3 Great Weezer Songs That Are Not on the ‘Blue Album’

In May of 1994, when Weezer released its self-titled debut, known as the Blue Album, the band ushered in a new era. Grunge music was waning following the death of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and the Blue Album offered something new in American rock music.

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Like Nirvana, Weezer influenced a generation of bands who combined emo and indie rock as popular music moved into its post-grunge phase. But following the cultural and commercial impact of a massive debut, the band nearly imploded under the pressure.

Though most conversations about Weezer begin and end with the Blue Album, this list highlights a few gems the band released after its debut masterpiece.

“Hash Pipe”

Weezer’s self-produced second album, Pinkerton, initially confused fans. Rivers Cuomo wrote most of it while enrolled at Harvard, where he felt isolated, frustrated, and depressed. Though it wasn’t as successful as the debut, Pinkerton remains a brilliant collection of self-deprecating and ironic indie songs.

Pinkerton’s commercial failure led Geffen Records to convince the band to hire a producer for the follow-up. Working again with The Cars’ Ric Ocasek, who had produced the debut, Cuomo streamlined his songwriting and returned to the melodic geek rock of “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So”. Then “Hash Pipe” arrived in 2001 and introduced the self-titled Green Album with a loud statement showing Cuomo had found his footing.

“Island In The Sun”

Perhaps “Island In The Sun” is Weezer’s “Brown Eyed Girl”, a light-hearted tune audiences want to hear when Cuomo would rather shred. It has a similar beach vibe to Van Morrison’s hit, while also echoing Brian Wilson’s sunny anthems.

But the easy soft rock expanded Weezer’s audience to those who might not otherwise listen to indie-by-way-of-metal guitar riffs. The good vibrations of “Island In The Sun” show how Cuomo, like Wilson, wrote joyful tunes despite suffering from aching depression.

“El Scorcho”

Cuomo famously studied the songwriting of Nirvana, Oasis, and Green Day to unlock the chemistry behind the hits. But the building blocks were already there in his own songs. He probably only needed to observe what he had already done on the Blue Album. You can also hear it in his noisy experiments on Pinkerton.

Though the Blue Album was constructed with slacker sing-alongs, Cuomo leaned hard into loaferism on “El Scorcho”. You’ll notice traces of Pavement and Stephen Malkmus’s stream of consciousness lyrics over Cuomo’s woozy campus riff. He can’t find the guts to tell the girl how he feels. He’s waiting for her to say something. It probably won’t happen, so at least he’s got this romantic opera with lyrics cribbed from another student’s essay.

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