What is the album?
I'm going with Weezer's blue album (technically it's their debut self-titled album, but as they have since released multiple other self-titled albums with different colours on the covers, their first one is now commonly referred to as the blue album).
There were a few other albums I seriously considered choosing, as the music I want to listen to tends to depend on my mood. These were:
Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows
Therapy? - Troublegum
The Offspring - Smash
Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors
The Magnetic Fields - The Charm of the Highway Strip
Weezer - Pinkerton
Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
Why is it your favourite album?
The reason I picked this one out is that I absolutely love it whatever mood I'm in. The entire album is brilliant, and I never feel inclined to skip any of the songs, but the songs are still nicely different from one another, each with their own character and appeal. It manages to be catchy, but interesting, and noisy, yet melodic.
I think it's quite an important album, in terms of musical history, as it defined the geek-rock genre, in the way that it kind of celebrates not quite fitting in.
I also love Ric Ocasek's production. It sounds heavy, yet bright and nice, and never over-produced. I think he's my all-time favourite producer, and his production style and Weezer's songs are so perfectly suited for one-another.
How does it make you feel when you listen to it?
Usually quite a bit better than I did before listening to it. It has a sort of feel-good vibe to it, without ever really feeling too unrelatedly happy. Some of the songs are a bit more melancholic, such as The World Has Turned, and Only in Dreams, but at the other end of the spectrum, My Name is Jonus and Surf Wax America are really uplifting. I tend to like albums that take you through the emotions, and this album does that.
How do you feel when you hear the songs from that album played live?
Earlier this year, I actually joined a Weezer tribute band, called Wheezed, and our first aim was to play the blue album in its entirety, which has been so much fun! Seeing how these great songs are constructed has given me a bunch of ideas that have helped me with my own songwriting, leading to some brand new Midland Railway songs I'm really proud of and enjoying playing.
The blue album songs all seem to work really well live. They tend to be the songs people most want to hear (whether it's real Weezer or whether I'm playing with Wheezed), so you get so much crowd excitement, and everyone seems to know the words well enough to sing along, so these songs really seem to bring everyone together in quite a magical way.
What is your favourite track and why?
I have a particular soft spot for In The Garage. When the album came out, I was spending lots of my free time playing 2nd edition epic scale Warhammer 40k (from the Space Marine and Titan Legions box sets), and I had never heard a song like it before. Not only was the song about what we were doing, it was celebrating it, and in the best way possible, as it's an excellent tune. I had never felt able to relate to a song quite like this before. All these years later, it gave me the confidence to explore more niche interests in my own songwriting, and to really express myself through music.
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