My summer holiday has begun. This means I’m gonna have lots of time to blab about whatever type of music I choose, and I really don’t have much else to do.. However, I intend to do lots of other things, too, such as watch good movies and my favourite science fiction TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation!
Today, I think I’ll blab a bit about great 90’s alternative rock/power pop (someone might even call it emo..). Already for four years one of my ultimate summer soundtracks has been Weezer’s self-titled debut album from 1994, also known as The Blue Album. The first Weezer album that I listened to was The Green Album in the summer of 2004. I remember I liked it instantly: although it didn’t really sound like anything I’d listened to before, something about it struck a chord with me. It was very loud and distorted music with harmonies and a sympathetic feel.
Soon, I found out Weezer had made a great debut album back in the 90s, produced by Ric Ocasek. I studied the band’s interesting history and started listening to The Blue Album. It sounded very good right from the start and as weeks and months went by, I noticed I never got tired of the album. My little brother liked the album, too, and it’s still one of the few albums that we both love very much.
What is so great about The Blue Album is that it’s quite simple. It’s not very fast-paced and there aren’t dozens of different instruments or basically anything too complex on the album. Instead, there are excellent Rivers Cuomo compositions and melodies added with very economical arrangements. Those features and the huge wall of distorted electric guitars that were to become Weezer’s trademark make this music magical. Personally, I find that distorted sound very comforting. The loud, yet soft, kind of fuzzy but tight sound always makes me feel good.
All in all, this music is very genuine and sincere. Rivers Cuomo’s brilliant lyrics add a very important layer to this geeky rock. In songs like No One Else his straightforward style of writing very emotion-appealing lyrics is clearly displayed. No One Else is one of my favourites, although all ten songs on the album are worth serious attention – and appreciation.
Buddy Holly is a classic. The Happy Days-themed video for the song is also memorable. I remember seeing it on MTV although I was only six years old at the time. The song is a great example of what Weezer, in my opinion, is at its best: easy-going (and perhaps happy, too). The entire album is quite easy-going and happy although there certainly are a couple of more melancholic tracks. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here is beautiful and sentimental. It’s amazing how effective it is despite its relatively discreet, peacefully sad feel. Say It Ain’t So is also quite melancholic, and its totally enchants me with its gorgeous dynamics. Only in Dreams ends the album wonderfully, with its bass line bringing Pixies to mind.
In the Garage is a salute to all garage musicians, such as myself.. The song and the sound of it is amazing, listen to that low-tone guitar - it’s insanely crunchy! My Name Is Jonas, Holiday, Surf Wax America – they’re all great. Debut single Undone -- The Sweater Song is another song not to be missed. It includes hilarious geek lyrics, and everything about it is brilliant.
The Blue Album is such a classic. I’m so happy that so many people have discovered it and its greatness, and new people keep discovering it, too!
I watch these music videos over and over again. Ric Ocasek is awesome. He's got some seriously good presence in these videos.
I also recently purchased The Cars Unlocked DVD and it's such a thrill. I think I'll write some thoughts about it soon. Here are the video tips: (great songs, great videos)
The Cars’ fifth album Heartbeat City (1984) has appeared to be much easier to get into than Panorama (1980) or Shake It up (1981). Those albums surely contain some awesome stuff, but at this moment I find Heartbeat City a bit more enjoyable.
Heartbeat City is a real 80s record with extremely loud drum sounds and lots of synthesizer. At first it is a bit tough with those drums. They’re so… big. But you’ll get used to them. And when you start listening to these tracks, you’ll forget the entire drums and focus on the great melodies and all the magic instead.
Heartbeat City is an impressive mixture of darkness and light. There are darker songs like Hello Again, Stranger Eyes, and It's Not the Night, and brighter songs like Looking for Love, Magic, and You Might Think. Finally, there’s Drive. (What should I say about that song...) Well, it surely is very good. On the other hand, it’s a bit sad that it’s the only Cars song people hear these days, because radios (at least in Finland) don’t seem to play any other songs from this amazing band. The Cars deserve to be treated better by Finnish radio.
All in all, this album is excellent. All songs are very good in every way. I especially enjoy Ric Ocasek’s quirky vocal style. On this album Ocasek’s vocals are even more delightful than on earlier Cars albums, I think. It’s pretty amazing how sweet and pretty it can get when singing in new wave style!
More Cars blabber will certainly come later (I think I’ll talk about something else for a change, too…). The Cars at MySpace
I have barely listened to anything else but The Cars during the past week. I love that stuff. Their music videos are also cool (some of them totally hilarious!), so I’ve spent some quality time on YouTube, too.
