Weezer (2008 Album) - Writing and Composition

Writing and Composition

The majority of the album's content was written by Rivers Cuomo. However, for the first time since their debut album other members of the band contributed songwriting as well. Cuomo consciously strived to write less traditionally-structured songs, breaking away from the "verse-chorus--verse-chorus-bridge" structure that was present on past albums. Much of the album's subject matter is rooted in past experiences and nostalgia.

"Pork and Beans" is the first single to be released from the album. "Troublemaker" was also considered for the album's first single, but later this was switched to "Pork and Beans", a song written by Cuomo as a reaction to a meeting with Geffen where the band was told it needed to record more-commercial material. Jacknife Lee produced the track with the band in early 2008 during the third and final session for the record.

"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a track that includes piano, police sirens, and Cuomo singing in falsetto. "Miss Sweeney"' was named by Cuomo, along with "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived," as a track which features rapped vocals. Bass player Scott Shriner was particularly proud of the song saying, "The song 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' is a masterpiece that includes ten different styles of music based around a common theme. It's awesome. That word gets abused a lot, like 'Wow, these pancakes are awesome,' but 'Greatest Man' is . . . awesome!"

"Heart Songs" is about all the artists and records that have influenced Cuomo from Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" when he was 5 years old to Nirvana's Nevermind in his early 20s. The song misidentifies the cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" as being by Debbie Gibson instead of Tiffany, an error that was brought to Cuomo's attention while recording. Cuomo opted to keep the error in due to his own memories and the personal nature of the song.

"Everybody Get Dangerous" is featured briefly in the film 21. The song was not included on the official soundtrack release. Cuomo's childhood friend Adam Orth recently commented on the autobiographical element of this song. It also appears in Guitar Hero: On Tour: Modern Hits.

"Troublemaker" is featured in the trailer for Disney's comedy film G-Force.

"Dreamin'" was formerly known as "Daydreamer" and was described in the liner notes to Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo as an "epic, 6-minute, symphonic type of art song." "This is the Way" was written as a more straightforward counterpart, and was originally selected by the band to be recorded for the Weezer album, but Cuomo persuaded the others to go with "Dreamin'" instead.

"Thought I Knew" was also the name of a song by Brian Bell's band the Relationship, and is a reworking and re-recording of the track with Weezer sung as a lead vocal by Brian Bell. The song was originally written in a minor key. However, Bell felt that historically the band's songs haven't worked in minor and that the song needed to feel more uplifting. So he changed the song from minor to major and sped up the tempo.

"Cold Dark World" is a song that was written by Rivers Cuomo and Scott Shriner and features Shriner on lead vocals. Shriner commented, "...I wrote this kind of creepy music, and Rivers wrote these kind of happy, positive lyrics, but when you put it together, it made a super-creepy song which I'm really proud of."

"Automatic" was remixed by LA Riots for the video game Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. This track features Patrick Wilson on lead vocals. Wilson commented, "This song is interesting. It's a big rock tune but it's kinda got a vibe to it and the lyrics are just about me wanting to give as much love as I can to my family..."

"The Angel and the One" is the album closer. Some members of the band have claimed that this is their favorite track, including Pat Wilson. Cuomo described the writing process of the song, "It started out as a really standard pop song called 'bad girl' and had a verse and a chorus and bridge and all that stuff. And I just wasn't satisfied with it. It was too normal. So one day I sat down with my acoustic guitar and I just played song over and over, on basically looping it. My fingers hurt so much, I just kept playing it. And over the hour that I was playing it, the song slowly evolved and it smoothed over and the sections blurred into each other. And it turned into this spiritual reverie that is really just one long development without any distinction between sections."

"Pig" leaked as a demo in early 2007, this song details the life of a pig including playing in the mud as a piglet, falling in love, getting married, raising children and eventually being slaughtered. The final version of the track appears on the deluxe edition of the Weezer album.

"King" is the last song on the deluxe edition of the Weezer album and is sung by Scott Shriner. In the liner notes for the deluxe edition Scott says that the song was not being voted by the rest of the band but was one of his favorite tracks from the demos Rivers played for the band. One day Scott called up Rivers and demanded the band add the song on the album, Rivers responded by saying that if he wanted the song so bad he should sing it, and so he did. The song apparently took the longest to record and perfect, taking three weeks.