Please explain Weezer‘s Pinkerton album, which seemed, magically, to have been released with misunderstood, unappreciated masterpiece status on arrival.
I was fine with what little I heard of from Weezer’s debut album, the one with that “Buddy Holly” song and the Happy Days video. As soon as I started reading stuff about that Rivers Cuomo guy, though, I became annoyed and paid the band as little mind as possible. Then came their second album, Pinkerton, and I had to read even more drama about Cuomo—maybe some kind of breakdown, an early retirement, enrollement in an Ivy League school? I was a grown man at this point; I couldn’t care less about his nonsense. To this day he’s written about and interviewed in reverent tones, like he’s the white Kanye West or something. Artist Enclosed: Handle With Care. I could care less, but that’s not the point of this piece, is it?
Anytime I’ve heard Weezer they sound like Fountains of Wayne with a slightly heavier, indie-influenced sound. They seem to be credited with starting entire genres of music that mean nothing to me, stuff like Emo. Anytime I hear what’s considered an Emo band it sounds like Weezer, with a slightly more modern-rock sound and eyeliner. But this Pinkerton album, I’ve been led to believe for the last 14 years, was something altogether different, as summarized by the opening line of the album’s Wikipedia entry:
The album was seen as a departure from the band’s original power pop sound for a somewhat darker and more abrasive sound.
How light was the sound of their debut album if this one sounds dark? As for the “abrasive” tag, I don’t hear it. Coupled with the prog-rock album cover I was expecting something wild and exciting, like The Mars Volta. Instead, Pinkerton sounds pretty much like standard-issue jeans store rock. If it’s groundbreaking for setting the template for jeans store rock, then that’s another matter.
Much is made of the personal pain that Cuomo faced in writing these songs. He was lonely in his dorm room. A girl broke up with him. She dumped him for a woman. He masturbated. Boo hoo! Do you mean to tell me that in 1996 no artist had articulated these feelings in rock song before? Was Lou Reed‘s catalog out of print that year?
A thorough, surprisingly well reasoned Pitchfork review of the recently reissued, expanded edition of this album helps to explain some of my questions, including this gem:
In actuality, Pinkerton may initially have been the victim of a generation gap. It was hardly the first album to get this uncomfortably confessional, but it had some unusually bad timing. Self-laceration was in vogue during 1996, but as far as critical favorites went, it was often from a female perspective (Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Courtney Love) that balanced boldness and raw vulnerability. In comparison, Pinkerton was hardly misunderstood, but instead seen for what it was: written from a juvenile, male, and incredibly needy perspective. It’s a really tough album to go to bat for if you’re an adult, particularly since enjoying it is so closely associated with relating to it.
But really, if you were of the appropriate age when this album was released, was it really that “difficult” to handle, or were you just a musical wimp?
Wait, I’m not clear on something: Have you actually listened to this album?
I don’t think the album was difficult, thematically. I think it just didn’t stand out as quickly musically as the previous album, so it took people a while to notice the things they ended up liking best about it.
Yeah, I listened to most of it for the first time the other day – a highly scientific sampling, you know.
Really? Whenever I read about it writers do backflips to map out all the pain and discomfort that the album caused not only its creator but his fans. I once had to schedule an emergency appointment with my therapist after reading a review of the album.
A little perspective:
The 1994 debut album came out my second year of college. It was the PERFECT college album for me. 1993-1995 was sort of the golden age of so-called “grunge” and “alternative” music. It was a pretty magical record for me.
By 1996, that whole scene was disappearing. Especially September, when Pinkerton was released. No one cared. I did, though. I’m loyal to a band. Rivers was my generation’s Brian Wilson. Seemingly simple, yet a certain complexity and dark beauty underneath.
Pinkerton was rougher and more confessional. It was a huge departure from the debut. And it was one of my favorite records from 1996.
Having returned to it via the reissue, alot of the lyrics mean something different for me now. I can see why Rivers was embarrassed by this music and felt it inappropriate. It was a commercial disappointment, but I seem to remember making several critics year-end lists.
TB
I latched on to Weezer after “Buddy Holly” and wound up playing the debut into the ground (though I still detest “Undone – The Sweater Song” to this day). Then Pinkerton came out. I bought it on tape and put it my car deck and drove home from the record store, and I remember thinking, “This is total garbage.”
So I literally wound up tossing it my car’s window, no joke. As the years have passed, I have come to like a couple tracks on it, but I still don’t care for it overall, and I don’t think it’s the big whoop-de-do all its fans say it is/ Being influenced by “Madame Butterfy,” you’d think the kiddies would have then gone out and started humping the opera groove.
