Album of the Week #25: "Pinkerton" by Weezer

John

Ridiculously overlooked because it's crap or because it came out under the first album's shadow? Personally I think it's great, not as good as the first one but definitely classic Weezer. What do you think?

nlgbbbblth

I think it's one of the greatest albums ever made.
Pink Triangle rocks. Then No Other One and The Good Life.

Blue would be their next best. After that the quality dropped.

John

Agreed, The Green Album had a few nice songs but some mediocre ones ruined the album and after that I didn't even bother.

Stargal

Although Blue is excellent too (but in a very different way), I think that this is Weezer's best album. The music is edgier, more rocky than Blue, but it's also more cohesive - the screeching guitar and drum beat at the beginning of Tired of Sex is one of the best intros to an album I've ever heard.

The mixture of anger, frustration and poignancy in the lyrics always gets to me - even now, after listening to it gazillions of times, the end of Across the Sea when Rivers sings that bit about how the Japanese girl sending her love to him is just pointless, and what he needs is someone to actually be there for him, that still kills me.

Favourite tracks from it are, unsurprisingly, Across the Sea and Tired of Sex, , but Why Bother, Getchoo and El Scorcho are all up there with the best stuff Weezer have ever done.

If they'd stopped making albums after this then they'd have been remembered as one of the best bands of the 1990s, instead of releasing stuff like the tiredly average Make Believe.

I've never really understood why Pinkerton was so overlooked when it came out; Rolling Stone put it in their list of the worst albums of the year, it sold really poorly and Rivers has spoken about how much he dislikes the album and wishes that he hadn't put so much personal stuff into it.

DerekD Goldfish

By far and away weezers best album and one of my all time top 20 albums its just a great album with prefectly crafted pop songs

bluto63

Yea I agree this is one of their best albums. In fact, I'm gonna go listen to it now

Andrew 83

By far Weezer's best and one of my favourite albums ever

Mr Marenghi

Definitley Weezers best album. I agree with Stargal, Tired of Sex is an awesome intro and was a great opening song when they played Vicar St.

People now may not understand that this was the second album from the band that sang Buddy Holly and was hugely anticipated by that audience. They expected more pop music but instead they got Tired of Sex, El Scorcho, songs about Japanese girls and being in love with lesbians.

Rolling Stone did slate it but by the years end they had in their albums of the year list .
The reason Rivers began hating it so much is that he said he wrote very honest lyrics and really put himself out there, he took a risk with what he wrote about and on the albums release it was panned by critics, and rejected by a lot of Blue album fans.

Boo-yah

One of my favourite albums of all time. Contains some of Rivers' best songs (Across The Sea, The Good Life, Falling For You) and is so different to their debut (which I love as much). They never came close (and most likely never will) to matching this album. The b-sides of this album are some of my favourite songs so the album itself must be alright

RE*AC*TOR

Oh its classic Weezer alright. Mind you, I find Weezer boring repetetive and uninspired.

Mr Marenghi

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Oh its classic Weezer alright. Mind you, I find Weezer boring repetetive and uninspired.

Maybe some people find that but repetitive is definitley one problem I haven't had with them.
For me Weezers albums pan out like this:

Blue Album - At first sounds like pop /rock music that anybody can listen too. Pretty feel good and not too challenging but it definitley grows on you the more you listen until before you know it you're humming the songs all day. Also contains songs that are a sign of a deeper band such as Only In Dreams..

Pinkerton - read my earlier post

Green Album - Brilliant Teenage Fanclubesque pop album. At around a half hr it zips along from the intro of Don't Let Go. The fact that Weezer hadn't been heard in 5yrs and the first thing you hear when you listen to it is the drum intro of Don't let Go is brilliant.
(Anybody who likes he Green Album should def give Teenage Fanclub "Grand Prix" a listen.)


Maladroit - An album that contains some brilliant songs, Burndt Jamb, American Gigolo, Dope Nose etc. But as an album it definitley does not work. Its like listening to a compilation, none of the songs flow or seem to work together at all, but like I said earlier, individually the songs are brillliant. Also spoiled by having Island In The Sun as a bonus track, makes no sense. In my oopinion the closest sounding album to Pinkerton but didn't reach the mark.

