Every Weezer album ranked from worst to best
Here’s the truth: Weezer has one of the most eclectic discographies of any band in music history. While they might not be the first act that comes to mind when you think of pioneering trendsetters, the alternative rockers have weathered over 30 years of musical ups and downs by constantly reinventing themselves, challenging their audience, and working outside their collective comfort zones.
Originally formed as the grunge explosion was just beginning to hit America, Weezer didn’t have a single growly vocal or detuned guitar riff to contribute to the rock world. Instead, they had a unique set of influences, from Kiss to barbershop quartets, that blended with Rivers Cuomo’s nerdy and insecure outlook on life. “Geek Rock” was too easy of a genre tag to place on them, but another descriptor that followed them soon became much more impactful: emo.
Looking to go more introspective, Cuomo channelled his darkest demons into the band’s follow-up, Pinkerton. The following story would define Weezer’s next 25 years: scathing reviews, low sales, and a general sense of rejection caused Cuomo to retreat. When he returned, Weezer was no longer a band that could key into the more intimate aspects of the psyche. They were a bright, shiny power pop band, ready to leave all personal sentiments behind.
The 2000s saw a return to global popularity and mixed critical and fan reception for Weezer. At different times, the band were accused of dumbing down their style and trend-chasing in order to stay relevant, something that long-time fans felt more and more aggrieved at with every subsequent album. At the same time, Weezer became one of the last ’90s bands to continue dominating the stadium rock world.
The ups and downs of Weezer’s career weren’t lost on the band, and soon they became self-aware enough to produce meta-comments on their own evolution. It became a strange road to run down as a Weezer fan – conscious attempts to return to their past contrasted with buzzy electronic and ’80s covers albums. All the while, they never stopped working or releasing material, making it increasingly difficult to keep track of the band’s overall identity.
That’s why we’ve decided to rank all 15 studio albums the band released across their 30 years of existence. Currently, Weezer is working on four season-related EPs, three of which have already been released by the writing of this article. Those won’t be covered, and neither will the band’s compilation albums like Death to False Metal. Since The Teal Album is canonically considered a studio album (despite being all covers), we’ll also be including that in this list. Other than that, no EPs, no compilations, and no Christmas works – just Weezer studio albums.
Every Weezer album ranked in order of greatness:
15. Weezer (The Black Album)
Wow, did you ever want to listen to every bad inclination that Rivers Cuomo ever had about his own music? Then you need to get your ears over to The Black Album ASAP, because holy shit, this album is neigh-on unlistenable.
Taking all the playfulness of the New Millennium era Weezer and draining all the charm and goofiness out of it, The Black Album doesn’t even have any interested-bad songs on it to warrant a casual listen. It’s just bad-bad the entire way through, gets more grating with each successive song, and acts as the nadir of the Weezer discography.
14. Pacific Daydream
Weezer hit a pretty solid groove on The White Album, focusing on California and sunshine pop, so why not go back to the well and do the exact same thing? Maybe because all of the good ideas were spent on the first album, and now that you’ve made a career out of making sharp left turns in your music, a soulless retread of an album is just going to fall flat? Maybe?
Just like The Black Album, Pacific Daydream just doesn’t have anything on it that can make it interesting to listen to. Even worse, they just seem like their coasting, which in not-prime-era Weezer means that you’re getting a horribly mismanaged collection of “songs”.
13. Raditude
So from what I can gather, the Weezer fandom seems to be in agreement that Raditude is the worst Weezer album. Not having it at the bottom of this list might be slightly controversial, but my argument is that the lowest of lows can still be somewhat more interesting than bland, generic crap.
In fact, Raditude actually has a good song on it, ‘(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To’. It also has their worst songs, like the three-song stretch of ‘I’m Your Daddy’, ‘The Girl Got Hot’, and ‘Can’t Stop Partying’. Too many guests and bad choices of producers (looking at you, Dr. Luke) ultimately can’t make Raditude an item of curiosity over its badness, but at least Weezer tried.
12. Weezer (The Teal Album)
What does it say about Weezer’s discography that they have three real-deal studio albums that rank below a studio album that is, at the core of its existence, an internet joke? Probably nothing good, but whereas the three albums that rank below it are actively bad, The Teal Album is at least completely aware of what it’s supposed to be.
