Weezer - Pinkerton and the Blue Album

Rivers Cuomo is my spirit animal.

Pinkerton is my favourite album. It is a personal album, and it is always difficult to review something that had such a big impact on your life.

When I first listened to Pinkerton there were many changes going on in my life. I was changing schools and growing up. It was a time where I often felt depressed and alienated.

Simply said, Pinkerton came at the right time in my life.

They even looked like us!

Let me explain Weezer for a little bit. They are of course a pop band; so their music is accessible for lots of folks, but their first two records are also hugely popular with a crowd we’ll call, for lack of a better word: geeks.

The lyrical themes on the Blue album deal with subjects geeks could quickly relate to. Couple that with some great and catchy power pop melodies and a sound that perfectly encapsulates the 90s alternative rock, and the Blue album was destined to become a 90s alternative rock legend.

Lately the thought appeared to me that Blue and Pinkerton may be two sides of the same coin. Where the coin represents being a teenager.

Blue deals with teenage topics in a lighter and more idealised way, and far often goes on about the nice things you have while growing up. With exception for “Say It Ain’t So” most serious topics are delivered in a tongue in cheek way, or using metaphors.

Pinkerton in stark contrast deals with these topics in a direct and extremely personal way. While writing Pinkerton, front man Rivers Cuomo felt alienated and depressed, coupled with the rock star lifestyle weighing down on him lead probably to a mental breakdown. This shows in the lyrics; serious topics are no longer dressed up and Rivers’ honesty does not show any borders.

For some Rivers’ honesty may be a big turn off, but for me and dozens of other (awkward) teenagers it felt amazing to hear something  was so relatable.

Musically Pinkerton also stands in some contrast to Blue; Blue has a very clean production which of course was perfect for what Weezer wanted to achieve with it.

Pinkerton on the other hand has a really raw production which greatly accompanies  River’ heartfelt delivery.

Both records of course have some of the best alternative rock hooks ever, but where Blue’s hooks are clean, Pinkerton’s hooks are raw and drenched in distortion.

That doesn’t mean that Pinkerton is only serious emotions and stuff like that.

“El Scorcho” for example has a lot of crazy things going on, from the guitar hook to all the stuff former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp does.

Pinkerton also displays what a great songwriter Cuomo was. Some songs have a little piano work here and there, the way “Pink Triangle” flows into “Falling For You” is also really neat, “Falling For You” also has quite some complex stuff going down for a Power Pop song, and of course the themes of the album is also cohesive through all songs.

In essence, why I love Pinkerton so much comes largely down to personal reasons and I suspect that is for most people that love Pinkerton as much as me, and again, it is quite hard to describe something that had such a big impact on your life. In my opinion everyone should just listen to Pinkerton for themselves and then see if they like it for its personal lyrics or perhaps its amazing song writing.

So do I consider Pinkerton the best record ever made? No, that honour goes to Mingus’ “Black Saint and The Sinner Lady. But I do consider Pinkerton my favourite, and Blue and Pinkerton are both two essentials of 90s rock music.