Pinkerton, released on September 24, 1996, is Weezer’s sophomore album. The initial response was overwhelmingly negative as it was extremely different from their first album “Weezer” (The Blue Album). Contrasting the pop-rock sound Weezer was known for, Pinkerton has extremely dark and rough undertones in both the sound and lyrical content. To understand why the album was received in such a way, we first need to look into the album’s contents and inspiration.
Following the success of Weezer’s Blue album, lead singer/ songwriter Rivers Cuomo went to Harvard after visiting the campus during their Blue Album Tour in 1994. He enrolled with the intention of being intelligently fulfilled while also taking a break from music. It was during his time at Harvard that he wrote most of Pinkerton. Including the songs “Good Life” and “Pink Triangle” both of which will be brought up later on in this review.
From front to back this record is packed full of Rivers’ depressive thoughts about loneliness and his growing complications with being a rock star. It was self produced by the band to truly capture the nature of their live sound. In turn, this resulted in the album sounding more abrasive and distorted at times. The singles released for this album were “El Scorcho” and “The Good Life”. The Good Life is about Rivers missing the rockstar lifestyle while he was at Harvard, with lyrics along the lines of “I don’t wanna be an old man anymore” and “I want to go back, I don’t even know how I got off the track.”. El Scorcho is about his struggles with romantic relationships and not being awkward. The lyric “I think I would be good for you, and you would be good for me” tells us that things aren’t exactly going his way in his love life. On the topic of his love life failing, the next track following El Scorcho is the song Pink Triangle.
Pink Triangle is a song about Rivers falling in love with a girl at Harvard. Everything was going great for him, going as far as to say they were “Good as married in his mind”, however, one day he noticed she was wearing a pink triangle patch on the sleeve of her jacket. Rivers immediately recognized this as a sign that the girl he had fallen for was a lesbian. However, unbeknownst to him, the pink triangle she had put on her sleeve was merely a symbol used to recognize and support lesbians, meaning she herself was not in fact a lesbian. With an extremely catchy chorus and being packed full of silly lyrics such as “I’m dumb she’s a lesbian” and “Everyones a little queer, why cant she be a little straight?” This song is a fan favorite from the album.
Overall this album is one of my favorites from that time. The lyrics and production is so raw, which is a really hard quality to find in modern day works. However, the initial reaction from critics wasn’t nearly as generous. Infact, the album was ranked at the bottom 3 albums of 1997 according to Rolling Stone readers. The extreme backlash caused Rivers to go on a hiatus. Eventually he completed his Harvard education in 2006. When he came back to the music scene he released a far less personal record. Also being titled “Weezer”, fans deemed the album “The Green Album”. This album kind of sucks in my opinion, as it’s stripped of all emotion and has very few highlights when compared to the previous albums.
Despite Pinkerton’s more depressing themes, it remains a fun listen and I frequently find myself revisiting this record. Pinkerton is credited as inspiration for several modern emo bands and projects and has built up a massive fan base, even being regarded as the best Weezer album by many. I couldn’t recommend this album enough.