Welcome everyone to another edition of Top Five Fridays! This week, I’ll be focusing in on one of my favorite groups: Weezer. I’ll admit it, some of their more recent albums lacked some of the polish of albums like Pinkerton, Make Believe, and the Blue Album but they still have some great songs that I’ll admit I still listen to.
5. El Scorcho
It’s one of my favorite songs from them simply because of one line. “Watching Grunge legdrop New Jack through a press table” is such an obscure wrestling reference it makes me laugh every time I hear it.
One of the reasons I grew to enjoy the group was because they have an improvisational tone to some of their songs and this is a prime example. Sometimes just making songs that you need to decipher to understand the references is a welcome change of pace.
4. Hash Pipe
The first time I ever heard of this band was through the music video that played on MTV fairly consistently (remember when MTV played music videos?). Another big reason why I got into the group was because of their cool music video ideas and having sumo wrestlers having a match while the group is performing will always be one of the more entertaining things that I had seen when I was in middle school.
Looking back at this makes me wonder what happened to some of the cool music video ideas because now when I see some of the newer music videos, they don’t take nearly the amount of chances groups like Weezer, Blink-182, and other groups did back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Perhaps it’s just a product of the times and music videos don’t matter nearly as much in the world of pop culture as they did back then. Thanks a lot MTV.
3. Buddy Holly
Speaking of music videos, this has to be towards the top of my list of favorites. You’ve got Weezer performing at Arnold’s from Happy Days and Fonzie dancing to a song about defending a platonic friend.
It’s nerd rock at its finest and a phenomenal video to go along with it that wound up winning a slew of awards and propelling the group to superstardom.
2. Beverly Hills
This song came out at the right time to me, I was in high school and a lot of the song was relatable (my automobille was a piece of junk too). We all have those big aspirations in high school of living the good life in Beverly Hills and want to be like all the celebrities we see on TV.
It’s pretty simplistic, but it’s the perfect opening track for one of my favorite albums in Make Believe.
1. Island in the Sun
I honestly don’t know what to compare this to when it comes to the overall structure. It has the vibe of a Beach Boys song, but feels much more like a “yacht rock” track. Either way it has a way of making me want to be out on the beach and enjoying the ocean sounds.
