Favorite albums: 2000-2004
39. Weezer, Weezer (The Green Album)
Original position on my Stylus ballot: #20
This album felt a lot more crucial when they hadn’t recorded more albums after it than before it. During the years this list covers, I claimed I was happy to listen to Rivers sing nonsensical valentines to the phone book, and that poor grammar like “If you ever go away/ I’ll be down on my knees/ begging for that girl to stay” was a small price to pay for the metronomic sugar-rock underneath. Hey, with his formal mastery reaffirmed after a cult-brewing hiatus, maybe Rivers would drop his guard and give us a sequel to Pinkerton on album four…ok, maybe five.
With no. 5 it was clear the emotionally naked late-bloomer of the ’90s had turned unapologetic thumbsucker on us, and the hit-miss ratio got ugly as Rivers wrestled with the mixed messages of his audience. Rivers had plenty of radio gold stored up for this salvo, though, and the Ric-rush is still tight enough to obliterate most other concerns while it’s on. But what felt like a victory lap then is now an artifact of the excitement that accompanied their return to the race - a race they’ve been losing for a while now.
