This year, Weezer will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their eponymous debut album (known culturally as The Blue Album), a record that received critical acclaim, MTV airplay and boasted three singles (“Undone – The Sweater Song,” “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So”) that all cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay charts. The Blue Album went triple-Platinum in the U.S. and has sold over 3 million copies in its lifetime. In the three decades since, Weezer have dropped a grand total of 15 studio LPs and 10 EPs, most recently their four-part EP SZNZ series.
While the Weezer catalog has more misses than hits—The Black Album is one of the worst rock records by a mainstream act this century—frontman Rivers Cuomo knows how to write a pop song and, when he’s on, he’s on. Even the recent fodder, like Pacific Daydream and Van Weezer, hold some moments of merit—but there’s no doubting that Weezer were at an apex between 1994 and 2001, when they put out The Blue Album, Pinkerton and The Green Album in succession and established themselves as a marquee rock act for the foreseeable future. And Weezer—Cuomo, along with Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell, Scott Shriner and the departed Matt Sharp and Mikey Welsh—love them or hate them, have made some of the most important pop and alt-rock of the last 30 years.
As we get ready to party for The Blue Album’s big birthday in May, we thought it was high-time to take a look at Weezer’s entire discography and highlight the all-timers. It would be easy to just fill more than half of this list with Blue Album and Pinkerton, but there’s not much fun in that—especially since the 13 records they’ve made since flaunt quite a number of tremendously audacious tunes. So, without further ado, here are the 30 best Weezer songs, ranked.
30. “Hash Pipe” (Weezer, 2001)
The lead single from The Green Album, it took me a long time to really buy into “Hash Pipe.” It’s such a deviation from Pinkerton, leaning into Weezer’s punkier, rougher side. It’s amazing that Ric Ocasek produced it, and it’s likely his production that makes “Hash Pipe” so massive in the first place. Rivers wrote it the same night he would also pen “Dope Nose” from Maladroit, after he did three shots of tequila and took a shit-ton of Ritalin. Given how explosive and frantic the final cut is, such a backstory comes as no real surprise. The bratty boldness of “Hash Pipe” marked an interesting segue in the band’s sound, one that they’d lean into over the years but rarely capture so loosely.
29. “Eulogy For a Rock Band” (Everything Will Be Alright in the End, 2014)
I’m a bit lukewarm on Everything Will Be Alright in the End, but “Eulogy For a Rock Band” is a real post-Red Album gem in the Weezer canon. Ric Ocasek’s production (and guidance) shines here, as Rivers sounds like a million bucks and the band flirts with pop-punk and anthemic alt-rock just as masterfully as they ever have. Rivers wrote the track to pay homage to all of the great rock bands who were suddenly calling it quits and leaving a life on the road behind, but “Eulogy For a Rock Band” also serves a meta, self-referential story of Weezer beginning to enter that phase of their own career, too. “Time marches on, words come and go, we will sing the melodies that you did long ago,” Rivers proclaims. It’s cheeky but earnest, and Weezer have remained sure-fire arena acts ever since.
28. “Unspoken” (Hurley, 2010)
While Hurley remains one of Weezer’s worst albums, it’s hard for me to resist the absolute tranquility of the first two minutes of “Unspoken,” which features Rivers strumming his guitar and crooning like a pop-balladeer and then succinctly exploding into a symphonic full-band breakdown. It’s the only song on Hurley that Rivers wrote by himself, and it’s just a charming little flutter of pop excellence with lyrics that are actually quite vengeful—as Rivers sings “And I hate what you do when your poison seeps through, and you’re laughing at me / And if you take this away from me, I’ll never forgive you, can’t you see?” with ferocity.
27. “In the Garage” (Weezer, 1994)
While The Blue Album is, from track one to track 10, terrific and all-time, it’s the deep cuts that make it sing—if you can even argue that the record has “deep cuts” to begin with. But I’m here to argue that “In the Garage,” which is tucked between “Say It Ain’t So” and “Holiday” on side two, is the album’s unsung hero. I love the story Rivers tells here, singing about playing Dungeons and Dragons, listening to KISS and reading Kitty Pryde comics. It’s geek rock to an 11, and it gets stoked on a kinetic guitar solo and a mammoth chorus, in which Rivers and the band yell out “In the garage where I belong, no one hears me sing this song.” It’s an anthem about safety and solitude that, at the end of the day, is one of Weezer’s very best.
