A to Z 2017: WEEZER

This next selection was kind of a no-brainer. I've loved Weezer since high school and the band's CDs are ones I can play in their entirety. The real struggle was deciding which albums and songs to share. There were just too many to choose from!

I was, however, determined to find actual music videos for whichever songs I picked, because a few I've selected throughout the course of the A to Z Challenge have just been recordings. That narrowed it down some. But what really sealed the deal was that Weezer has four self-titled albums, each with its own color association that it's also known by. Four CDs, four songs, four videos?! No problem!

First up is Weezer's 1994 self-titled debut (the Blue Album), which was chock full of great tracks like "Buddy Holly", "Say it Ain't So", and "Only in Dreams". One of my personal favorites is the first track, "My Name is Jonas", but I have to share "Undone — The Sweater Song":

I still remember singing that song with friends in high school during lunch hour and pissing off a lunch lady. I don't know if she just hated the song (I can't recall if it was played on the radio at the time) or hated our singing. Either way, as much as I've bellowed out the lyrics to all the songs on the Blue Album, that one will always have that awesome memory attached to it for me!

Their second studio release, Pinkerton, dropped in 1996. I may not be sharing any videos from that album, but I would highly recommend checking it out if liking anything you see/hear here. "El Scorcho" and "The Good Life" are great. After Pinkerton, the band took a brief hiatus.

Weezer's first comeback was in 2001 with their third (but second self-titled) album known as the Green Album. The first single from the CD, "Hash Pipe" was a popular hit:

Weezer was back and frontman Rivers Cuomo was better than ever! Even after the band lost their original bassist, Matt Sharp. "Island in the Sun" and "Photograph" were the other major singles from the Green Album.

Skipping ahead seven years and two albums (Maladroit and Make Believe), we find Weezer releasing their next self-titled album known as the Red Album. Beyond "Hash Pipe", I believe "Pork and Beans" was the song I remember most over the past decade. I'm not sure why, but maybe it was because I really liked the video for it:

Maybe I'm just too addicted to YouTube? It's possible... It's possible. Another track I would definitely suggest listening to is "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived", which is an ensemble of different music styles and just sounds awesome (at least I think so). The "Troublemaker" video is also a lot of fun.

Three more albums were released before the fourth and final self-titled album — Raditude, Hurley (named from the Lost character played by Jorge Garcia who is featured on the cover), and Everything Will Be Alright in the End. I'm not really familiar with many of the songs from these albums. "Memories", from Hurly, being the most prominent. I recognize the cover for Everything Will Be Alright in the End, and I believe I've heard most of the songs once when I just let YouTube keep playing videos, but I never purchased it (or the other two either).

The White Album was just released in 2016 and is supposedly a throwback to their earlier releases, which I guess I can agree with. I was surprised by how many of the songs I'd heard already, being I haven't bought the album and don't listen to the radio. I must have been on a Weezer kick recently!

A good handful of songs had music videos made and while I really wanted to share "Thank God for Girls" (check it out!), "King of the World" was the first single and kind of an album announcement. Once I saw the flashing of the four colors at the beginning of the video, each coinciding with the self-titled monikers, I was sold:

Weezer continues to go on strong and some of their work has been nominated for Grammy Awards (winning one for "Pork and Beans"). A handful of albums in their later years were met with mixed reviews, but overall they've been well received by critics and fans alike.

I really like a lot of tracks from the White Album and before I can even fully digest it all, it seems Rivers Cuomo and gang are already putting together the Black Album. The first single for it, "Feels Like Summer" (which may be the actual name of the record now, I'll have to look), was released last month, so I guess I'll be checking that out now! Maybe you should to!

On a side note, I've missed the opportunity to see Weezer live so many times, it's nice to know that it could still happen!

Are you familiar with Weezer? Did you enjoy the songs/videos? Do you have a favorite song and/or album? Have you ever seen them live? If so, how was the performance? Throughout the years, Weezer has changed up their style some and experimented with their music, have you been a fan of this? Are you excited for the Black Album, or Feels Like Summer, or whatever it's named?