Retro Video of the Week: "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer

This Friday, Weezer's self-titled debut album, better known to fans as The Blue Album, turns 25.  Jesus.  This is hands down one of my favorite debut albums ever.  There really isn't a bad song on the album, and the accolades it has received support my love.  Among others, Rolling Stone ranked it as the #35 debut album of all-time and #297 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, Blender ranked it as one of the 500 CDs you must own before you die, and Pitchfork ranked it as the #26 album of the '90s.

Though it only hit #16 on the Billboard album charts, at triple platinum, it's the band's best-selling album (although that doesn't seem like enough sales!).  I was surprised to learn that only "Undone - The Sweater Song" charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and it only reached #57.  Of course, that song, "Buddy Holly," and "Say It Ain't So" received significant airplay on MTV as well as alternative rock radio (the latter evidenced by the fact that all three were Top 10 songs on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart).

Since I have already used "Buddy Holly" and "Undone - The Sweater Song" as previous Retro Videos of the Week -- and since there aren't videos for "No One Else," "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here," or "Surf Wax America" -- I am going with "Say It Ain't So," a lovely little alt-rock romp inspired by Rivers Cuomo's inaccurate belief that the discovery of a beer bottle in his fridge at home meant his mom and stepdad were getting divorced.  While the other two songs' videos were directed by Spike Jonze, this one was directed by music video guru Sophie Muller, who has literally directed hundreds of music videos.  Rolling Stone listed "Say It Ain't So" as #72 on its list of The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, and Pitchfork put it at #10 on its list of top songs from the '90s.  The band looks so damn young in the video.  Then again, we were all young in 1994.