Smith – assistant engineer
 * George Marino – mastering
 * Todd Sullivan – artist and repertoire
 * Peter Gowland, Peter Orth – photographer
 * Karl Koch – design
 * Michael Golob – art direction