The majority of the album's content was written by Cuomo. However, for the first time since their
debut album other members of the band contributed songwriting as well. Much of the album's subject matter is rooted in past experiences and
nostalgia. plays in the foreground while Fritz Grobe and Stephan Voltz set off
Diet Coke and Mentos eruptions behind them in the "Pork and Beans" music video. "
Troublemaker", which was considered for the first single, introduces the theme of nostalgia for the album, with Cuomo "reliving his lost youth". "
The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a track that includes piano, police sirens, rapped vocals and Cuomo singing in
falsetto. Bassist
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!" "
Pork and Beans", the album's third track and first single, was written by Cuomo as a reaction to a meeting with Geffen where the band was told they needed to record more-commercial material. "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 (1991) 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. Cuomo told
Pitchfork that the song was partly inspired by the
Mariah Carey song "
We Belong Together". Cuomo's childhood friend Adam Orth commented on the autobiographical element of the lyrics for "Everybody Get Dangerous". "
Dreamin'" was originally titled "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", featured on
Alone, 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 other members to go with "Dreamin'" instead. 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. "Automatic" was written by Wilson and features him on lead vocals, saying that the 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 final track that appears on the deluxe edition, "King", is sung by Shriner. In the liner notes for the deluxe edition, Shriner says that the song was not being voted by the rest of the band but was one of his favorite tracks from the demos Cuomo played for the band. One day Shriner called up Cuomo and demanded the band add the song on the album, Cuomo responded by saying that if Shriner 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. ==Artwork==