Quite a few "hardcore"
Weezer fans have multiple bones to pick with the band’s fourth album, the 2002 release
Maladroit. Perhaps one of the largest complaints being that the album lacks any lyrical depth. And while "Love Explosion," the album's 12th track, may not have a subject matter as clear as "
Pink Triangle" or as deep as "
Say It Ain't So," in my opinion, it's lyrics and content are much more worthy of recognition than the average
Weezer fan gives it.
First and foremost, the song is about a boy and a girl in love. It begins with the boy telling the girl to realize how bad she has in what appears to be a broken home ("take a listen around you/to all the people that crowd around in your house"). Obviously this girl has been reared in a rather emotionally toxic household, thus, "they've been wanting to kill you/in your sleep," which seems like the boy is making an overstatement in order to drive his point home.
He then suggests that the girl relieves herself of her terrible life at home ("take a load off") and says goodbye to her awful life at home forever as well as leaving everyone else who gives her a hard time ("and bow down" being used along the lines of somebody "bowing out" to "the others who love to call you their names"). He tells her that any bad things she hears about herself is just bullshit ("all the bull that people sling") and shouldn't mean a thing to her ("It doesn't matter what they say").
He then suggests to the girl that she runs away to have fun with him forever ("So jump out jump out/Get your groove on") because he wants to save her ("This one is for you/So come on"). He then tells her flat out, to leave her house life forever and run away with him ("Get out your house girl/And give me a kiss").
After the repetition of the verse and the chorus, the song ends with the lyric "They love to call you their names" repeated three times. Which is the boy strongly illustrating his point that she needs to get out of the hellhole she lives in and move away to be happy with him.
...so a bit of backstory on the actual song. The arrangement for the song was actually written around similar, yet different, lyrics around the end of the summer of 2001 by Rivers Cuomo. The original song was called "Do You Want Me To Stay?" which was the same with a different chorus. Yet that seemed to change everything, as the song was not a story of the boy trying to steal the girl away, but the boy trying to get rid of his needy girlfriend ("So jump back, jump back Do you want me?/I don't believe that you need me/Come on, come on/Do you want me to stay?"). They demoed the song and played it live on various stops on their 2001 Midget Tour. By early 2002, the song had a new title and a new chorus, and thus, "Love Explosion" was born.
And while Maladroit may have been a commercial disappointment, it actually was critically well received upon it's first release, and "Love Explosion" was frequently mentioned with the most notable being the Austin Chronicle's review, which called the song "classic Weezer," although they proved that "white people should never (ever) use the words "get your groove on" in a song. Some fans have cited that the chorus of "Love Explosion" sounds a bit like the chorus to the early-60s superhit "The Loca-Motion" by Little Eva.
And while the songs former incarnation, "Do You Want Me To Stay?" was a live staple for the band on their late-2001 tours, unfortunately, Cuomo probably lost faith in the song and it slowly pedered out of their live rotation after only appearing on a setlist at nine shows.
Regardless, "Love Explosion" is one of the band's finest, and most underappeciated songs.
Complete Lyrics
Take a listen around you
All the people that crowd around in your house
They've been wanting to kill you
In your sleep
Take a load off and bow down
To the others who love to call you their names
They've been wanting to kill you
In your sleep
And all the bull that people sling
(love explosion)
It doesn't matter what they sing
(love explosion)
So jump out jump out
Get your groove on
This one is for you
So come on
Get out your house girl
And give me a kiss
And all the bull that people sling
(love explosion)
It doesn't matter what they sing
(love explosion)
So jump out jump out
Get your groove on
This one is for you
So come on
Get out your house girl
And give me a kiss
Take a load off and bow down
to the others who love to call you their names
They love to call you their names
They love to call you their names
CST Approved