I think I can confidently tell people now that Weezer is, and has been, my favorite band for years now. Last week, I revisited their lesser known second album considered to sound very dark and different from their successful blue and green albums. I listened to Pinkerton on repeat on my discman when I was in high school and immediately had adolescent nostalgia going through it again on Spotify. I never thought it was a bad album back then either, but it made me curious to Wikipedia its history and here is what I learned.
Comments on the album from the lead singer, Rivers Cuomo,...
in 1997: "This has been a tough year. It's not just that the world has said Pinkerton isn't worth a shit, but that the Blue album wasn't either. It was a fluke. It was the ["Buddy Holly"] video. I'm a shitty songwriter."
in 2001: "The most painful thing in my life these days is the cult around Pinkerton. It's just a sick album, sick in a diseased sort of way."
"It's a hideous record... It was such a hugely painful mistake that happened in front of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to happen on a grander and grander scale and just won't go away. It's like getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself."
in 2008: "Pinkerton's great. It's super-deep, brave, and authentic. Listening to it, I can tell that I was really going for it when I wrote and recorded a lot of those songs."
in 2010: "Pinkerton has definitely taken on a life of its own and became more successful and more accepted … As an artist, you just have to do what you believe in at the time, whether it’s accepted or not. You just have to keep going with it."
"The last time we played all of those [Pinkerton] songs, they went over like a lead balloon. And I just remember that feeling of just total rejection. And then to see 5,500 people singing along to every last word through every song on the album, even the really difficult ones, was incredibly validating for me."
If you made it to the last quote, he is referring to the Memories Tour where they played Blue and Pinkerton in their entirety. I'd give my right arm to jump into a DeLorean and see that show!
Besides finding another level of appreciation for a forgotten album, parenting feels a bit like Pinkerton to me these days. The daughter is 2.6 years old and really embracing the TERRIBLE Twos, which really brings out a lot of my terrible intolerance. It feels like everything prior to this was the smooth and fun Blue album and now I'm just looking forward to reaching the "squeaky-clean" Green album. I keep telling people how depraved she is, but it's really me who is the sinner of all sinners.
As I am in thick of it right now, I will take Cuomo's advice and "just have to do what you believe in at the time, whether it's accepted or not. You just have to keep going with it."
Thought of the Day: Listen
Song of the Day: Weezer-Tired of Sex (Tracking Rough)