Does that make it good? I would argue no because while Weezer might be a halfway-decent cover band, they’re still never going to cover anything better than their best self-written material. That’s a major compliment to them and also a dig at The Teal Album, but if you really want to hear Weezer at their most fun-bad, then you could do worse than a cover of ‘No Scrubs’.
11. Make Believe
If you’re looking for a defence of Make Believe as an unfairly maligned and underrated album, you’re not going to find it here. Make Believe is bad, just not bad in the way that the lower-down albums are bad. This is officially the start of fun-bad Weezer, kicking off with the band’s most polarizing track, ‘Beverly Hills’.
I’m not objective – I grew up with ‘Beverly Hills’, so I like ‘Beverly Hills’. The following track, ‘Perfect Situation’, even happens to be one of the best Weezer songs of all time. But the rest of the album is skippable and gratingly stupid, from the tuneless dirge of ‘Freak Me Out’ to the physically trying ‘We’re All On Drugs’. Make Believe was a major red flag, but it wasn’t all downhill from there.
10. Van Weezer
Rivers Cuomo is in desperate need of a theme. Some would argue that the proper word there is “gimmick”, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Why would I want to hear him rehash The Blue Album endlessly for the end of time? Wouldn’t I want to hear Rivers live out his 1980s cock-rock fantasies on a full-length Weezer release?
Not normally, but this time around, I had a good time with Van Weezer. It’s pretty much in the same vein as The Teal Album, with Weezer being aware of how silly and inane their album concept is. But Van Weezer does have some killer riffs, and even though you only really need to listen to it once, there’s no reason not to have a good time with it. Turn off your mind, relax, and float into the sea of shredding Weezer guitars.
9. Weezer (The Green Album)
The Green Album is perhaps the most important album in the entire Weezer catalogue. Why? Because it set the course for what Weezer would be and what they have been for 20 years straight. Returning from the post-Pinkerton void, Cuomo abandoned personal writing for bright and shiny power pop, something that hits and misses in equal measure on The Green Album.
Another case where the highs are high and lows are very low, The Green Album is all about its singles: ‘Island in the Sun’ and ‘Hash Pipe’. But the rest of the album seems to stop at “What if we just did Blink-182, but Weezer?” It’s a solid once-through listen, but in terms of its return value, The Green Album doesn’t actually offer up all that much.
8. Hurley
First things first: Hurley is the worst Weezer album by cover art alone. It’s so bad, in fact, that I’m not entirely sure that it hasn’t crossed over into being good because of how bad it is. With each passing year, the number of people who get a kick out of making a Lost reference on an album cover dwindles, and soon, Hurley‘s cover will be painfully dated. Actually, it already is.
The music on Hurley, though? It’s really not bad. While terrible song titles like ‘Where’s My Sex?’ and ‘All My Friends Are Insects’ might drive you away, the songs themselves are actually pretty good. Whether it’s ‘Memories’, ‘Brave New World’, or ‘Unspoken’, Hurley brings the tunes, even if it’s a bit of a turnoff just by looking at it (no offence to Jorge Garcia – he just got the short end of the stick on this one).
7. Maladroit
Probably the heaviest record that Weezer ever recorded, Maladroit stands right in the middle of Weezer’s catalogue. Taking the heavier edge of Pinkerton and mixing it with the good-time pop-punk of The Green Album, Maladroit finds an amicable happy medium between the Weezer that goes down smoothly and the Weezer that grabs your attention (for better or worse).
It probably would be an all-timer if it had some more memorable songs. But as it stands, songs like ‘Burndt Jamb’ and ‘Possibilities’ are solid, underrated tracks. Maladroit isn’t going to change anyone’s opinion on Weezer, but it’s probably worth revisiting if you count yourself as a Weezer fan.
6. OK Human
Just when you thought Rivers Cuomo was done writing songs with actual meaning to them, OK Human comes along. Again, Cuomo can’t help but slap an eye-rolling title on his album, but don’t let that keep you away from the contents of OK Human. If you think that Weezer has completely forsaken their old style, it’s worth plugging into the better of their two 2021 albums.
