After the mixed critical reception and underwhelming sales of their second album, Pinkerton (1996), Weezer went on hiatus and the band members worked on side projects.

After a comeback performance at the Japanese Summer Sonic Festival, Weezer began rehearsing and recording new material.

Following the ambitious compositions and confessional themes of Pinkerton, songwriter Rivers Cuomo wrote simpler songs with less personal lyrics.

[2] It received mixed reviews upon release and sold poorly compared to Weezer's 1994 debut,[3] primarily due to its darker, more abrasive sound.

[4] Frontman Rivers Cuomo returned to Harvard University to finish his studies, but dropped out to focus on songwriting.

[5] By February 1998, Cuomo had disbanded Homie and headed to Los Angeles to begin work on Weezer demos with guitarist Brian Bell and drummer Patrick Wilson.

[15] Unbeknownst to the band, their fanbase was connecting and growing on the internet,[16][18] and Pinkerton's critical and commercial standing was improving.

[19][18][20] Weezer accepted a lucrative offer to perform in Japan in August 2000 for the Summer Sonic Festival;[21] rehearsals for the show reinvigorated the band.

[25][26] MP3 demos captured live on the band's mobile unit and soundchecks surfaced on file-sharing services and eventually were released as downloads on the Weezer website.

[27] The band began rehearsing and arranging both the Summer Songs of 2000 and newer material Cuomo had written at his home with engineer Chad Bamford.

[28] On December 27, the band embarked on what would be close to six weeks of studio work by playing songs repetitively in order to track the bass and drums parts.

[33] They also did "scratch takes" of the vocals and guitar, designed to get accurate rhythm tracks before being redone more efficiently later in the recording process.

[39] This approach is alluded to in a quote in the liner notes of the album: "Torniamo all'antico e sarà un progresso",[40][42][43] from Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi that means "Let us return to old times and that will be progress.

"[44] The picture inside of the CD booklet is a photo of Weezer playing live, featuring (in the lower right hand corner) an overlay of the silhouettes of Mike Nelson, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot from the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.

(Hence the liner note citation "MST3K silhouette appears courtesy of Best Brains, Inc.")[40] This was Weezer's first album to feature a transparent CD tray.

[49][50] The album was met with enthusiasm from the record label;[51] according to Weezer collaborator Karl Koch, "They had nothing but supportive and excited things to say about it.

"[51] However, the album's original release date of April 17 was postponed due to executives not liking Cuomo's choice of "Hash Pipe" as the first single.

Citing the song's lurid content about a transvestite prostitute as inappropriate, they suggested that "Don't Let Go" be chosen as the first single.

[53][55] The song became a hit on the MTV show Total Request Live,[56] and also received heavy rotation on radio,[43] peaking at number two on the US Modern Rock Charts.

[64] After suffering a breakdown from the stress of touring, undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and drug abuse, Welsh attempted suicide and left Weezer in 2001.

[72] Reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield wrote that the band had made "a totally crunk geek-punk record, buzzing through ten excellent tunes in less than half an hour with zero filler".

[83] The album was compared to the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace by Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork, who stated "Both sci-fi epic and alt-rock record were long-awaited events that had even the most jaded hipster hopping around like a small child with a full bladder.

"[84] Neva Chonin of the Houston Chronicle called it "a sublime selection of power-pop songs with enough lyrical ballast to keep them from floating away on their own euphoria".

[75] Russell Bailie of The New Zealand Herald remarked that "the self-conscious nerd-factor of old seems largely and happily absent" on an album that "sounds like a revitalisation with a hint of maturity".

"[86] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani described it as "fillerless" and without "much to complain about", despite the lack of songs that "hit the spot" like the singles from Weezer's debut.

[79] Sarah Dempster from NME was similarly disappointed: "The most irritating aspect of the Green Album is... the maddening itch of wasted opportunity.