Make Believe - Worst album. Not awful but more of an album that appeals to the MTV kids and is very slick and over produced. To me its like the Blue album but way over produced and soppy.

On the Green and Blue Albums they got the mix just right and it works whereas Make Believe is too far over the line of commercial pop crap.

Den_M

God this album is brilliant. From start to finish, right up there in my top 5 (of all time, loike!) No Other One's a stormer but they all kick bum.

John

I must say I'm surprised at how many people rate this so highly. As I said in my first post, I think it's a great album but it wouldn't be anywhere near my top 50 let alone top five or ten. Am I missing something?

Colonel Kurtz

It would'nt quite make my Top 10, but it really is a magnificent album.

The tunes are so raw - both musically and emotionally - but yet it's never difficult to listen to. So much beautiful melody crammed in - Pink Triangle, El Scorcho and Across the Sea are real gems.

Makaveli

Amazing album, but Blue is my favourite. Blue just ends on a stronger note than Pinkerton for me and that's the clincher. Two fantastic albums.

Stargal

Makaveli wrote:

Blue just ends on a stronger note than Pinkerton for me and that's the clincher.

I used to really dislike the way that Butterfly was the closing track on Pinkerton, thought it was v weak and completely changes the tone set by the rest of the songs. The most I've listened to it though, the more I've started to appreciate it. It gives a sense of closure to everything, like Rivers is trying to resolve everything that he's done wrong.

Creamy Goodness

what a great album i have to say.

surprised it took 25 weeks for weezer to be mentioned.

john wrote:

I must say I'm surprised at how many people rate this so highly. As I said in my first post, I think it's a great album but it wouldn't be anywhere near my top 50 let alone top five or ten. Am I missing something?

the reason people rate it so highly is because it was the pinnacle of weezer, this had everything - emotion, dirty guitars, airy drums it was just pure perfection.

rolling stones announced it as the worst album of 1996 and this hit rivers so bad - after all he poured his heart and soul into the album - that he decided to go a totally difference direction and stop putting emotion in his songs alltogether.

Rivers has since wrote no more than 3 emotional songs (slob, hold me, the other way) and it just shows that he is capable of writing good songs if he wants to but is really just afraid of what the media will do if he does.

Makaveli

stargal wrote:

I used to really dislike the way that Butterfly was the closing track on Pinkerton, thought it was v weak and completely changes the tone set by the rest of the songs. The most I've listened to it though, the more I've started to appreciate it. It gives a sense of closure to everything, like Rivers is trying to resolve everything that he's done wrong.

I think Butterfly is a great song and Pinkerton has more continuity to it than Blue, I just like the last four songs on Blue better than the others (well not so much Holiday but Only In Dreams and Say It Aint So are the real clinchers).

Ho-Hum

A great album but I'd have to rate the Blue album a hell of a lot higher.

Andrew 83

Mr Marenghi wrote:

Rolling Stone did slate it but by the years end they had in their albums of the year list .

Was it not the case that they slated it when they reviewed it, then named it worst album of the year at the end of the year, then only re-reviewed it and declared it a classic in the issue interviewing Rivers around the time Make Believe came out?

zuutroy

I've been a fan since 94 and bought every album on its release date and seen them 5 times, and I suppose I'd call them my 'favourite band'! Don't agree with the Make Believe slaters. Some great tunes on it, e.g. Perfect Situation, Damage in Your Heart, My Best Friend. Though I suppose there are a couple of MTV tunes in there.
Pink was my fav for years and years. Doesn't have the same affect now that I'm nearly 30.
These days I'd be inclined to go:
Blue
Pink/Green
MB





Maladroit (down in the depths of awfulness) Dont even know or care where my copy is.

Creamy Goodness

i prefer maladroit to make believe, there a certain roughness to it that some way reminds me of pinkerton.

i don't think i can ever forgive Rivers for writing about "Buhvurlee Hillz" it's just not right.

Andrew 83

I like Maladroit, my third favourite after Pinkerton and Blue. Green and Make Believe can fight it out for the final two. Think the highlights of Make Believe (Perfect Situation, This is Such a Pity) are better than those on Green but perhaps there's more decent tracks overall on Green.

johnny_ultimate

Superb album. Blue remains my favourite, but this is the most unique and different of their fine catalogue.