Episode 71 - Weezer (White Album) by Weezer

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Weezer are a hard band to like.

We need to get this out of the way immediately: The Blue Album and Pinkerton are near flawless records, but there is no chance they will get nominated for inclusion in our discography. As Weaver states in this episode, if it were ten years ago then perhaps Pinkerton could be considered Unsung, but it’s now universally recognised that it’s equal to, if not better than, The Blue Album, so that’s a no go for us.

It’s been a while since we did a big/popular artist, and Mark chose Weezer in order to discuss just how wildly their career swings from glorious to dreadful.

But as it turns out, even people who like Chris and Dave who like Weezer had no idea that they were on album number 13. You might also be surprised to hear that, given that their fifth record Make Believe was so bad that even some die-hard fans deserted the band.

Times have changed. Since that much maligned fifth album they have soldiered on, releasing a couple of good records and a few bad ones. The White Album is one of the good, seeing the band lean heavily on the Beach Boys in order to augment their signature pop-rock jams, whilst returning to the sunny sounds they so gloriously roared onto the scene with on their debut album.

That’s not to say that this record stands tall alongside The Blue Album; it doesn’t, but what it does prove is that when Rivers and co really put their minds to it, they’re still capable of delivering wonderful, straight forward pop rock songs.

As a band they’re also pretty fascinating. In true Unsung fashion we dig deep into their career and discover some wheat among the chaff. There’s also a particularly high brown nexus too, if you stick around to hear it.

Is The White Album Weezer’s Unsung classic? Cast your vote and let us know.