26. “Crab” (Weezer, 2001)
The centerpiece of the Green Album’s tracklist, “Crab” is underrated—and for what? It’s a fun time, and it features one of the funniest lyrical moments in all of Weezer’s discography, when Rivers sings “Crab at the booty, t’ain’t gonna do no good.” What was he on? I have no clue, but pair that nonsense with some bulletproof distortion and backing harmonies from the band, and you have a winner. “Crab” is so formulaic, and that’s what makes it so damn great. Weezer too often stray from the formula. Guys, you had your fun on Van Weezer and The Black Album, but it’s time to get back to the basics: power riffs and impassable vocal work. That’s all it takes!
25. “El Scorcho” (Pinkerton, 1996)
“El Scorcho” was the first Pinkerton track I remember loving—and I still don’t know how I feel about the “Goddamn, you half-Japanese girls do it to me every time” opening line. The downside to Pinkerton is that Rivers’ infatuation with Asian women often flirts with (or crosses the line entirely) harmful stereotyping, and it’s a blemish that can’t be overlooked. “El Scorcho” was the lead single and received no radio circulation or MTV play, and many point to that downturn as a reason why Pinkerton was a commercial failure (though, the listeners in Australia loved it). When Rivers sings “How stupid is it? I can’t talk about it, I gotta sing about it and make a record of my heart,” it hits deep—and the tempo-switching banger gets serious real quick. The argument between The Blue Album and Pinkerton is that the latter gets more serious than its predecessor, and “El Scorcho” is an obvious example of exactly that.
24. “Surf Wax America” (Weezer, 1994)
One of those Blue Album songs that just goes, “Surf Wax America” is plain fun from beginning to end. While there isn’t much emotional weight to the lyrics, the imagery here is unmatched—as Rivers paints us a picture of a sea foaming like beer, a “thousand-pound keg” and the undertow “strengthening its hold.” It’s the California four-piece’s surf track, but done as if it’s winking at the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean—not taking itself too seriously, but still boasting a verse like “You take your car to work, I’ll take my board / And when you’re out of fuel, I’m still afloat.” This is, to me, Rivers Cuomo’s pop songwriting at an all-time high. Throw in some truly head-splitting guitar work and you have a bulletproof formula.
23. “Grapes of Wrath” (OK Human, 2021)
Some may argue that OK Human is Weezer’s best 21st century album, and I don’t think that’s an outlandish side to take. While it’s not my favorite, I can’t deny that “Grapes of Wrath” is a really idiosyncratic gem that flickers with the oddball pop sound that I wish Weezer would lean into more these days. Landing somewhere on the spectrum between Sgt. Pepper’s and OK Computer, “Grapes of Wrath” sounds nothing like The Blue Album or Pacific Daydream, and that’s what makes it so good to me—Weezer here were, finally, not trying to be themselves, and the result is the most Weezer record of the last 10 years. It’s a walking paradox, but I’m happy that “Grapes of Wrath” is so catchy. OK Human will only get better with age and, in 10 years, we’ll likely look back on it just as fondly as we do The White Album now.
22. “The Spider” (Weezer, 2008)
One of the best songs on The Red Album wasn’t even originally on the album in the first place. “The Spider,” a bonus track from the band’s sixth studio (and third self-titled) record, evokes a stronger emotional spectrum than the 10 songs that plagued the initial trackist. While, yes, “Pork and Beans” and “Troublemaker” and “Dreamin’” are catchy and fine and all of that, “The Spider” is reflective, solemn and bittersweet. Rivers likens a romantic downfall to the death of an arachnid, lamenting “And ease the pain that I must feel, as my bones break and I taste the steel, as I go down the drain.”
