Scrolling through dozens of holiday songs, you may find lackluster covers of the classics. You long for something edgy, something you can blast in your car speakers during the cold months.
What Christmas album could combine the joys of the holidays with the sweet angelic voices of the early 2000s? You may think it’s too perfect to exist, but you’re wrong. “Christmas with Weezer” is a must-have in your holiday music repertoire.
The American rock band has nearly 14 million monthly listeners on Spotify and is composed of Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Scott Shriner, and Brian Bell. With hits like “Island in the Sun” and “Buddy Holly,” I fear their seasonal melodies are criminally underrated.
The 2008 album is 13 minutes and 51 seconds of pure bliss. Six well-known Christmas tunes are rediscovered in a way that only fans of Rivers Cuomo could understand.
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “O Holy Night,” “The First Noel,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” create a digestible album for the entire family.
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To start off the album, the brilliant minds of Weezer brought forth “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” The song commences with a soft guitar strumming, broken by the passionate performance of the band to wish their listeners — you guessed it — a Merry Christmas.
This song is not the star of the album, but it does a good job of showing listeners what’s in store.
The beauty of this record is its potential to draw in diverse audiences.
Imagine: A moody teenager with the staple emo fringe covering half of their face sits on the lumpy couch of their grandma’s house. It’s Christmas Eve and their ears hurt from hearing carols lacking edge, lacking electric guitar and lacking risk.
Hurriedly, the teen grabs hold of a device and queues Weezer. Surprised, the adults enjoy the familiar sounds of their favorite Christmas ditties. How can this be? Weezer is singing about a holy night in an engaging way that all ages can appreciate? You better believe it.
It’s hard to choose a favorite song from this album, but with that being said, two songs stand out among the rest: “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
These high-energy songs are a nice change of pace from the others in the album. Sprinkled throughout the tracks, they provide a break from the relaxed vibes of the rest of the choruses.
With “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” bringing in 1.5 million streams and “O Come All Ye Faithful” having 2.8 million streams on Spot, it may be easy to infer which one is the audience favorite.
But “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” reigns supreme over its competitor.
Quite unfortunately, this album is far too short. More tracks would have made the album more complete.
Even with the lack of holiday music since 2008, this is a timeless collection of songs that is easy to revisit December after December.
So, this year, gather your loved ones, sit by the tree and do not hesitate to share your Christmas with Weezer.
