威瑟 (1994)

Weezer (commonly known as the Blue Album) is the debut studio album by the American rock band Weezer, released on May 10, 1994, by DGC Records. It was produced by Ric Ocasek.

Weezer was formed in Los Angeles in 1992, and initially struggled to engage audiences, who were more interested in grunge. Their demo The Kitchen Tape brought them to the attention of DGC owner Geffen Records. Weezer selected Ocasek because of his work with the Cars.

Most of the album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City between August and September 1993. The group treated the guitars and bass as a single, 10-string instrument, playing in unison. The guitarist Jason Cropper was fired during recording, as the band felt he was threatening their chemistry; he was replaced by Brian Bell.

Weezer was supported by the singles "Undone – The Sweater Song", "Buddy Holly", and "Say It Ain't So", which were accompanied by music videos. The album received acclaim and reached number sixteen on the Billboard 200, and was certified five-times platinum in the US in 2024. It remains Weezer's best-selling album, with more than 15 million copies sold worldwide by 2009. It has been named one of the best albums of the 1990s by several publications. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it number 294 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2026, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Background

Weezer was formed on February 14, 1992, in Los Angeles by singer and guitarist Rivers Cuomo, drummer Pat Wilson, bassist Matt Sharp, and guitarist Jason Cropper. Although they performed future hits including "Undone – The Sweater Song" and "Say It Ain't So", Cuomo said they struggled to engage audiences, who wanted to see grunge bands instead.

In an effort to create buzz around Los Angeles, Weezer recorded a demo, The Kitchen Tape. This attracted attention from major-label A&R reps looking for alternative rock bands to perform on the same bill as That Dog. Weezer were signed to DGC Records on June 26, 1993, by Todd Sullivan, an A&R rep from Geffen Records.

Recording and production

While preparing for the studio sessions, Weezer focused on their vocal interplay by practicing barbershop quartet-style songs, which helped Cuomo and Sharp feel more comfortable collaborating during rehearsals. Sharp, who had never sung before joining Weezer, developed his falsetto: "I had to sing an octave higher than Rivers. After a lot of practice, I started to get it down."

Weezer rehearsed 15 songs in New York City in preparation for the Electric Lady Studios sessions. Four songs from this rehearsal were not included on the album: "I Swear It's True", "Getting Up and Leaving", a reprise of "In the Garage", and "Mykel and Carli", an ode to the sisters Mykel and Carli Allan, who ran the Weezer fanclub. Weezer later recorded another version of "Mykel and Carli" as a B-side for the single "Undone – The Sweater Song", with the Weezer collaborator Karl Koch.

Weezer considered self-producing the album, but were pressured by Geffen to choose a producer. They decided on Ric Ocasek, who was the frontman for the Cars. Ocasek was selected because of his work on the Cars' song "Just What I Needed", which Cuomo said sounded similar to the way that he wanted Weezer to sound like. Ocasek convinced them to switch their guitar pickups from the neck to the bridge, resulting in a brighter sound. Sharp and Cuomo imposed several rules on recording, banning reverb and insisting on all downstrokes on guitar. According to the engineer Chris Shaw, the "overriding concept" was to treat the guitars and bass as a single, 10-string instrument, playing in unison. Weezer insisted that the guitars were mixed as loudly as those in Radiohead's 1992 song "Creep", burying some vocals. Aside from delay used in the swells on "Only in Dreams", the album makes no use of guitar effects.

During the recording, Cropper learned that his girlfriend was pregnant and began acting erratically. Koch said: "He wasn't handling it well ... He always said he was fine, and then 20 minutes later he'd be up on the roof of Electric Lady screaming or something." Sharp said later that "whatever it is we were setting out to do, it felt like it was gonna be much more difficult if he stayed". Sharp and Cuomo felt that Cropper would likely leave Weezer eventually and so wanted to remove him before the release of their debut, as they "wanted things to be very stable for the audience". According to Cropper, Cuomo told him he could not allow him to jeopardize the work and asked him to leave. In 2014, Cropper said Cuomo had made the right decision.