21. “Say It Ain’t So” (Weezer, 1994)
The third and final single released from The Blue Album 30 years ago, “Say It Ain’t So” is, to many, the quintessential Weezer song—and you wouldn’t be wrong for believing that, too. In a lot of ways, it is the quintessential Weezer track—from Rivers’ guitar-playing to Matt Sharp and Brian Bell’s backing vocals, which pillow the whole tune into a centered lushness before the chaos of those mid-1990s riffs really kicks in. Written in fear that his mother and stepfather’s marriage was going to end due to alcoholism, and the “This bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient feelings, like father, stepfather” line always cuts majorly deep when it rings in. “Say It Ain’t So” also, in my opinion, boasts the best guitar riff of any Weezer song—which is a huge deal, given just how littered with massive, distinctive guitar language this list is. Without “Say It Ain’t So,” The Blue Album isn’t nearly as huge—as it climbed to #7 on the US Alternative Airplay chart and is a key reason why the record went 3x Platinum.
20. “December” (Maladroit, 2002)
The closing track from Maladroit opens with Rivers riffing on The Who’s “Love, Reign O’er Me” when he sings “Only love can ease the pain of a boy caught in the rain.” On a record that’s, sonically, all over the place like Maladroit, it makes sense that its finale is not some earth-shattering acoustic ballad that stands the test of time because of its gentleness alone. No, Weezer go for broke and sing for the heavens here. “It’s only natural, the moon is just half-full,” River posits. “We give our best away, only love.” “December” is magical, one-of-a-kind and sorely underrated. It glues all of Maladroit together, and it’s one of the best closing tracks Weezer ever made.
19. “The Good Life” (Pinkerton, 1996)
Who knew a song about having leg surgery could be so catchy? “The Good Life” was written by Rivers after he had a corrective procedure done while he was a student at Harvard, and the “I don’t wanna be an old man anymore” chorus is seriously an all-timer in the Weezer canon. The guitars are crunchy and electric, while Rivers sings with a ferocity that he has rarely tapped into since Pinkerton. He pines for getting back on the road with his bandmates and, like much of Pinkerton as a conceptual story, arrives like an earnest acknowledgement of a double-life being led. “I wanna go back,” Rivers lets out and, by the song’s end. you’re really rooting for him to do just that.
18. “Death and Destruction” (Maladroit, 2002)
The local Maladroit truther has logged on; I’m here to spread the good word on the band’s fourth (and, just maybe, best!) album. “Death and Destruction” is so, so good—pairing hints of metal with their typical power-pop finesse. The result is one of the band’s most ambitious works ever, and it’s a track I return to more than any other—likely because it balances being handsome, pretty and generous. Rather than flood the arrangement with copious amounts of distortion, Weezer give the song room to breathe. “Death and Destruction” is spacious, pensive and minimal. “So I learned to turn and look the other way,” Rivers sings with enough emotion to forgive the song for only having two verses.
17. “Pink Triangle” (Pinkerton, 1996)
I’ve often been in the minority when it comes to people who like “Pink Triangle,” but it’s just such a fun song through-and-through—and it features one of Rivers’ best choruses ever. “I’m dumb, she’s a lesbian, I thought I had found the one,” he sings. “We were good as married in my mind, but married in my mind’s no good.” Packed with wall-to-wall guitars and a hook that’ll sink itself deep in ya, I live for the “everyone’s a little queer, why can’t she be a little straight?” line, and I mean that earnestly. It’s a bit of a polarizing take to love “Pink Triangle,” but few songs about having a crush on someone who doesn’t play for your team have ever sounded so non-malicious.
16. “Island in the Sun” (Weezer, 2001)
Hate on The Green Album all you want (I know I commit my own fair share of shit-talk about it), but “Island in the Sun” is one of the single best pop-rock songs Weezer ever made. A far more melodic outing than “Hash Pipe,” “Island in the Sun” feels like the true spiritual successor to The Blue Album in every conceivable way. It went Gold in the UK, hit #8 on the US Adult Alternative Songs chart and helped The Green Album enjoy commercial success and a Platinum certification. But, for me, “Island in the Sun” is the kind of track that makes calling Rivers the Gen-X Brian Wilson not such a ludicrous statement. It’s beautiful, ecstatic and downright pretty. The way Rivers sings “We’ll run away together” remains one of my favorite line deliveries in all of Weezer’s discography.
