The HIDDEN Tragedy in "The Blue Album" by Weezer

Weezer is known for crafting a subtle, humorous track. But look deeper and you'll see they mask insecurities with humorous one liners and simple metal riffs.

On my YouTube Channel, I have talked at length about the impact The Smashing Pumpkins and their seminal album Siamese Dream had on me growing up. After all, I credit the album for opening my eyes to modern music in the early to mid 1990s. I don’t often talk about a few other pivotal bands outside of The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and Built to Spill, though.

And one of those bands is Weezer.

I can’t recall which song I heard first, “Undone - The Sweater Song” or “Buddy Holly.” Both are great and stand the test of time, but it's the former that truly resonated with me and still does to this day.

In my latest video, I dig into the tragedy behind the song, and how the lyrics came to frontman Rivers Cuomo almost as a direct quote from his English 101 college professor.

I mean, how fitting is that?!? One of the greatest nerd rock anthems, inspired by higher education.

At the onset of the pandemic I, like many others, looked inwards and backwards. I snapped up a handful of albums from my youth, and one of them was the 2016 remastered vinyl pressing of Weezer’s debut album.

An Unconventional Naming Convention

Most commonly known as The Blue Album, it follows the path of about half of Weezer’s albums out there — it’s self-titled. Blue, Green, Red, White, Teal, Black … these are all dominating colors in the cover art of self-titled Weezer albums, and the names they are most commonly known by.

So, in many ways, Weezer has taken to heart what happened with “Undone.”

As I note in the video, the song was originally simply called “Undone” but at shows people kept requesting “The Sweater Song,” so when it came time to compile the album, they just appended that to the song’s name.

Cuomo didn’t really like how it looked in parentheses so he styled it with a dash instead. Thus, “Undone - The Sweater Song” is forever its name.

God I love that song! It encapsulates so much of what I felt growing up as a teenager in the mid 1990s. The awkwardness, the insecurity, the masking.

Let’s dig into that a little.

The Hidden Depth in Simplicity

Perhaps more so on The Blue Album than on any other Weezer record out there, Cuomo dove deep into childhood insecurities and fears. This trait pops up time and again throughout the album, not just in “Undone - The Sweater Song.”

Dive into the lyrics of “Say It Ain’t So” and again you get a peek into the soul of childhood trauma masked by humor

Somebody's Heine'
Is crowdin' my icebox
Somebody's cold one
Is givin' me chills
Guess I'll just close my eyes

At the age of four, Cuomo’s biological father left the family, and the rift had quite the impression on Cuomo. His father was an alcoholic, so finding a beer in the fridge sparked terror — would his stepfather leave as well?

But, step away from the lyrical depth and you’re left with heavy power chords and the humor in the word Heine.

Most people stay at surface level, and THAT is the tragedy of Weezer.

The songs on The Blue Album are actually quite simple. The power chords lack complexity in a way that is youthful with an adolescent tinge to them. The lyrics use phrases like “Somebody’s Heine” and “Superman Skivvies” which seem to lack a sense of seriousness.

They hide the depth that’s actually there. So most people don’t realize how deep they actually go.

In articles talking about the album’s 30th Anniversary (and previous anniversary milestones), Rivers Cuomo has laughed it off, noting that most people find the song(s) hilarious though they’re not really meant to be.

Out of the Blue

Beyond The Blue Album, I’d dig into Pinkerton a little and The Green Album as well. But aside from those three releases, Weezer kind of fell to the wayside. I sought out more obscure, more complex, and more intricate artists.

And, revisiting The Blue Album 30 years after its release, I find there’s a second tragedy. One not mentioned in the video. And that is this: I have spent FAR too long ignoring a truly phenomenal band.