Thread: Favorite Albums
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Old 2011.05.24, 09:02 PM   #43
Tokyo Jihad
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Red face My stupid List (the tragedy of Pinkerton)

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#14: Pinkerton

Is there a more tragic album in rock and roll history than that of Weezer’s 1996 sophomore effort Pinkerton? An album created after the collapse of an even more ambitious record attempt. An album created after the social ostracization of front-man Rivers Cuomo brought on by serious leg surgery during the band’s meteoric rise, as well as his entrance into Harvard. An album dubbed the second worst album of 1996 by Rolling Stone. An album that only gained notoriety during a long hiatus for the band. An album that since, Cuomo has either desperately tried to recreate or settle on posthumously cashing in on. An album that now has garnered so much praise that today it’s almost considered passé to mention in a “best album” discussion. At the risk of being trite, such woe is the subject of my #14 album.

I’ve spun Pinkerton from time to time ever since I discovered “Getchoo” randomly during the Napster days. I even included “El Scorcho” in a video I made for video tech class. I don’t think I ever made a real connection with the album until one of my last semesters in college, though. At that time my trusty Creative Nomad mp3 player went kaputs. I felt like I was thrown back into the stone age, using CD-Rs -- like I was a high-schooler again! First world problems. Each morning before I went off to school I would burn a CD for the day. Usually I would put two mix-and-matched half-albums on a disc to emulate the feeling of selection. At that time I was cycling through Sgt. Pepper’s, Ida Maria’s Fortress Round my Heart, and The Flaming Lips’ At War with the Mystics. I’m not sure when Pinkerton entered the rotation, but I remember waiting outside my Government class as the second half of Pinkerton came on. While I waited for the class to open, I would usually listen to my tunes as I kept tabs on the fellow strangers in class, figuring out their stories. Two such subjects were two asian girls. I never paid much attention to them until one morning, we filtered in to class, I saw them walking in together. Holding hands.


I practically pumped my fists when I saw this. They were a couple! How adorable! I then began to eye them more to pick apart their story (and god willing, maybe see a little girl-girl action!) There was the tall one who dressed in boys clothes and wore a boys haircut. I noticed how she always tried goad on the other, shorter, girlier one. She seemed a little less enamored, always with the look of bother. It looked as much as the tall one wanted to get close, the short one wanted to pull away (at least in public I assumed.) Perhaps this was just a phase for her, at the other’s expense. I don’t know the answers to any of the questions I had about these two girls, but as the second half of Pinkerton spun in my CD player, all the anxiety and loneliness felt by Rivers Cuomo was channeled to me via this misunderstood tall asian girl.

Now if you think my story is creepy, wait until you get a load of “Across the Sea,” the center-piece of my #14 album. Rivers (or, the subject of the song, if you will) is even more isolated in college. Only the thought of a girl oversees that sent him a fan letter is the closest sense of relationship he has at this time, we can imagine. The song makes you feel kind of icky even, hearing how he “sniffs and licks” the envelope of a letter he seems to carry around as he fantasizes about the girl touching herself. We the audience feel so ashamed to be hearing such things; we take it out on Rivers for writing such lyrics. Really, we feel ashamed because we have all felt so low at one time or another. The dark times we desperately try to cover in dirt and run away from. We want to separate from that side of ourselves, so at first reaction, we take it out on Rivers Cuomo for reminding us. It takes guts to write from such a low state and record it with your friends and then publish it to the world; you gotta give him props for evoking such an irrational emotion.

The rest of the album isn’t much of a pick-me-up either: more isolation, more abusive relationships, insecurity, and frustration. It is filled with tragic image after image until the final creaks of “Butterfly” finally cease. The only thing remotely optimistic is “The Good Life” wherein Rivers declares he “wants to get back.” This wasn’t the follow-up people were looking for after Weezer’s debut music videos seemed to showcase them as a nerdy novelty. (Not that the music always backed up this image.) However, similar to The Cardigans, Weezer did a good job keeping the music’s energy up when the subject matter was low.

The album was released, and it bombed. With the music coming from such a dark place, I can only imagine the emotional fallout for Cuomo. According to the linear notes in his (superb) Alone series, he reveals he painted black over all the windows, and covered them with insulation when necessary, during his “post-Pinkerton” era. As horrible as this all sounds, doesn’t every artist want to have a Pinkerton to their name. It doesn’t matter what people think, I just want to put my bare heart out there (and ideally, foster a cult following until its no longer fashionable.) Who doesn’t want this?

Everybody, until the fall out.

Rivers himself distanced from Pinkerton when Weezer reformed. It took him a while to warm back up to the album that the world was rediscovering. Can you blame him either? As allued, we’ve all been to our own Pinkertons, and we rarely ever want to revisit. Towards the end of that college semester, I noticed the two girls didn’t sit together in class anymore (at least for a week of classes.) Maybe that tall girl was going through her own Pinkerton. I like to think she has left there, found another girl that’s maybe more open to PDA. While he probably isn’t interested in creating another one, Rivers Cuomo certainly left his Pinkerton. I’ve left mine (I think!)It’s nice to think that, after a certain time, the only Pinkerton a person will have to think about is this album, and with a positive feeling.
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