Weezer -- Pinkerton and Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition)

10/10

I was driving my car home in the fall of 1999, my senior year, getting off from school at lunch, before having to go to work at the Winn Dixie grocery store in New Roads that afternoon. I had my radio always tuned to 91.1 KLSU, the radio station I'd DJ at in college, which I was due to start in less than a year. I had a pilonidal cyst, which I was embarrassed about and thought was going to kill me, and I was coming off a period of time where I'd pretty much just stayed in my room and barely come out for a year. Then Weezer's "The Good Life" came on the radio.
I had completely forgotten about Weezer. Sure, I'd loved all the songs I'd heard from their first album, but I hadn't heard any from their second because none had appeared on the local rock stations. Those stations just kept playing the band's hits from 1994. I'd faintly heard that Weezer's 1996's sophomore effort, Pinkerton, was a disappointment, but then it completely disappeared from my radar. However, this song was great. It perfectly encapsulated my mood and feelings. It sounded like Weezer frontman, Rivers Cuomo, was feeling the same way I was. He'd just been shut in and depressed, and suffering from physical injury, and now he wanted to get back out there. I jammed the hell out of that song, then went to every senior party or get together I could fit between going to school and working full time. So not a lot of parties, but hey, before that, I was going to zero!
As for Pinkerton as a whole, it's the best Weezer album and one of the best albums of the 90's. Whatever stage of life Rivers Cuomo was in here sounds weird and unpleasant, but boy does it make for a great album. Rivers was a rock star, back in college where no one recognized him, recovering from a leg injury that left him sitting in a chair and staring out a window, nursing some strange relationships. The result is an oddly personal album that's shockingly honest in the same way someone who hasn't any human contact in a long time is. But also, it rocks. Opener, "Tired of Sex," is full of all kinds of musically personified angst, beginning with guitar distortion and a huge drumbeat, awesomely thick bassline, whacked out synthesizer, and the most desperate vocal performance of Rivers Cuomo's career, as his anguished cry at the end of the first chorus, after he sings "Why can't I be makin' love come true?" sounds like someone being stabbed to death. And then he sings the second verse with even more tortured passion. The entire album would collapse if Cuomo brought that much Sturm und Drang to each track, so he dials that stuff back just a bit from the next nine songs, though each still features a staggering amount of emotion from the bespectacled frontman.
"Getchoo" rocks out hard before "No Other One" takes things down a notch musically, though lyrically hits the sadness feels. "Why Bother?" brings Cuomo's depression to a head (it's a question I ask myself every time my alarm goes off), rocking out again before album centerpiece, "Across the Sea."
"Across the Sea," at four-and-a-half minutes the longest track on Pinkerton, is also its most ornate, with a piano and Asian flute intro and quiet bridge after an explosive second chorus. The song fully explores Cuomo's sexual frustration, as he bounces from feeling guilty he's imagined a fan masturbating to him, to exploring the idea of shaving his head and becoming a monk. I should really stress here, as I haven't already, that Pinkerton is weird. It's an oddly specific look into Cuomo's peccadillos, but at the same time, like most great albums, makes those weird specificities feel universal. Most people feel lonely and frustrated at some point. 

Next is the aforementioned "The Good Life," kicking off side B with some positivity, which mostly continues (minus "Pink Triangle") throughout the album's second side, up until the closer, "Butterfly," a sad acoustic song that ends with Cuomo plaintively singing "I told you I would return when the robin makes his nest/but I ain't never comin back/I'm sorry/I'm sorry/I'm sorry." And that's it. The depressed person's rock album of choice comes to an end. 

But hey, there's more if you get the Deluxe Edition! Well, I guess now you can just listen to the Deluxe Edition on Spotify, but it's worth it to hear all of the other great songs the band created during this period that didn't make it onto Pinkerton. These Deluxe Edition bonus tracks show me that my favorite genre of music is mid-90's Weezer, as I love all of these songs, including what might be my favorite Weezer song ever, "You Gave Your Love To Me Softly," which will never not remind me of the end of the 1995 flick, Angus.

"You Gave Your Love to Me Softly" features all of this Weezer era's greatest facets: crunchy, fuzzy guitars, Matt Sharp's bass (he left the band immediately after this), that grimy synth, a gnarly guitar solo, and a certain defiant energy. Another highlight here is "Long Time Sunshine," which would have ended the band's abandoned Songs From the Black Hole project, which was originally supposed to have been Weezer's follow up to Blue. Songs From the Black Hole, which would have featured many of Pinkerton's songs, is generally cited on or at the top of many "Best Albums You'll Never Hear" lists. While I wish Songs From the Black Hole existed, and while "Long Time Sunshine" would have even made a great closer for Pinkerton itself, I am glad this raw and emotional version of the song exists on this Deluxe Edition, and I am glad Pinkerton was released in the perfect form it was, regardless.
There are also a bunch of live and rough versions of Pinkerton songs on the Deluxe Edition, as well as some interview snippets. For a big Weezer or Pinkerton fan, it's a must get. And with that said, it's time for me to get out of here.

1996 DGC
1. Tired of Sex 3:01
2. Getchoo 2:52
3. No Other One 3:01
4. Why Bother? 2:08
5. Across the Sea 4:32
6. The Good Life 4:17
7. El Scorcho 4:03
8. Pink Triangle 3:58
9. Falling for You 3:47
10. Butterfly 2:53

Deluxe Edition
Disc One Bonus Tracks
11. You Gave Your Love to Me Softly 1:57
12. Devotion 3:11
13. The Good Life (radio remix) 4:08
14. Waiting on You 4:13
15. I Just Threw out the Love of My Dreams (with Rachel Haden) 2:39
16. The Good Life (live and acoustic) 4:40
17. Pink Triangle (radio remix) 4:02
18. I Swear It's True 3:19
19. Pink Triangle (live and acoustic) 4:18
20. Interview – 107.7 The End – Blue vs. Pinkerton) 1:32

Disc Two
1. You Won't Get With Me Tonight 3:29
2. The Good Life (live at Y100 Sonic Session) 4:37
3. El Scorcho (live at Y100 Sonic Session) 4:07
4. Pink Triangle (live at Y100 Sonic Session) 4:10
5. Why Bother? (live at Reading Festival 1996) 2:18
6. El Scorcho (live at Reading Festival 1996) 4:09
7. Pink Triangle (live at Reading Festival 1996) 4:52
8. The Good Life (live at X96) 4:13
9. El Scorcho (live and acoustic) 4:26
10. Across the Sea Piano Noodles 0:38
11. Butterfly (alternate take) 2:48
12. Long Time Sunshine 4:17
13. Getting Up and Leaving 3:28
14. Tired of Sex (tracking rough) 2:58
15. Getchoo (tracking rough) 2:57
16. Tragic Girl 5:26