Cuomo badmouthed it after it came out as well, and when “The Green Album” arrived, all the Pinko fans complained that it wasn’t the “raw masterpiece” that its predecessor was. Whatever. Since then, Rivers has done a 180 on the thing and now we have yet another useless “Deluxe Edition” of an album that didn’t need it (neither did the debut, for that matter).
I can’t really stand listening to Weezer anymore. They milked their formula for all it was worth around The Green Album and Maladroit and finally won their Grammy after releasing the abysmal Make Believe. But they pander to that 18-24 crowd and that’s all that matters. They’re the new Cure except poppier and they dress in Goodwill attire rather than goth duds. Kids who feel out of place embrace the grooves. Blah. I will say I admire them for putting out albums on a “regular” basis that all artists adgered to back before the ’90s and everyone decided to start taking 2-3 years between releases, but if the music is consistently yawn-inducing as it has been for the Weez for the past four releases, it’s pointess.
Blargh. Pardon my typos.
OK, so this another RTH post dedicated to spending more time busting on an album than listening to it?
That said, let me attempt to address some of your points as fairly as possible.
I remember when Pinkerton was released; I was in college. I am not a Weezer fan, but this is the only album of theirs that I ever listened to a lot, so you might say that I really like(d) it. But I didn’t hear it all the way through till about five years after its release, once the cult appreciation was under way.
So I remember when this album was considered to be a flop, even though I thought the singles were really good. I don’t think it was quite as big a flop as people made it out to be, but it got some prominently bad reviews (primarily from Rolling Stone, when they had their last few shreds of critical authority) and MTV mostly ignored it. But Philly radio seemed to hang on to the album, especially “Pink Triangles,” and the band still toured a lot. Then Cuomo went back to Harvard, I think, and I had assumed the band broke up.
OK, with that out of the way…
Far be it me to defend a rock critic, but that review says Pinkerton is “somewhat darker and more abrasive,” which also requires the context of having listened to their first album too.
To my ears, Pinkerton has a kind of noisy swagger. Not uncommercial per se, but definitely less polished (or differently polished) than most rock albums from that time period. It’s the only “power-pop” album I can think of that gets close to the sound of the first Cheap Trick record, which maybe really explains Mr. Mod’s ire.
As for writing about the same subject matter as Lou Reed, I wasn’t aware that once Lou covered a topic as it was meant to be covered, that meant the topic was then off-limits to all other songwriters, as there was no possible way anyone could ever find something new to say about something Lou already wrote about. Maybe Rivers should have been completely tone-deaf, grown a mullet and hired some jazzbo sidemen.
No. There are plenty of articles that focus on his social weirdness and his songwriting descent into Top 40 hackery.
I do think the album goes to some uncomfortable and unlikely places — but it didn’t flop because of it, because people don’t listen to lyrics that intently — and it’s worthwhile because of it, same as I feel about Kanye West’s new album. Finding these perspectives and the way they’re framed intriguing is not the same as sharing them. And where’s E. Pluribus Gergley to remind us of all the “important” rock music that was basically geared towards teenagers?
konajinx, welcome to the Hall! Who cares about a few typos when you’re packing that kind of punch in a debut (if memory serves) post? Good stuff. It’s good to hear from both you and TB, who at least liked the band when they first hit, and then see how your opinions diverged from Pinkerton forward. I’m coming way late to the game, so as I suspect some may think, the fact that I even have an opinion on this subject is preposterous. But, as they say, that’s how I roll.
The Cure comparison says SO much! Driving into work today I heard “Let’s Go to Bed” on our local AAA station. It was nice to hear for about 90 seconds, then it went on way too long.
You wrote:
As I said to konajinx, in anticipation of just such a complaint, That’s how I roll.
Seriously, thanks for your insights. As you must know as well as anyone around here, Oats, sometimes I’ve got to raise these questions and take the hits that are coming to me. Consider me embedded in the Bad Attitude Club. I want to move past the BAC, I want to bust it up, but I can’t get past the Jeans Store Rock sound of that band and the incredibly annoying Cult of Cuomo, so it’s important that I hear from real fans, like yourself, and especially the teenagers to whom all “important” rock music is geered.
I have no particular qualms about sounding off about an album I know little of beyond a couple of (annoying but mainly forgettable) songs. So, largely in the spirit of semi-informed speculation, regarding your lead question (“Please explain Weezer‘s Pinkerton album, which seemed, magically, to have been released with misunderstood, unappreciated masterpiece status on arrival”) I would suggest probably that this was the spin the band and/or label decided to put out. (Billing it as “jeans store rock”–a great genre identification, btw, and one I’d like to hear more about–presumably having been nixed.) Critics being by and large what they are, i.e., lazy-ass recyclers of label pr, and many listeners being what they are, i.e., recyclers of the received wisdom of critics, the album acquired its (apparent) reputation.
