28 Days of Christmas: Weezer - "The Christmas Song" + "Christmas Celebration"

The two Christmas cuts from Weezer's Green Album days are probably their best songs from that era. It's the beginning of their descent into vapid, soul-crushing mainstream rawk, but the hooks and the power chords still deliver. "Christmas Celebration" is the fun one, "The Christmas Song" is the sad heartbroken one, and together they encapsulate the Christmas season. Weezer had a good 2014, releasing their most non-terrible album since Green in Everything Will Be Alright in the End. I'm doubting it's the shape of things to come, but it's at least nice to have the sour taste of "Beverly Hills" washed out of my mouth, if only just a little bit. You know, The Green Album really isn't all that bad. I liked it when it came out. I was 15, and Weezer was my favorite band, and I was extremely biased, but revisiting tracks like "Photograph" and "Crab" it reminds you how effortlessly this band could achieve pop majesty. Even when Rivers Cuomo is trying to sabotage his songwriting, I feel like he has trouble sabotaging his gift as a hooksmith.