"Let's Go Away For a While..."

The 1990s will be remembered as a decade that gave us an awful lot of great rock music. It was the decade where Seattle replaced LA as the rock music capital of the world (even if only for a few years), where punk with a new pop twist was not only popular, but good, and where really good bands like Weezer got noticed because they deserved to be, not because they were desparately sucking at MTV's teet.

Before going on hiatus and coming back with a second self titled album (also known as "The Green Album"), Weezer released two albums in the first half of the 1990s: the first self titled album, commonly called "The Blue Album," and the cult classic Pinkerton.

The Blue Album is a work of pop/rock genius. Each and every song on this disc could have been a hit single (save for the closing 8 minute plus Only in Dreams), and each and every song would have deserved it. I can't say that about many albums, because quite frankly, not many albums like this are made anymore.

My favorite song is by far The World Has Turned and Left Me Here, a great midtempo number that has some of the saddest lyrics one will ever find. Of course, you could say that about an awful lot of Weezer songs, but nothing has really quite gotten at me like this one ("I just made love with your sweet memory, One thousand times in my head").

Then there are the singles. Undone-the Sweater song is nearly 5 minutes of anthemic bliss, even if again, the lyrics aren't so blissful. And we all know about Buddy Holly, which is probably the worst song on the album, which isn't so much a hit on the song as it is a complement to the rest of the disc. With Say It Ain't So, the band basically wrote the book for Dashboard Confessional and their sing alongs, except Dashboard Confessional has never written a song nearly as good as SIAS (nor will they ever because they are quite possibly the worst band on the planet, but I digress).

The band still finds time to have a couple of happy little songs on the album. Surf Wax America is a song full of energy and vigor, and it's placement in between Undone and Say It Ain't So is perfect, as it's a nice buffer for each of those songs. With regards to Holiday, all I can say is that there might not have been a better love song written by a rock band in the past 10 years.

I can't even begin to say how much I enjoy this disc. To try and put it into words is even harder. It's just one of those discs everyone should own, because it DESERVES to be, not because of its "influence" or its "importance" in music history. No, none of that. It's just ten great songs on one little disc. No filler. For that and that alone, The Blue Album belongs in your music collection. I guarantee it's one of the best $13 purchases you could ever make.