Description
1996 Weezer Album Cited on Countless Best-of Decade Lists: Pinkerton Lays Bare Relatable Frustration, Confusion, and Loneliness Amid Power-Pop Melodies
Few records claim a more bizarre history than Pinkerton. Upon initial release in 1996, Weezer’s sophomore effort failed to meet sales expectations, lacked a hit single, and drew primarily negative reviews from the press. Then, via word of mouth and reevaluation, the Little Album That Could began to build a reputation as an initially misunderstood masterwork — a bold, brave creation on which hyper-contagious hooks accompany a stream of confessional lyrics. Today, it’s cited on virtually every Best Albums of the 1990s list in existence.
Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g LP of Pinkerton brings the band’s live-in-the-studio vocals and raw feelings to the surface. Leader Rivers Cuomo’s decision to record group choruses around three microphones rather than capture them separately can be experienced as originally intended, translating in the form of an edgy immediacy that parallels the songs’ frustrated themes. Scraping guitars that augment the trials and tribulations documented in the lyrics come across with thrilling immediacy and in full-bodied fashion. You’ll hear details, tones, and dynamics absent from prior versions; crucial sonic fields such as separation, depth, soundstaging, and balance all reach new heights.
Comprised of personal narratives largely based on Cuomo’s dissatisfaction with rock-star life, and written by the singer/guitarist as he attended school at Harvard University, Pinkerton confronts disappointment, loneliness, isolation, awkwardness, and romantic irony with a universal perspective to which almost anybody can relate. Cuomo selected the character Lieutenant Pinkerton from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly as a touchstone, believing the persona symbolic of the tormented protagonists in his songs—and recognizing similar struggles to come to terms with identity.
Weezer’s aims on Pinkerton have connected with many listeners who identify with its narratives and adore its power-pop melodies. Its popularity and reputation continue to grow. Surpassing cult-classic status, the platinum-certified record ranks in Guitar World’s “Top 100 Guitar Albums of All-Time”; Spin’s “100 Best Albums From 1985 to 2005”; Pitchfork’s “Top 100 Albums of the 1990s”; and Rolling Stone’s Hall of Fame.
For all the malaise, Pinkerton also contains many beloved moments of wit and humor. Shyness and hands-in-pocket diffidence inform “El Scorcho”; incongruity and surprise surround the simultaneously funny and sad “Pink Triangle”; tedium and desire collide on the cynical “Tired of Sex.” Throughout, psychosexual confusion, unrequited passion, and good intentions elicit unintended sympathies — a characteristic that remains one of the record’s brilliant turns.