15. “Buddy Holly” (Weezer, 1994)
“What’s with these homies dissin’ my girl? Why do they gotta front?”—few rock tracks from the 1990s opened so strongly or memorably. But Rivers Cuomo, bless his weirdo heart, could write the hell out of a pop-rock song, and “Buddy Holly” remains, possibly, his greatest endeavor in that department. The “Ooh-wee-hoo, I look just like Buddy Holly” chorus is still one of the best earworms of its era, and the blitz of sticky-sweet guitars set aglow is heavy, catchy and, truthfully, beautiful. The song broke through commercially, hitting #2 on the US Alternative Airplay chart and #17 on the US Mainstream Top 40—leading to a Gold certification and 30-year relevancy in music culture. Ric Ocasek’s production on “Buddy Holly” is absolute brilliance, too, and few power-pop songs have endured quite like it.
14. “California Kids” (Weezer, 2016)
Hearing The White Album resurrect Weezer from the pits of middling rock ‘n’ roll was a gift to experience in real time. Being in college when the record dropped and tapping in, only to hear the sugary bliss of “California Kids,” is a core memory for me—and The White Album, from beginning to end, is the best thing Weezer has made since 2002. Around the same time, Rivers was doing some writing for the Monkees, and you can see just how on top of his game he was—using a newfound “cut-up technique” and exploring themes of gender and nostalgia. “In your bare feet in mid-January, swimming in the mystery, second-guessing almost everything,” he sings, and it feels like a genuine mash-up of introspective, imaginative lyrics and the hooky pop euphoria Weezer has always had in them.
13. “Across the Sea” (Pinkerton, 1996)
A pick far more polarizing than “Pink Triangle,” “Across the Sea” is brilliant, catchy, problematic and, likely, offensive to many. I mean, Rivers begins the song by adorning his singing with an affectation that is often used to stereotype Asian people. And yet, he screws us all over by following that head-scratching introduction with one of the best pop-rock songs of his career. He wrote it after receiving a letter from a young Japanese fan while he was taking classes at Harvard in 1995, and “Across the Sea” attempts to translate how one person comes to understand love during loneliness. When Rivers sings “Goddamn, this business is really lame,” you feel sympathetic to him in that moment—as the isolation of fame catches up to him, and even this affection he feels for a stranger in another country seems stationed far from reality. In many ways, “Across the Sea” is the definitive Pinkerton song, for better or for, usually, worse.
12. “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” (Weezer, 1994)
Like “In the Garage,” the conversations around The Blue Album don’t always include “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here,” but they certainly should—it’s one of the greatest songs Rivers Cuomo has ever written. A song about longing and fantasy that, at times, becomes almost too uncomfortable to listen to, “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” is a response to “No One Else,” as it’s sung from the perspective of a sexist, possessive man left to wonder why the girl of his dreams left him in the dust. It’s a clever take on reaping what you sow, and the “You remain, turned away / Turning further every day” pre-chorus is still so damningly good 30 years later.
11. “Dope Nose” (Maladroit, 2002)
Written after Weezer returned from their late-1990s hiatus, “Dope Nose” is a marquee moment from Maladroit—a track so iconic the band saw it fit to drop the song as the album’s lead single. Written at the same time as “Hash Pipe,” “Dope Nose” is just as nonsensical and madly vibrant. “For the times that you wanna go and bust rhymes real slow,” Rivers sings across the chorus, “I’ll appear, slap you on the face and enjoy the show.” It’s just a crystal-clear example of Weezer having a helluva a lot of fun together on-record—not to mention it features one of my favorite guitar showcases in all of the band’s history. When Rivers and the guys cut it up, they make a high-octane mess of their instruments—and more often than not, that loose chaos is a bullseye.