As a power pop fan I’ve naturally focused first on The Cars’ early records. The debut album (The Cars, 1978) is awesome. My Best Friend's Girl, Good Times Roll, You're All I've Got Tonight, Bye Bye Love – it’s impossible to dislike these songs. Just What I Needed is also one of the greatest songs ever. This material is mostly basic power pop: nothing too complicated, excellent songs and melodies, solid singing and playing.
Moving in Stereo is a very interesting, yet catchy song with Benjamin Orr utilizing his low vocals nicely. Songwriter Ric Ocasek also provides several songs with his quirky but extremely enjoyable vocals. Greg Hawkes’s synth lines and Elliot Easton’s solo guitar work decorate the album. Then there are of course those huge Queen-like harmonies that producer Roy Thomas Baker (who had actually produced several albums for Queen) wanted to be added to the album. Those harmonies are of course great. Seriously, who doesn’t like layered multipart harmonies? (Yeah, ok, some people.. Maybe.)
This self-titled debut album is pretty much as good as everyone claims it to be. Still, I’m not really sure if it actually is The Cars’ best. For some reason, I seem to love their second album Candy-O (1979) even more than its predecessor. Maybe that’s because Candy-O contains a bit more emotion-appealing songs, and it’s also weirder as an album. (Nice cover art, btw...)
The opening track of Candy-O is Let’s Go, a nice party song with handclaps. Then comes Since I Held You, a song whose chorus reminds me of The Flamin’ Groovies. It’s a very nice and beautiful song. All I Can Do is also very lovely. Double Life, Got a Lot on My Head (that nearly sounds like an unnoticed power pop classic), and Dangerous Type are also very good songs.
Shoo Be Doo is something very strange that appears in the middle of the album. It’s a very short song, and it sounds like Joy Division or something like that (JD’s awesome, btw!). Shoo Be Doo’s weird, but I like it. Title track follows it, sounding excellent. In that song and Night Spots this album really begins to show some darker feel. I haven’t really thought about it before, but yeah, Candy-O is darker than The Cars’ first album. Great albums, both of them!
Also, I have to say that I’m totally fond of the Complete Greatest Hits CD. I don’t tend to like greatest hits albums, but this is an exception. All 20 songs on it are perfect. I would replace one or two songs with some others but it’s not such a big thing. It’s a nice feeling when you can’t stop listening to the album until the final track, the wonderful You Are the Girl.
My next assignment: listen to the rest of The Cars’ albums. I’ve already listened to Heartbeat City (1984), but I’ll discuss that later. This post is already too long..
It surely is an attractive one... I really wanted to check this video thing, so I thought it'd be nice to try it out with The Cars. This is The Cars performing at Live Aid in 1985 in front of like 2 billion people (or something). I really don't think any power pop classic song has ever been performed in front of a bigger audience than this (or has it?).
Just What I Needed is an amazing song. I'm completely into The Cars at the moment. They were a wonderful pop band.
This music truly is something I happily welcome. During the past few days, I’ve been listening to The Cars, and the number of songs I like just keeps increasing. Just What I Needed is really one of the greatest songs I’ve heard in a long time. There’s some amazing melodic quality there..
As a great new wave band The Cars scored some pretty big hits, like Drive (btw, I found out like yesterday that it’s a Cars song… Had heard it a million times on the radio but never knew whose song it was.) The Cars were a group of great musicians and they had two lead singers, Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. Ric is a familiar name, credited as producer on some of my favourite albums, like Weezer’s Blue Album. Ben, on the other hand, is something completely new and exciting for me. Although he isn’t among us anymore, he can be seen performing on many Cars videos on YouTube, and well, that guy had some good charisma..
This may not be the easiest kind of music to listen to, although The Cars’ early music has some real power pop qualities. Their later stuff sounds very good, too, ‘cause I’m generally very interested in 80’s new wave synth-pop/rock. Now I really want to dig deeper into this music. The Cars at MySpace
In this blog a Finnish pop music fan blabs about music and albums she has recently found interesting and good, and music-related live experiences. A lot of that music can be labeled as sixties or seventies pop, classic rock, power pop, baroque pop, bubblegum pop, psychedelic pop/rock or alternative pop/rock. However, there are no boundaries, and there will occasionally be talk about jazz and classical music, for instance.
The point of this blog is sharing (and hopefully receiving) music tips, joyful experiences and personal opinions - not files. Feel free to comment on anything you'll find here.
Today, I think I’ll blab a bit about great 90’s alternative rock/power pop (someone might even call it emo..). Already for four years one of my ultimate summer soundtracks has been Weezer’s self-titled debut album from 1994, also known as The Blue Album. The first Weezer album that I listened to was The Green Album in the summer of 2004. I remember I liked it instantly: although it didn’t really sound like anything I’d listened to before, something about it struck a chord with me. It was very loud and distorted music with harmonies and a sympathetic feel.
