AOTW: Pinkerton

This is my favorite cd, ever.

Up until 8^th grade my listening preferences centered mainly on hip-hop. My artists of choice were guys like Black Rob, Biggie, and DMX etc. You couldn't catch me listening to anything else especially rock music unless it was on the radio. My sister being two years older, and thus two years wiser had a much wider taste in music and was always trying to push me to listen to things other than hip-hop. I usually resisted because I thought rock music was strictly consumed by white people and white people only. One day, however, I decided that I wanted to see what all the hype was about and asked my sister what she was listening to at the time, and it was at this moment that she handed me a copy of Pinkerton by Weezer, which would turn out to be a life changing experience.

When talking about Weezer, most people recall songs like “Buddy Holly” or “Undone -The Sweater Song”. Though both good songs neither of them can compare to Pinkerton in my book. The album is the odd man out in Weezer's decidedly power-pop filled catalog in almost every way; the theme, motifs, overall production quality, and even the album cover. Ever since the success of The Green Album There were high expectations for Weezer's follow up album People were expecting to get more of the same but cranked up times a million, but instead people were presented with Rivers Cuomo spilling his guts out on a record. and unsurprisingly most people were disappointed in the new direction that Cuomo took. Since all of the criticism that Cuomo took for making the record he has not released anything remotely similar to Pinkerton. Which in my opinion SUCKS because it was way ahead of its time. I'd go as far as to say that it's Weezer's best album because of the risks that Cuomo took by putting so much of himself in the record. which is why Pinkerton struck a chord with my angsty emo 12-13 year old self. This CD was bumped 24/7 for at least half of 8^th grade before I even listened to anything else. Since then i've been more wiling to listen to different types of music, but not everything has had the same affect on me as Pinkerton. Especially dubstep. That sucks major.

I know not everyone will agree with what I’m saying but you gotta remember that I wasn't raised listening to rock music. So when people ask me about why I like rock music it wasn't because of Led Zeppelin and all it was because of Pinkerton. So why am I bringing up a 10+ year old album? Because the album has held up well and if it was released today it would fit right in and is better than some albums that have been recently released. And you know what it HAS been released recently as a 2-Disc Deluxe edition. The CD1 is the original album remastered and CD2 is filled with live renditions and also tracks that didn't make the album. And though I can't whole heatedly recommend buying the deluxe edition just for the new track (I've only just breezed through it, so maybe I'll change my mind later), I can say that Pinkerton is an album that everybody should take a listen to, just don't go in expecting power pop cause you will be sorely disappointed.

If you wanna hear the album buy it or go here.

Pinkerton Tracks in the Order that I like em.

El Scorcho

Across The Sea

Why Bother?

Falling for You

Pink Triangle

No Other One

The Good Life

Buttterfly

Getchoo

Tired of Sex