The Greatest Album Of All Time

Musical taste remains purely subjective, allowing nearly everyone to claim an album or song "life-changing." Rolling Stone Magazine has compiled a list citing the "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" placing The Bealtes' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" in the top slot, to which many respond positively. If musical taste is in fact based on personal preference, wouldn't everyone have a different number one?
To those of you who are familiar with my iTunes library, or have even seen the walls of my bedroom, you may view my choice as predictable, bias, or both-but bear with me, I can back it up.
Reviewing my album purchases throughout the past decade, one succeeds in standing out amongst the crowd.
Weezer's "The Blue Album" will forever remain my favorite album. The Blue Album is perfection,everyone of the ten tracks could have easily topped the charts as a single-and three of them successfully did. Each song pairs diverse melodies and various genres with the spitting lyrical genius, frontman Rivers Cuomo.
Nothing sounds quite like the rhyming habits of Cuomo's lyrics, the groove between Matt Sharp's bass paired with Patrick Wilson's hard-hitting drums and guitar whining of Brian Bell.
Throughout the ten tracks, Cuomo remains consistent in delivering diverse and melodic songs, ranging from topics of family values, romantic jealousy, a sibling's car accident and River's personal dreams.
Weezer introduces "The Blue Album" with acoustic picking that evolves into an explosion of personal frustration through the use of heavy guitar. Rivers spits, "guess what I received in the mail today? words of deep concern for my little brother" expressing aggravation over his brother's issues with insurance. He evokes doubt with phrases "the dozer will not clear his path" and "driver swears he learned his math."
"No One Else" is told from a fictional character whose traits are spawned from what the exact opposite of Rivers Cuomo would be like. In this track he spills unfiltered jealousy toward his girlfriend who "laughs about everything, whether it's funny or not." The album then progresses into "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" where the same inventive character now contradicts his earlier complaints when she is away and he misses her. Cuomo explained "No One Else" as being about "the jealous-obsessive asshole in me freaking out on my girlfriend," he said that "'The World Has Turned and Left Me Here' is the same asshole wondering why she’s gone."
"Buddy Holly" is a quirky tune that wholeheartedly defends himself and his friends against trash-talkers, who I later found out were members of the band. In the album booklet for Rivers' solo album, he states that the lyrical inspiration derived from an incident in which the other members of Weezer were making fun of Cuomo's friend, Kyung He. Cuomo talks about how he originally didn't want to include the song on the album but was convinced otherwise by producer Ric Ocasek. Cuomo also talks about the writing process of the song, stating that originally the chorus lyrics were "You look just like Ginger Rogers/Oh-oh/I move just like Fred Astaire."

"Undone-The Sweater Song" serves as perhaps the greatest metaphor of all time, originally a sad song that many have deemed humorous. This was the first single off the band's debut album, which resulted in a great success. Said Rivers of the song, "'Undone' is the feeling you get when the train stops and the little guy comes knockin' on your door. It was supposed to be a sad song, but everyone thinks it’s hilarious." He went on to explain,"I took typing, Psych 101, and English 101 that semester. It was in my English class that I heard the analogy of the unraveling sweater. Dr. Eisenstein used the image to demonstrate the effectiveness of focused thesis statement in an essay. “All I have to do is hold a single thread in your sweater and it will unravel as you walk away.”
The California-originated band chimes in with techniques of a barbershop quartet similar to the likes of the Beach Boys in the next track, "Surf Wax America." Cuomo called "Surf Wax" "a total sarcastic call to hedonism, to sing along, drink and be merry. I hate drinking and only do so when I absolutely have to." Prior to the breakdown of doo-wop, the antsy chorus taunts, "You take your car to work, I'll take my board, and when you're out of fuel, I'm still afloat."
Upon first listen to The Blue Album, the track that immediately stood out to me the most was "Say It Ain't So." What makes this song fantastic isn't so much the lyrical content, but the simple yet effective guitar progression through the chorus. In 2008, the song was ranked #72 on Rolling Stone's "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time." Rivers made the connection between the line and an experience he had in high school where he came home to find a bottle of alcohol (belonging to his stepfather) in the refrigerator. Rivers recalled that around the time his biological father left, he started drinking. He began to fear that Stephen, his step father, would soon leave his mother much the way his father did. During an interview for a radio station in support of the band's 5th album, "Make Believe," Rivers stated that the entire song was a misconception as he found out later that the bottle of beer didn't in fact belong to his stepfather. Good thing he wrote the song for our enjoyment before he fact-checked.
In the first verse of "In The Garage" Rivers reflects his childhood interest in comics, RPGs, and super heroes. In each chorus, Rivers expresses his comfort with these genuinely nerdy things. Rivers mentions Kiss, a rock group that influenced him in his youth. He also discusses himself for the first time in the song. He refers to his songs as "stupid songs" made up of "stupid words" which hints at a bit of insecurity revolving the music he is about to release to the world.
"Holiday" belies strong influences from the things Rivers was interested in at the time of 1993. In the Rivers Cuomo fan interview, Rivers expressed that famed beat poet Jack Kerouac was one of his favorite philosophers at the time. In the song, Rivers drops the line, "On the road with Kerouac", a reference to Kerouac's, "On The Road."
"Only in Dreams" is one of the most universally liked Weezer songs amongst the die hard fans. Its solo and build-up are regarded as some of Cuomo's best work, and the bassline is arguably the most famous bassline in the entire Weezer discography. It is also the longest track in the band's catalog, clocking in at nearly eight minutes.

Overall this diverse album has yet to compared to anything else in my collection, much less anything I've heard on the radio. If you have a love for music, give it a listen. Just once. Blame me if you don't like it =)