TruthMedia Review: Weezer: Blue Album

Overview: Weezer's first album attempts to add style to the stale musical world of "emo". After hearing a lot about this CD, I decided to pick up a copy and give it a shot. The end result was definitely not what I had expected. Produced By: Geffen Records. The Pros: Weezer is a talented band. I had heard of them before this CD and it was mostly good things. They also have a lot of potential in the vocals department, often resulting in a nice sounding harmony. The Cons:The CD is very short with most songs barely reaching 2 minutes. The entire CD is also very sloppy sounding and very unpolished. I'm not sure if there was a problem in the recording studio or not, but it definitely needed improving.

The CD contains 9 songs and starts out very mediocre. Maybe I was expecting too much based on the amount of good things I had heard.

The very first song, "My Name is Johnas" sounds like a mix between the heavy guitar riffs of Metallica and the pop stylings of Sugar Ray. Vocalist Brian Bell sounds like he is trying his hardest to scream out the lyrics without cracking his voice and doesn't do a very convincing job. He sounds almost like an old man whose been smoking cigarettes his whole life.

Things get better however as track 2, "No One Else", and track 3, "El Scorcho", bring on the melodious tunes that I had been anticipating. You can tell Cuomo is at his lyrical best when the lyrics don't have to be rabidly screamed. But as the lyrics get better, surprisingly the music gets worse.

The middle of the album is musically the worst and most overused of its time. I can just imagine the band sitting in a circle on fancy pillows with incense burning all around them, recording the tracks live with an old tape recorder because that's what it sounds like. As I said earlier, I'm not sure if there was a problem with the recording or the master copy but the instrument levels are very off. The guitar is just too loud. Looking past those slight technical difficulties, track 6 entitled "Undone- the Sweeter song" is quite nice. You can tell Weezer was experimenting with things other pop bands were not, such as Sitars.

The end of the CD is back to Cuomo screaming the lyrics and seemingly impromptu music. It's almost as if the never really practiced the last 2 songs and instead decided to just let it all go crazy. With the final song clocking in at just under 7 minutes, this is quite a painful combination.

Also, on the song "In the garage", Cuomo makes subtle hints about his own sexuality as well as the rest of the band's. For example:

I've got posters on the wall.
My favorite rock group Kiss.
I got Ace Freely.
I've got Peter Chris, Waiting there for me, yes I do.
I do.

– TruthMedia Editor