Weezer – Weezer

Believe it or not, Weezer had a hard time building an audience in LA in the time of grunge. Their Kitchen Tape demo made its way to Geffen, who signed the band and encouraged them to hire a producer. Enter Ric Ocasek of The Cars, who helped the band add polish and pop elements to their songs. The result is the brilliant "Blue" album, which has sold 15 million albums since it was released. The album is filled with certifiable hits, and the video for Buddy Holly, interspersing the band with Happy Days footage, was instantly memorable and remains one of the best videos ever. This release on vinyl has a mixed history. The coolest version, the blue marble Target version, sounds terrible. The regular releases of this record are not much better. This DMM version, cut at Abbey Road, is the best one to get. It is clean and clear, with decent dynamics, but sometimes, those dynamics overtake the vocals, especially on Side A. Still, this is a very good sounding record (despite the debate over whether Surf Wax or Say It Ain't So should start Side B), and presents an excellent representation of the band's sound for that era.

Side A, while having clear sound, is very lacking in dynamics, no doubt because of how many songs are stuffed onto that side. Side B, in comparison, sounds absolutely fantastic. I used to have the blue marbled Target pressing from 2020, and I'd suggest you pick that up instead, because it sounds miles better

Got a near perfect pressing from Amazon. Minimal surface noise. I can hear lots of separation between each instrument and vocal tracks through both channels. I was able to notice something in almost each song that I did not notice in the digital versions.

Side A is terrible. Good music but bad press. Side B is clean no distortion.

The poor pressing quality of this reissue really adds to the Weezer-iness of this Weezer album.

skips on surf wax america a a a a a

Copy of this pressing just bought new is pristine. Did clean it before playing first though. And using a micro line stylus. Both sides grade A+ with a Puffin phono DSP. Sounds great.

For me, this is the pressing to get. Ignore the bad reviews - this sounds exactly the way the Blue album should sound

I love this album but damn, please try to stay away fron this copy. I didn't have any surface noise but there is a LOT of distortion. Especially on Surf Wax America, it's a shame because it's my favorite track on the album. Rivers is extremely undermixed compared to the guitars and symbols.

Despite the bad critics on this record, I guess I was lucky enough to get a very decent copy. No surface noise, flat disc, very few clicks at the end of side B. I also agree with the other reviews on the quiet vocals specially on side A. Besides that it was a pleasant spin.