10. “Tired of Sex” (Pinkerton, 1996)
Rivers rarely ever tries to play up any kind of macho ego, which is what makes “Tired of Sex” such a unique entry in the Weezer canon—as it features a headache-inducing wail from Rivers, frustration-fueled guitars and a pinched-nerve solo. “Tonight, I’m down on my knees / Tonight, I’m begging you please / Tonight, tonight, please / Oh, why can’t I be makin’ love come true?” Rivers howls angrily. As the opener for Pinkerton, there’s a vengeance being carried out, musically. It’s a swift, destructive introduction to Weezer’s sophomore album, one that all but ditches the pop eccentricities of The Blue Album for stone-cold, follow-the-compass-of-your-dick rock ‘n’ roll. And Weezer sells it so well that it doesn’t sound like four geeks dressed up in fuckboy clothing.
9. “Foolish Father” (Everything Will Be Alright in the End, 2014)
The band hiring Ric Ocasek to produce them again was an ace-in-the-hole decision that led to, likely, the band’s best record between Maladroit and The White Album, and “Foolish Father” is so, so catchy. Rivers’ singing is especially transcendent here, and the band doesn’t pack harmonies around their frontman until the track’s back-half, instead opting to sprinkle lush, bulletproof guitar riffs and solos around his tightly layered vocals for a majority of the runtime. “Please remember your dad, although he’s been astray,” Rivers belts out. “How comical, the stuff that makes a man.” “Foolish Father” is sublime and, in the context of everything Weezer has made over the last 10 years, a real triumph—especially when the band explodes into their “Everything will be alright in the end” outro.
8. “L.A. Girlz” (Weezer, 2016)
Weezer not releasing “L.A. Girlz” as a single from The White Album will never not make sense to me, but the band teaming up with Jake Sinclair (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco) and throwing every genre they love into a blender was sheer genius—as pop-punk and power-pop collide like two beams of light barrelling into one another. “L.A. Girlz” is the Beach Boys if the Beach Boys got really stoked on distortion pedals, and Weezer lovingly embrace their ‘90s alt-rock roots while exploring new areas of pop bliss—and the result is their best song of the last 15 years. “The kids are asleep, we’re haunting their dreams,” Rivers cries out. “And some women swear, it’s more painful than labor to die with your sings on your head.”
7. “Holiday” (Weezer, 1994)
When I think about “Holiday,” my immediate thought is “God, what a fucking tune.” It’s the one track from The Blue Album, for me, that continues to get better with age. It’s a roaring rock cut glazed with a downpour of distortion and an earworm hook. “Don’t bother to pack your bags or your map, we don’t need them where we’re goin’,” Rivers cries out; the “we will write a postcard to our friends and family in free verse” interlude might seem out of place until it builds back into a tapestry of riffs. And the way that Rivers sings “let’s go away for a while, you and I,” it still makes my heart positively flutter every time.
6. “Susanne” (1994)
Can you believe that Weezer wrote and released “Susanne” at the same time as The Blue Album? Can you imagine how much better their already-perfect debut would have been had they added it to the tracklist? “Susanne” came out as the B-side to “Undone – The Sweater Song” and is one of those instances where the B-side is miles better than its A-side (sorry to all of the “Sweater Song” fans out there). But take Rivers’ very slight country-rock bravado and mix it with a very mid-1960s pop riff and you’ve got one of the catchiest songs Weezer ever wrote. The “Even Izzy, Slash and Axl Rose, when I call you put them all on hold and say to me you’d do anything” lines are some of Rivers’ sweetest, only to be one-upped by the “But I’ll sing to you every day and night, Susanne, I’m your man” conclusion. Look, I love this song and you should love it, too. “Susanne” is a handsome riot that should’ve been on The Blue Album.
5. “My Name is Jonas” (Weezer, 1994)
“My Name is Jonas” was my introduction back in 2007 or 2008, when I was barely 10 years old and had met the song via Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Since then, it’s taken me a long time to really come around on it not just being one of the best tracks from The Blue Album, but one of the best Weezer songs period. That outro, when the band sings “The workers are going home” over and over, is beautiful, and lines like “When we couldn’t find sleep, things were better then” paired with a torrential downpour of godlike alt-rock make for rock ‘n’ roll perfection. If “Say It Ain’t So” and “Buddy Holly” sketched out Weezer’s commercial blueprint first, then “My Name is Jonas” is the non-single triumph that makes The Blue Album so genius. The song is melodic and full of guitar climbs that I have come to really associate with Weezer and no one else. It’s a shame we never got the Songs From The Black Hole rock opera that was meant to feature Jonas as the protagonist; I could listen to a million more tunes about him and his arresting lore of chaos and fraternity.
