The LP that Weezer regret writing: “It’s just a sick album”
Regret is a funny thing. In a way, it’s a reminder that people change, that our attitudes evolve and that our value systems are easily altered. Regret implies a certain embarrassment towards something we were once sure of. This is especially true of musicians. Making music takes either a huge amount of self-belief or a huge amount of self-ignorance. Oftentimes, these two motivators can feel indistinguishable, and musicians end up convincing themselves to pursue a certain path against their better judgment. This doesn’t matter to the fans, who are usually just happy to have something new to listen to. But for the musicians themselves, it must feel a little odd having a document of one’s former worldview perched on a merch stand for purchase. Just ask Weezer.
Weezer’s second album, Pinkerton, is a far cry from the care-free guitar pop of The Blue Album. Written between River Cuomo’s terms at Harvard University, it was an attempt to capture both the band’s live sound and Cuomo’s burgeoning disillusionment with the rock scene.
The album gave birth to singles such as ‘El Scorcho’, ‘The Good Life’ and ‘Pink Triangle’, all of which carry a certain scuzziness not found on The Blue Album. On its release, many fans were unsure about Pinkerton, but it soon took on cult appeal. So many years later, it’s easy to see why. Sure there’s a little bit of wallowing on Cuomo’s part, but as an encapsulation of the frontman’s life at that time, it’s hard to fault.
In 1995, Cuomo had extensive leg surgery to lengthen his slightly shorter right leg. This was followed by eight weeks of physiotherapy. The pain of the sessions, combined with extended stints in the hospital, deeply affected his songwriting, heightening his sense of alienation and pessimistic outlook. “You will meet two hundred people every night, but each conversation will generally last approximately thirty seconds,” he wrote in The Pinkerton Diaries. “Then you will be alone again, in your motel room. Or you will be on your bus, in your little space, trying to kill the nine hours it takes to get to the next city, whichever city it is.”
However, for Cuomo, the fact that Pinkerton so effectively captured his worldview was not something to be celebrated. “99 per cent of what I’m about on Pinkerton is what was actually happening in my life,” he said 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 such a source of anxiety because all the fans we have right now have stuck around because of that album. But, honestly, I never want to play those songs again; I never want to hear them again.”
Cuomo might hate Pinkerton, but we still love it. You can revisit one of our favourite cuts from the album below.
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