In 1994 I thought I was on the cutting edge of music discovery.
Well, maybe not the cutting edge. More like the slightly wider edge. I was still pro-actively seeking out new music, but often would get my recommendations from those people who put much more into finding the newest and freshest stuff.
One such place was a show on BBC Radio 1 (which, in 1994, was still playing music that I liked) called The Evening Session, with Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley. While doing my homework I would scribble down the names of bands I heard on the show whose albums or singles I wanted to add to the CD collection I was building for my pristine new CD player.
Weezer was not on my list.
So thank goodness for the ‘HMV recommends’ section. If it wasn’t for this section of the Brentwood HMV – in which I had never looked before – I wouldn’t have found Weezer’s Eponymous album…you know, the one that’s blue.
And in the weeks and months that followed, their first single, The Sweater Song, began to get rotation, much to my satisfaction. And later that year, Weezer became one of the biggest bands in the world. And I bought the album before even The Sweater Song started to get airplay.
So did the style of this particular purchase mean that I had moved from being a follower of current taste to a predictor, I hear you ask? No. It just meant that I had made a blind bet on some journalist’s recommendation – a choice that could just have easily been a duff one. But as the country began to laud Weezer 6 – 8 months after I had initially promoted them to my less than receptive circle of friends, could you blame me for me for being a smug 14 year old?
At the time the British press and music industry was much more concerned with the revival of British music, and, at least to my mind, hardly paid any attention to non-Seattle sounding music coming out of America in 1994. The post Manchester baggy scene that was morphing into this new – at the time, unnamed – electric guitar led 60’s revival, with lyrics talking about distinctly British things, promised to be something truly unique, and there was a sense in the UK that everyone was holding their breath for a new golden era of music, as bands like Blur, Suede and Radiohead were surely getting into their stride.
In my room, listening to the progressions and suspensions from Weezer that delighted every fibre of my being, I felt like I was in my own private Idaho – or in this case, California.
The album started with a song in 6/8. That got my attention at once. Not many albums in 1994 in mainstream music would venture outside 4/4 for the 1st song (unless your name is Soundgarden of course). After the intro came bassy, chunky distorted guitars. Great. I knew what I was getting. Interesting writing with well produced, warm distorted guitars, and nice melodic tunes. I’m in. My Name is Jonas is a strange title, and the feel was very American. But definitely good enough to move to the next song with an excited sense of teenage expectation.
As I went through each song, listening first to the progressions, melodies, production and structure – I’m not ashamed that lyrics is still one of the last things I hear, unless they standout from the first listen – I realised that this album would be a staple favourite of mine for many, many years. Here are just some of the reasons why:
I recently referenced the intro to No One Else to describe a drumming part I wanted to emulate, as an intro that will forever stand out to me; The World Has Turned And Left Me Here – the song that was perhaps my favourite from the first listen – left me wholly inspired to write such an interesting and different type of melody and structure; the organic nature of the breakdown and build to the last chorus on Only In Dreams to end the album, made me feel like someone was reaching out a hand and holding mine, from the other side of the world – and even 19 years later is something I am still on a quest to achieve; the melding of the lead and rhythm distorted guitars in Say It Ain’t So is a production technique that has stayed with me to this day; the discordant harmony on the chorus of The Sweater Song just before they go into the guitar solo and key change still is as memorable in my head now as it was almost two decades ago.
When the album was over, I went back and played my favourite songs again. This was my standard process for every new album, and actually was the best part. But there were so many amazing songs, I pretty much listened to the whole thing again.
So thanks to that blind faith, that led me to buy an album about which I had no knowledge vs not buy anything, I was able to spend countless enjoyable hours listening to a CD that at the time wasn’t getting enough attention by half.
‘In my garage, where I feel safe, no one knows about my ways.’
And when I say ‘my ways’ I mean no one knows about an amazing band called Weezer who were about to leave their mark on the history of music. Yet.
And why was it called The Sweater Song?
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Watch the videos for The Sweater Song and Say It Ain't So.