4. “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On a Shaker Hymn)” (Weezer, 2008)
Rivers Cuomo once said that “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” has “11 different themes” that stretch from rapping to imitating Aerosmith. In terms of ambition, it’s one of the boldest directions Weezer has ever gone in—as they channel their own orchestral side by evoking a baroque counter-vocal, punk progressions, light-hearted, up-tempo humor and a bat-out-of-hell style of key changes unleashed at a break-neck pace. “Somebody said all the world’s a stage and each of us is a player,” Rivers speak-sings. “That’s what I’ve been tryin’ to tell you. In Act 1, I was struggling to survive, nobody wanted my action dead or alive. Act 2, I hit the big time, and bodies be all up on my behind.” This is Weezer’s “Heroes and Villains,” told through a stroke of never-before-heard brilliance that was both frenetic and vibrant. “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” finds Weezer wearing everyone else’s clothes—but, miraculously, every garment fits like a glove.
3. “Falling for You” (Pinkerton, 1996)
Some songs are just meant to stand the test of time, and “Falling for You” is maybe the most unsuspecting Weezer track to really embrace that longevity. The penultimate track on Pinkerton, “Falling for You” boasts my favorite Rivers chorus—“I’m shaking at your touch, I like you way too much”—and flaunts a glowing guitar melody cutting through the noise of a heavy, swelling backing instrumental. “What could you possibly see in little ol’ three-chord me?” has got to be one of the best self-referential lines in all of 1990s alt-rock, and “Falling for You” is the cut that firmly solidified, for me, Rivers Cuomo being one of the greatest songwriters of the last 30 years. “I’d do about anything to get the hell out alive” is like the thesis statement of Pinkerton, and “Falling for You” is its brightest offering.
2. “Burndt Jamb” (Maladroit, 2002)
I genuinely don’t know if Weezer have ever sounded better than they do on “Burndt Jamb.” Like, the guitars are so crisp, Rivers’ singing is crystalline and the harmonies—oh, my goodness—are hued with such a thick film of doo-wop dreaminess that you’d be forgiven for not immediately realizing that it’s a Weezer song. On the mixed bag, ambitious Maladroit, “Burndt Jamb” is a summery outlier. “Gothic flavor, how I miss you,” Rivers croons. “If I only once could kiss you, I’d be happy for one moment of my lifetime.” The instrumental is featherlight yet packed with distorted guitar riffs that cut through the weightlessness with the kind of brilliance that few bands could ever dream of pulling off. “Burndt Jamb” is like nothing Weezer had attempted before 2002, and it’s unlike anything they’ve put out since. Not all catalog oddities are home runs, but “Burndt Jamb” is a bonafide grand slam and then some.
1. “Only in Dreams” (Weezer, 1994)
A cut from The Blue Album was always going to be #1. It was inevitable. One of the few perfect rock records of the 1990s, Weezer achieved a rare feat—in that, arguably, their first album is still their greatest. I think you can realistically put anything from The Blue Album in first place, but “Only in Dreams” feels like a quintessential example of why Weezer’s debut is better than most rock bands’ magnum opuses. From the moment Matt Sharp’s bassline comes in, it’s clear that “Only in Dreams” is going to build into one of the sweetest, most-anthemic album finales of its era. “You can’t resist her, she’s in your bones” is one of my favorite opening lines to a song ever, and this is a track I point to whenever I argue in favor of Rivers’ songwriting prowess. Here, he perfectly merges power pop harmonies with the thick, heavy alt chords that would better define Pinkerton. In many ways, “Only in Dreams” isn’t just the conclusion to The Blue Album, but it’s the cohesive, brilliant bridge between The Blue Album and Pinkerton. At eight minutes in length, the track never sprawls—it’s just an onslaught of non-stop punchiness that, at the four-minute mark, erupts into a mountain of melodic, face-melting guitars. “And so it seems, only in dreams,” indeed.
Listen to a playlist of these 30 songs below.