If this is all totally off base, perhaps I can concoct a different, even less informed explanation, perhaps one that involves the presence (or non-presence) of Linda McCartney.
Well one thing I forgot to mention. In many ways, the initial failure of this album had very little to do really with bad reviews, darkness and abrasiveness, or lyrics that dare take on the themes first tackled by the Good Sir Lou of Reed.
As Wikipedia reminded me, right before the album was to be released, a court injunction blocked it, because the Pinkerton company sued for breach of contract. Geffen and Cuomo had to submit writings to the court explaining the title (inspired by Madame Butterfly). Eventually, the court ruled in the band’s favor, and the album came out a little later than initially planned. But unfortunately, momentum is everything in the recording industry, especially when you are following up a popular first album. So while this imbroglio probably didn’t totally kill the album, it did give it a big disadvantage.
Crap. Pinkerton Company sued for copyright infringement, I meant.
Oats is right, Cuomo has spent much of the last decade burning out the Critical Pass he’d picked up from Pinkerton and going to school via a series of shitty singles, shittier album covers and shittest moustaches.
Reviews of reissues aside, you’re more likely to read negative things about Weezer and their poor hat and facial hair choices today. There’s probably a strong comparison to be made between their hiatus and return with attempts at big success with considerably dumber songs and the similar time frame around Liz Phair’s hiatus and reviled comeback repackaging.
Mod, you may want to look into wimpy artists more. They’re probably better equipped to deliver the revelations of a shattered pysche that you need when tragedy strikes.
I’m going to pass on this one, since nothing I’ve ever read about this band has led me to want to listen to them. But wouldn’t it be nice if there were a magical set of headphones that you could use to listen to any album and hear it as if you were in college at the time of its release? It makes a big difference.
RTH Labs will get right on those headphones! Brilliant idea.
You guys are so in luck!
http://www.gearculture.com/gear/skullcandy-stack-headphones/
I’m not sure how to say this without offending some people I like, but I don’t see PINKERTON causing “discomfort” so much as I see it appealing to a kindler, gentler version of the Cobain demographic, people who revel in it, not suffer for it.
It would be interesting to compare and contrast Cuomo to Elliott Smith, who appealed to a somewhat different demographic of self-loathers.
But my initial point is that lyrics don’t generally sink in until people have heard the record a few times.
Rivers Cuomo looks like a jerk off.
the singles off the first album stink.
stupid nerd rock.
not only will i not listen to any Weezer,
i will not read any of the posts in this thread.
i will just shoot straight to the bottom and type:
Rivers Cuomo looks like a jerk off……….
Based on this topic, I put Pinkerton in the car today and listened to it for the 1st time in a few years today. I really liked the 1st Weezer record, good geek fun all around. Even the angry stuff about his stepfather. I wanted to like Pinkerton.
The single “El Scorcho” sucked – just a scattered mess of a tune. But then I didn’t like the Sweater Song off the 1st one that much either. I went to a listening station (remember those?) and the 1st 3 songs gave me nothing to hang onto. The reviews were bad so I forgot about it. Years later I got a copy for $1 at a yard sale since the album was getting mention as a misunderstood classic and found a few good tracks like “Pink Triangle” and “The Good Life” but my feeling today is that this one is just not fun enough to carry the heavier tunes and not intense enough all the way through to be an important statement.
Hey Mr. Mod., Steve needs headphones that inject THC into your ears to do what he wants.
This one came out when I had my Cd shop. Guy from the label sold me a full box of them. He could not get the Atlanta radio station (99x who LIVED for the 1st record) to play it, and so it did not sell at all…plus the bad reviews from Rolling Stone). I thought it was OK, too loud, not very catchy, not crazy about River’s shouting vocals. At $7.99 for a never played used Cd I sold a few of them but over time, not the debut week.
I got a free ticket to see them OPEN for No Doubt, and was unimpressed. They had smoke bombs and a giant W that looked like the Van Halen logo.
Have to say I did keep a copy of the CD and played it for the 1st time last month when the reissue reviews were everywhere.
I like it better than I did at the time, but not by much.
They did everything in their power to have this NOT do well. “artsy” Cover art, dull videos, no lead single, confusing interviews.
Now I see that they have their own clothing line at Hot Topic