Three decades after one of the quirkiest, catchiest rock albums of the '90s, Weezer will celebrate their self-titled debut with a box set packed with unreleased demos, studio and live material.

Known the world over as "The Blue Album" - one of six self-titled albums the band has issued with color-coded covers - the debut will be reissued by UMe on November 1 as a 3CD set or vinyl equivalent spanning four LPs, a 10" EP and a 7" single. Both physical (and all digital) formats come with 40 bonus tracks that trace the band's evolution from 1992 to just after the album's release in 1995: rough early practice tapes and rehearsal recordings, live performances from the band's early club days in Los Angeles (as well as a BBC session ahead of their first European tour), and - for the first time in its entirety - the complete release of the band's Kitchen Tape, a much-treasured set of 1992 demos. (Three tracks from said tape were first released on a 10th anniversary deluxe edition of the album in 2004; that 2CD set included all the released B-sides and a few pre-production recordings which are not replicated here, with the exception of "Jamie," included on a compilation issued by the band's label DGC and featured here as part of a longer pre-signing session cut at Loyola Marymount University in 1993.) The box features an assortment of extra goodies, including four lithographs, a poster of the band in KISS-adjacent makeup, stickers, a 12-sided die and an enamel pin. Longtime band archivist/historian Karl Koch has penned new liner notes for the collection.

Formed in 1992, Weezer were an anomaly in rock music at the time. Grunge acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden dominated the airwaves - but frontman Rivers Cuomo, raised on an ashram in Connecticut, had only recently trimmed his glam-metal haircut after his band Avant Garde broke up. Cuomo, fellow Tower Records employee and drummer Patrick Wilson, bassist Matt Sharp and guitarist Jason Cropper formed Weezer with an ear for pop hooks (Cuomo later obsessively kept a "catalog o' riffs") and hard-driving chords that fit in just enough alongside the Seattle sound. Signing to DGC Records - the same label that signed Nirvana just a few years earlier - the band worked on their debut album at Electric Lady Studios in New York with the late Ric Ocasek, former frontman of The Cars, who helped polish their sound to perfection. (Cropper was let go by the band after recording ended, and while Brian Bell became his replacement, Cuomo re-recorded all the guitar parts himself.)

Critics praised Weezer's debut when it was released, and fans latched onto their wacky, kitschy charms on MTV. Lead single "Undone - The Sweater Song," with its soft-loud-soft dynamics, was promoted with a Spike Jonze-directed video that featured a pack of wild dogs running through the band's performance. Jonze also directed the instantly memorable video to pop/rock earworm "Buddy Holly," which inserted the band into a performance at Arnold's Drive-In alongside original footage of the cast of Happy Days. Emotional follow-up "Say It Ain't So" was an early directorial credit for acclaimed music video helmer Sophie Muller. All three singles made the Top 10 of Billboard's alternative rock survey, while the album reached the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and sold more than three million copies in America.

The blue album became a touchstone of its generation and one that the band has gamely acknowledged time and again 30 years into their career. (Cuomo, struggling with fame and a painful recovery from a surgery to correct the length of one of his legs, studied at Harvard after the album's promotional cycle, and the group's follow-up, the raw, confessional Pinkerton (1995), was initially loathed by critics. Both albums are now considered classics that the band, even with nine subsequent Top 10 albums and a lot of lucrative tours, have yet to live up to.) Indeed, the band's current Voyage to the Blue Planet tour sees the group - Cuomo, Wilson, Bell and bassist Scott Shriner, who joined in 2000 - performing their debut in full.

The Blue Album box set is out November 1 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Blue Album (30th Anniversary Edition) (Geffen/UMe, 2024)

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP/10"/7": Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

* previously unreleased

CD/LP 1: Original album (1-10, released as DGC 24629, 1994) and BBC recordings (11-16, available on 45 RPM 10" in vinyl set)

1. My Name is Jonas
2. No One Else
3. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
4. Buddy Holly
5. Undone - The Sweater Song
6. Surf Wax America
7. Say It Ain't So
8. In the Garage
9. Holiday
10. Only in Dreams
11. My Name is Jonas (BBC Evening Sessions - 1/26/1995) *
12. In the Garage (BBC Evening Sessions - 1/26/1995) *
13. No One Else (BBC Evening Sessions - 1/26/1995) *
14. Surf Wax America (BBC Evening Sessions - 1/26/1995) *
15. Buddy Holly (Acoustic - Greater London Radio Session - 1/26/1995) *
16. Undone - The Sweater Song (Acoustic - Greater London Radio Session - 1/26/1995) *

CD 2/LP 2-3: Early Recordings

1. Say It Ain't So (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992) *
2. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here (Kitchen Tape Demo- 8/1/1992) *
3. Paperface (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992)
4. Undone - The Sweater Song (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992)
5. Thief, You've Taken All That Was Me (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992) *
6. My Name is Jonas (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992) *
7. Let's Sew Our Pants Together (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992) *
8. Only in Dreams (Kitchen Tape Demo - 8/1/1992)
9. I Can't Forget This Way (Third Practice - 2/17/1992) *
10. Undone - The Sweater Song (Third Practice - 2/17/1992) *
11. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here (Third Practice - 2/17/1992) *
12. Windows Down (Garage Practice - May 1992) *
13. My Name is Jonas (Garage Practice - June 1992) *
14. Only in Dreams (Garage Practice - June 1992) *
15. Superman (Garage Practice - June 1992) *
16. Dawn Sets Upon Us (Garage Practice - June 1992)*
17. Just What I Needed (Rehearsal Demo - July 1993) *
18. Buddy Holly (Rehearsal Demo - July 1993) *

Tracks 3-4 and 8 released on Dusty Gems & Raw Nuggets disc of Weezer (Deluxe Edition) - Geffen B0002139-02, 2004

CD 3/LP 4: Early Live Recordings (1-12) and LMU Sessions (13-16, available on 33 1/3 RPM 7" in vinyl set)

1. Let's Sew Our Pants Together (Live at The 8121 Club, Los Angeles, CA - 7/18/1992) *
2. Paperface (Live at The 8121 Club, Los Angeles, CA - 7/18/1992) *
3. Only in Dreams (Live at The 8121 Club, Los Angeles, CA - 7/18/1992) *
4. Conversationalist (Live at Coconut Teaszer, Los Angeles, CA - 8/12/1992)*
5. Undone - The Sweater Song (Live at English Acid, Los Angeles, CA - 6/10/1992) *
6. My Name is Jonas (Live at English Acid, Los Angeles, CA - 6/10/1992) *
7. No One Else (Live at Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA - 6/7/1993) *
8. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here (Live at Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA - 6/7/1993) *
9. Jamie (Live at Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA - 6/7/1993) *
10. Lullaby for Wayne (Live at Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA - 6/7/1993) *
11. Say It Ain't So (Live at Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA - 6/7/1993) *
12. China Grove (Live at Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA - 6/7/1993) *
13. Jamie (Take 6 - Loyola Marymount University Session, Los Angeles, CA - 4/15/1993)
14. My Name is Jonas (Loyola Marymount University Session, Los Angeles, CA - 4/15/1993) *
15. Jamie (Take 5 - Loyola Marymount University Session, Los Angeles, CA - 4/15/1993) *
16. Lullaby for Wayne (Loyola Marymount University Session, Los Angeles, CA - 4/15/1993) *

Track 13 released on DGC Rarities Vol. 1 - DGC 27404, 1994