Wednesday, November 19, 2008

54. Weezer - Blue Album

It was when Maladroit came out that I stopped saying I'm a Weezer fan and instead saying I'm a fan of the Blue Album.

This is perfection. From start to finish, it's one of those rare albums that I can play in its entirety over and over, never skipping a song, never getting tired of it. It's brilliant, it's earnest, it's light, it's heavy, it's silly, it's perfect.

Remember when you were 12 years old and you made a list of every attribute the perfect guy could have, from his awesome personality to his romanticism to his musical tastes to his blond hair and blue eyes and ability to play the bass? Ok, maybe that was just me. But the Blue Album is the musical equivalent of that guy. It's the perfect date, in vinyl form. There's not a song I would skip, not a thing I would change.

And that perfection is all wrapped up so exquisitely with the the last song. Only in Dreams clocks in at 8:04 and not a second of that is wasted on anything extraneous. From the opening bass line to the final fade out, Dreams is a sweeping, melodic piece of wistfulness. It's a heartbreaking tale of unrequited love but, oddly enough, it's not the earnest yearnings in River Cuomo's voice or the sweetness of the backing vocals that breaks your heart; instead the final, instrumental five minutes or so of the song carry you away on alternating waves of build ups and let downs that really kick you in the gut. It's the embodiment of the entire album wrapped up in one song and perfect way to finish off a perfect disc.


Favorite song: Only in Dreams
Album wiki

2 comments:

steelopus said...

Nice. This is a good way to start my morning.

They don't call me "weezersteve" over @WBER for nothing.

Besides being my favorite band of all time (yes, still, even after the past four albums) weezer was also my primary source of musical inspiration when I developed as a musician and a songwriter.

Perfect is the only word that can be used to describe the album, and trying to dance around its perfection in a review is futile, so I'm glad you went for it.

(Other perfect albums: Pinkerton, Appetite for Destruction, In The Vally Of Dying Stars (Superdrag), Hell Below/Stars Above (Toadies))

DearPrudns said...

I agree, Weezer - Blue Album, is definitely one of my top 10 albums of all time. I just don't tire of it. Perfection from start to finish, your review summed it up nicely. I also love the Deluxe Blue Edition, although my kids like it less.