The Top Ten Songs by Weezer
When I was throwing ideas on the table for a Top Ten Weezer list, I kept coming back to just two albums, their first two: ‘Weezer’ (The Blue Album) and ‘Pinkerton’. I love all Weezer’s records but it’s hard to ignore the fact that these two discs are just plain better. That’s why 8 of the 10 songs on this list are from those albums. (NOTE: I tried to make it more “career-spanning” but just couldn’t do it.) “Buddy Holly” is perhaps the song that they’re best known for, but don’t let that fool you-there are at least nine better ones.
9. Dope Nose
The lone selection from ‘Maladroit’, “Dope Nose” exemplifies Weezer’s fake heavy metal album. Seriously, listen to ‘Maladroit’ from beginning to finish. It sounds like part of Green Day and half of Soundgarden got together and reworked Van Halen tunes. (NOTE: Let me just clarify something before I continue: Of the 5 Weezer albums, there are 2 all time classics, 2 average records and one really, really good disc. ‘Maladroit’ is the really, really good one, you can figure out the rest.)
8. Say It Ain’t So
Again, like so many great song, the key is in the bridge. If a songwriter is able to top the base of his composition with a “take me over the top” bridge, he’s reached another level, and Rivers Cuomo can do that. Perhaps, there’s no better example of this than the “Dear daddy” segment in “Say It Ain’t So”.
7. Hash Pipe
Weezer disappeared for years after ‘Pinkerton’, only to come back with their most atypical song, the hit single “Hash Pipe” off of their second self-titled album (AKA: The Green Album). I’m not a huge fan of The Green Album but I am a big “Hash Pipe” fan. Falsetto singing, a two-note, punk rock guitar riff, and strange lyrics that actually have nothing to do with smoking hash: what’s not to love?
6. My Name is Jonas
I can’t stress enough how important and great this song is. Just like the first song on Pinkerton (No. 2 on this list), and any classic album for that matter, awesome opening tracks are indispensable when accessing the legendary status of a record. “My Name is Jonas” says all you need to know about WeezerâÂ?¦ great chords, amazing guitar work and cool lyrics.
5. el Scorcho
It’s songs like “el Scorcho” that made ‘Pinkerton’ a classic. Unfortunately, time has been much kinder on this album than its initial sales report. As the first single from that disc, and coming off the multi-platinum success of The Blue Album, this was a colossal flop. But over the years, this song and its album have slowly snowballed into the critical wonderment that has led some rock journalists to make comments like, “The ’emo’ genre was created by ‘Pinkerton’.” That’s basically a load of shit, in my opinion. Tell me what part of a Dashboard Confessional album came from this record. Please, tell me?
4. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
I had a hard time picking songs from The Blue Album because I felt that, no matter what, I was going to be leaving great songs off. So think of this tune as a stand-in for every song I left off the list. And, yes, I’m going to name them all right nowâÂ?¦ “No One Else”, “Surf Wax America”, “In the Garage”, “Holiday”, and “Only in Dreams”.
3. Why Bother?
I have to admit that the next three songs are pretty much my personal all-time Weezer favorites, but this is my list and I can do what I want, right? “Why Bother?”, off of ‘Pinkerton’, is two minutes of power pop perfection. This truly sounds like the song that Buddy Holly would have wrote if he had fronted Weezer.
2. Tired of Sex
Again, like I stated in No.6, it’s extremely important to start an album correctly. The vibe of a song like “Tired of Sex” let’s us know two important things, A) this is not The Blue Album and B) Rivers Cuomo is really pissed off. Best part of this song: The painful sounding “Ohhhh” at 1:14 in.
1. Undone (The Sweater Song)
“Undone” was the first Weezer song that I ever heard, as was the case for many people, and I had no idea what I was in store for. There is a slight novelty act quality to this song and, trust me, I loathe that term. But you can’t deny the fact that “Undone”, a song predicated around the lyric, “If you want to destroy my sweater, pull this thread as I walk away”, seemed to be destined for some ‘Best of the Buzz Bin’ MTV compilation when you first heard it. So when you look at Weezer’s career in retrospect, this song takes on a life of its own. Did that make any sense?
