Day 124: Weezer – The Green Album

I’ve got to be honest, today is the first day when I almost forgot that I need to do this. But considering I’m more than a third of the way through, I’d say that’s pretty good going. Bit of a random choice today, I don’t think I’ve even heard Weezer since I was a teenager but it felt like the right mood for today.

Album cover courtesy of Geffen Records

Weezer was formed by Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Matt Sharp, and Brian Bell in 1992 in Los Angeles, and they played their first gig only a month after officially forming. Cuomo, the singer, had started a project to write 50 songs in quick succession with their drummer, Patrick Wilson for their then-unnamed band, and many of the songs were later recorded by Weezer. They released their first album in 1994, produced by Ric Ocasek from the Cars, and it sold multi-platinum.

The Green Album is the group’s third studio album. It was the second one produced by Ocasek, who they brought back after the less impressive sales of their second album, and it’s their only record with bassist Mikey Welsh, as he left the band shortly afterwards due to health problems.

Because of the lesser success of their sophomore record Pinkerton, they made the decision to change their material a bit on the Green Album by not writing an album that’s as personal, with Cuomo saying that the songs “were, very intentionally, not about me. Not about what was going on in my life, at least in a conscious way.” The band pivoted to having more universally appealing lyrics, and they also modified their sound into being more pop-oriented than before.

Weezer has to be one of the very few bands that I can still listen to from my early teen emo years without it being something that slightly also makes me wince. Their music is good, and not in a novelty act way, it’s expectedly a good record. The issue with it is that you can hear that they were gunning for more commercial appeal. It feels formulaic, the lyrics aren’t particularly anything to write home about (“Crab at the booty / T'ain't gonna do no good”) but there’s still something very charming about it.

Maybe it’s nostalgia, but there’s still something about the Green Album that I still find to be pleasant. Nothing made its way to a playlist but I did have a bit of fun listening to it. It’s a reasonable 7/10.