{"id":4692,"date":"2010-12-09T11:43:44","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T15:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=4692"},"modified":"2010-12-09T15:28:38","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T19:28:38","slug":"please-explain-what%e2%80%99s-so-%e2%80%9cdifficult%e2%80%9d-about-weezer%e2%80%99s-pinkerton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/please-explain-what%e2%80%99s-so-%e2%80%9cdifficult%e2%80%9d-about-weezer%e2%80%99s-pinkerton\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Explain: What\u2019s So \u201cDifficult\u201d About Weezer\u2019s <em>Pinkerton<\/em>?"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gjy3XbxMW1A?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Please explain <strong>Weezer<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Pinkerton<\/em> album, which seemed, magically, to have been released with misunderstood, unappreciated masterpiece status on arrival.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I was fine with what little I heard of from Weezer&#8217;s debut album, the one with that &#8220;Buddy Holly&#8221; song and the <em>Happy Days<\/em> video. As soon as I started reading stuff about that <strong>Rivers Cuomo<\/strong> guy, though, I became annoyed and paid the band as little mind as possible. Then came their second album, <em>Pinkerton<\/em>, and I had to read even more drama about Cuomo\u2014maybe some kind of breakdown, an early retirement, enrollement in an Ivy League school? I was a grown man at this point; I couldn&#8217;t care less about his nonsense. To this day he&#8217;s written about and interviewed in reverent tones, like he&#8217;s the white <strong>Kanye West<\/strong> or something.\u00a0<em>Artist Enclosed:\u00a0Handle With Care.<\/em> I could care less, but that&#8217;s not the point of this piece, is it?<\/p>\n<p>Anytime I&#8217;ve heard Weezer they sound like <strong>Fountains of Wayne<\/strong> with a slightly heavier, indie-influenced sound. They seem to be credited with starting entire genres of music that mean nothing to me, stuff like <strong>Emo<\/strong>. Anytime I hear what&#8217;s considered an Emo band it sounds like Weezer, with a slightly more modern-rock sound and eyeliner. But this <em>Pinkerton<\/em> album, I&#8217;ve been led to believe for the last 14 years, was something altogether different, as summarized by the opening line of the album&#8217;s Wikipedia entry:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The album was seen as a departure from the band&#8217;s original power pop<a> <\/a>sound for a somewhat darker and more abrasive sound.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How light was the sound of their debut album if this one sounds dark? As for the &#8220;abrasive&#8221; tag, I don&#8217;t hear it. Coupled with the prog-rock album cover I was expecting something wild and exciting, like <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/could-i-dig-the-mars-volta-if-i-only-lis\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Mars Volta<\/a><\/strong>. Instead, <em>Pinkerton<\/em> sounds pretty much like standard-issue jeans store rock. If it&#8217;s groundbreaking for setting the template for jeans store rock, then that&#8217;s another matter.<\/p>\n<p>Much is made of the personal pain that Cuomo faced in writing these songs. He was lonely in his dorm room. A girl broke up with him. She dumped him for a woman. He masturbated. Boo hoo! Do you mean to tell me that in 1996 no artist had articulated these feelings in rock song before? Was <strong>Lou Reed<\/strong>&#8216;s catalog out of print that year?<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7CEqVTWo4EI?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>A thorough, surprisingly well reasoned <em><a href=\"http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/14817-pinkerton-deluxe-edition-death-to-false-metal\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pitchfork<\/a><\/em> review of the recently reissued, expanded edition of this album helps to explain some of my questions, including this gem:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In actuality,\u00a0<em>Pinkerton <\/em>may initially have been the victim of a generation gap. It was hardly the first album to get this uncomfortably confessional, but it had some unusually bad timing. Self-laceration\u00a0<em>was <\/em>in vogue during 1996, but as far as critical favorites went, it was often from a female perspective (Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Courtney Love) that balanced boldness and raw vulnerability. In comparison,\u00a0<em>Pinkerton <\/em>was hardly misunderstood, but instead seen for what it was: written from a juvenile, male, and incredibly needy perspective. It&#8217;s a really tough album to go to bat for if you&#8217;re an adult, particularly since enjoying it is so closely associated with\u00a0<em>relating<\/em> to it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But really, if you were of the appropriate age when this album was released, was it really that &#8220;difficult&#8221; to handle, or were you just a musical wimp?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please explain Weezer&#8216;s Pinkerton album, which seemed, magically, to have been released with misunderstood, unappreciated masterpiece status on arrival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[127,393],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}