Sweeping orchestral arrangements? A return to introspective writing? Actual human emotions? Yup, it’s Weezer stretched beyond their comfort zone and actually doing it well. OK Human proves why Weezer is as big as they’ve ever been. It might not be an all-time classic, but it’s definitely a good (possibly even great) record.
5. Everything Will Be Alright In the End
Don’t be fooled by the whole “we’re returning to the Weezer that you know and love” reputation that follows Everything Will Be Alright In the End. That’s the narrative that followed the album, one that was doubled down on by the lead single, ‘Back to the Shack’. Rivers is back on lead guitar, and Pat is back on the drums. Hard reset on the Weezer experiment, right?
Well, actually not really. Everything Will Be Alright In the End is just as much of a progression for Weezer as any of their other 2000s/2010s albums. The only difference is that they’re not trying to run away from their past this time around. Punchy and self-aware without the worrisome elements that usually follow those kinds of Weezer albums, EWBAITE also gets major bonus points for just being catchy as hell.
4. Weezer (The White Album)
Speaking of being catchy as hell, The White Album is the best Weezer album since they really started going off the rails in the late 2000s. An honest to god concept album, The White Album is the kind of record that The Beach Boys would have made if they had discovered distortion, punk, and hard rock.
Even better, Rivers isn’t having fun at anyone else’s expense. For the first time in a long time, it really sounds like Pat Wilson, Brian Bell, and Scott Shriner are really into this album. ‘California Kids’, ‘King of the World’, ‘Endless Bummer’, and ‘L.A. Girlz’ are all great songs. Hell, even outtakes like ‘Fake Smiles and Nervous Laughter’ are really good. Anyone who wants to say Weezer is over the hill needs to give The White Album a spin.
3. Weezer (The Red Album)
The eternal question of “What Weezer albums are underrated” rages onward. You can find a defender for just about anything, but one album stands head and shoulders above the rest: The Red Album. Vilified upon its release, The Red Album just seemed like another step in the wrong direction from a once-beloved band lost up their own ass.
But now? The Red Album is probably the most stylistically diverse and captivatingly interesting album that Weezer ever made. Throwing everything against the wall, including putting it all in ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’, Weezer came out the other side with an album that’s not just eccentric but also incredibly enjoyable. Fuck the haters: The Red Album rocks.
2. Weezer (The Blue Album)
In what should come as no surprise, the battle for the title of “Best Weezer Album” is a two-horse race. Coming up just short this time around is the band’s beloved debut, The Blue Album. This is Weezer at their purest and most crowd-pleasing. You know the hits: ‘Undone (The Sweater Song)’, ‘Say It Ain’t So’, ‘My Name Is Jonas’ and especially ‘Buddy Holly’.
But you know what else is good? ‘No One Else’, ‘The World Has Turned and Left Me Here’, ‘Surf Wax America’, ‘In the Garage’, ‘Holiday’, and ‘Only In Dreams’. The whole album is great. The Blue Album is the album that made Weezer huge and probably stands as their Hall of Fame LP, even if one other record just narrowly edges it out.
1. Pinkerton
Here’s your standard music critic view of Weezer: Pinkerton is their best album. There’s nothing contrarian, revolutionary, or even very interesting about saying that. But you know what: it’s true. Pinkerton is the best album that Weezer ever wrote, and it’s probably the best piece of work that Rivers Cuomo will ever attach his name to.
Featuring just over half an hour of uncompromising ugliness, the real surprise of Pinkerton is how earnest and thoughtful it truly is. While the aggression and uncomfortableness of Pinkerton are what hits you first, it’s actually the intimacy and comfort in discomfort that ends up lasting with you once the final notes fade away. It’s no wonder audience hated it at first – it’s an album that needs to sit with you in order to work its magic.
That’s what makes it the best Weezer album. Every single other album on this list can be loved, hated or casually tossed aside, or occasionally played without much thought. But Pinkerton is the only Weezer album that demands re-listening and analysis. It’s a triumph of creativity and difficult subjects, it’s probably the best emo album ever made, and it continues to be the centrepiece of Weezer’s legacy, which ultimately is a positive one despite the missteps along the way.
