Weezer - Weezer (Green Album)

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• WEEZER WEEZER

Free Music Notes for Weezer (Green Album)

Free Music Review: Essential Summer Reading [PART 1]
Hit: 5 Stars

The Green Album is my first Weezer album. Like many, I have the Buddy Holly single from years ago, but back then the b-sides didn't really appeal to me and Weezer fell a bit by the wayside as I got into other bands. My interest was renewed recently when Ash covered their song "Only in Dreams", which was absolutely amazing. Inspired, I downloaded the original and found that to be even better than the cover.

After plentiful visits to the Ash message board, I soon discovered that Weezer where releasing a new album, The Green Album. "Nice" I thought, and promptly popped on over to CD Now to have a listen to previews of the tracks. I liked what I heard, pressed the necessary buttons and a few days later the postman brought me my nice shiny new album.

The Green Album is Weezer's first album since Pinkerton in 1996. In the five-year gap, lead singer Rivers Cuomo returned to college to study the history of rock, and this is the first release since the band got back together.

Weezer have never really had a huge following, a more underground support than anything. Their style is fresh, upbeat rock, often described as "Geek Rock". They lyrics are funny, tunes short and to the point, easy to pick up and get into, but they are songs that you won't grow tired of quickly.

The album weighs in at a touch over half an hour, and only has eleven tracks, most weighing in the sub three-minute category. Don't let this put you off - each tune is a wonderful little pop song, with it's own little story to tell. They could add an extra verse of chorus, but the beauty is that they don't need to. It's so easy and enjoyable to listen to that once you've listened to it, its very easy flick play as soon as the albums stops playing, getting ready for another listen.

DON'T LET GO
Opens the album on a bright and lively note, with a quick clatter of the drums before launching straight into a quick and simple riff, the song sounds a lot like Ash, and it's clear to see that Ash have been heavily influenced by this band. The whole song is clean, quick and simple, and that's where the whole appeal lies - it's easy to listen to and sing along. It has sweet lyrics about love, how he is going to look out for this girl and make sure she has the best he can give her, and the whole song just sounds so positive. The riff keeps building up, building up to little outbursts of energy then reverting to the original riff with some neat bass work. It's the perfect song to open the album with.

PHOTOGRAPH
This track opens with a little blaze of feedback, before moving into a much more muted guitar riff, highlighted with the vocals before the familiar quick, driven riff comes in. The difference between the sound of the chorus and verse are quite similar, yet they are distinctive enough to complement each other well. It's the first song where the vocal interplay comes into use - the main vocal leads the song, but there is plenty of background vocals, some brilliant ooo-ooo's as well as some nice echoing of the lead. Again, it's simple but not so simple that it's boring - there's always something great going on - a change between two riffs, some neat backing vocals or a quick solo to keep your attention.

HASH PIPE
This was the first single to be lifted from the album, and it is quite different from the rest of the album in a number of respects. Firstly, it deviates from the normal bittersweet tales of lost love and girls by being a song about his "hash pipe". Secondly, it is a lot punchier and has a whole lot more attitude and swagger than most of the rest of the album. A neat vocal trick is employed on this track - he starts each line in a really high voice, getting lower and lower as the line progresses before starting the next line up high again. It's one of the best tacks on the album, the guitar sounds dirty and abrasive, there's a great little solo, a really funky bassline going the whole way throughout the song, and the whole thing melts together wonderfully. It's the type of song that really benefits from the volume being turned right up and having a good old jump around.

ISLAND IN THE SUN
This takes the mood down a bit, with a more sedate and relaxed number, where the bass takes more prominence than it has done before, the guitar is picked rather than just playing a riff, and it helps produce the laid back mood of the song. It really suits the song as it's about relaxing in the summer, and the whole sound really is sedate and gentle, it would be perfect to lie down on the beach and listen to this song. There's a temporary explosion in the middle of the song which really grabs your attention, the guitar becoming heavy and distorted, before it reverts back to the simple picked part, this time with the second guitar playing a lazy solo over the top. The vocals are soft and they sound really satisfied, as if he's really happy with his lift at that moment. It creates images of relaxing with your friends at night as the sun goes down; it's a beautiful song.

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