Pinkerton, the second album of Weezer, which was released at September 1996, is the most enchanting album of them for me. It was released just after Rivers Cuomo, the frontman of Weezer, had begun his study at Harvard University. Despite its bearish selling, actually one of the worst selling album of Weezer, it's really emotional and personal that make it the best Weezer album ever for me.
This album is named after the the character B.F. Pinkerton from Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and the album plays as a concept album based loosely around the opera. Just like the opera itself, this album is much affected by the Japanese culture. Its cover is Kambara yoru no yuki ("Night Snow at Kambara"), a print by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige. The Japanese concept of this album may have been chosen based on the Japanese content of the songs inside.
Rivers' passion about Japanese culture (and woman) is no secret anymore. He's really up into the Japanese culture and sometimes he even sings one or two lines of Japanese nursery rhymes in Weezer concert. However, his passion about Japanese things in this album was quite specific, since it mainly talked about love. His personal style of writing in this album revealed his sensitive side as a normal man, who wants to love and being loved by a woman of his life. His searching of a soul-mate finally paid off about ten years after this album release, for he was finally married to a Japanese (oh, finally, the Japanese again) woman and settle down, just like he wanted to be in this album. Here is some of the songs of Pinkerton that I loved the most:
1. Across the Sea
Actually, this is my most favorite song in this album, maybe the best Weezer song ever for me. I really love the story behind this song. This song is based on Rivers' true story about a Japanese fan who send letters to him. Just like another ordinary girl, this girl wanted to know anything about Rivers. His birthday, his hobby, his favorite food (well, at that time, there was no facebook whatsoever so you can't guess and has to do some old fashioned things like sending letters). Rivers, however, fell in love with this girl just because of reading her letters. So, he started to have a fantasy about this girl but at the same time realizing the truth that he would never be with her, as he really did not know any real thing about the girl. Well, she could be a mad man and pretended to be a teenage girl, who knows? The girl said that she was 18 year old, but as Rivers said, she could even be just 13 or 14 year old and pretend to be older. Anyway, besides the physical distance between them, there was also an age gap, since Rivers was 26 at that time, and he felt that he was too older for her. All of those thought seemed frustrated him a lot and he pitied himself on this song, emotionally.
After all, in my opinion, this song was about nothing but a loneliness. How come a rich and famous man fell in love so deeply to a girl that he doesn't even know anything about, just because some letters, if he is not in a deep despair of searching a true love?
2. El Scorcho
This song is started by a wacky drum beat and then you can hear Brian Bell (the guitarist) said "El Scorcho...Rock and Roll" with awkward voice. That witty beginning is followed by hilarious look that Rivers made in the video clip and then a "swear" word about a girl. Yeah, this is another song about a girl, (again) a Japanese girl. It was about a man who fell in love with a girl but didn't know what to do, and so did the girl. So, it was like a dead-end love story. But, this song has a sequel, so we can get another piece of the story from that. Its sequel was believed to be "Falling for You" track. Both of those songs used the same phrase to express the feeling, that is "falling for you".
3. Pink Triangle
Although "El Scorcho" and "Falling for You" are connected, but in this album, they are separated with this song. This is another favorite song of mine from Weezer and also based on Rivers' personal experience. As the songs above explained, at that time, Rivers was (at least) a bit lonely man who was looking for his true love. Then this song is started with "When I'm stable long enough, I start to look around for love". Yes, after officially had been a Harvard student, Rivers started to look for a girl in his college. It is said that he met several "potential" girls that he did not brave enough to make a move into. However, he finally found a girl in his campus whom he thought he search for. Unfortunately, that girl is a lesbian and so Rivers again came into a heartache. That's this song is all about.
4. Falling for You
As explained before, this is a sequel of "El Scorcho". In this song, the man in question finally has summoned the courage to speak to the girl, but he is now questioning himself on whether he deserves his position, and how to deal with it. The girl is said to be much younger than him, so that he was a little bit afraid of that condition, although he likes that girl too much. The man also started to think to marry that young girl, "get fat and old" with her as he was really desperate to settle down. However, their age gap made him feel so tangled since he felt that the girl may deserve a brighter future ahead, and also he thought that he, as an "old goat", didn't deserve to be a man for such a "young chick". Therefore, the man is afraid that he is falling for her, as the song said "my baby I'm afraid I'm falling for you...". Quite funny,though.
5. Butterfly
Finally, this personal album is ended by this song. "Butterfly" is told from Pinkerton's point of view in the opera Madame Butterfly. Known for its sincere lyrics and simplicity, "Butterfly" remains Weezer's only completely acoustic song to be commercially released.(Source : www.weezerpedia.com)
The album is actually containing ten songs, but here, I only give a review of my favorite tracks. You can also try to hear another songs from this album which are also good. As I said before, despite its emotional background, this album had a commercial failure. Rivers said that he would never want to write with such personal style anymore. And yes, I didn't find another Weezer songs that has such personal style like this album's anymore, and it make me love this album even more.
NB: All of the italic lines between brackets in this post were taken from its lyrics.
Here is "Across the Sea" for your eagerness to finish reading this post. Thank you very much!
This album is named after the the character B.F. Pinkerton from Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and the album plays as a concept album based loosely around the opera. Just like the opera itself, this album is much affected by the Japanese culture. Its cover is Kambara yoru no yuki ("Night Snow at Kambara"), a print by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige. The Japanese concept of this album may have been chosen based on the Japanese content of the songs inside.
Rivers' passion about Japanese culture (and woman) is no secret anymore. He's really up into the Japanese culture and sometimes he even sings one or two lines of Japanese nursery rhymes in Weezer concert. However, his passion about Japanese things in this album was quite specific, since it mainly talked about love. His personal style of writing in this album revealed his sensitive side as a normal man, who wants to love and being loved by a woman of his life. His searching of a soul-mate finally paid off about ten years after this album release, for he was finally married to a Japanese (oh, finally, the Japanese again) woman and settle down, just like he wanted to be in this album. Here is some of the songs of Pinkerton that I loved the most:
1. Across the Sea
Actually, this is my most favorite song in this album, maybe the best Weezer song ever for me. I really love the story behind this song. This song is based on Rivers' true story about a Japanese fan who send letters to him. Just like another ordinary girl, this girl wanted to know anything about Rivers. His birthday, his hobby, his favorite food (well, at that time, there was no facebook whatsoever so you can't guess and has to do some old fashioned things like sending letters). Rivers, however, fell in love with this girl just because of reading her letters. So, he started to have a fantasy about this girl but at the same time realizing the truth that he would never be with her, as he really did not know any real thing about the girl. Well, she could be a mad man and pretended to be a teenage girl, who knows? The girl said that she was 18 year old, but as Rivers said, she could even be just 13 or 14 year old and pretend to be older. Anyway, besides the physical distance between them, there was also an age gap, since Rivers was 26 at that time, and he felt that he was too older for her. All of those thought seemed frustrated him a lot and he pitied himself on this song, emotionally.
After all, in my opinion, this song was about nothing but a loneliness. How come a rich and famous man fell in love so deeply to a girl that he doesn't even know anything about, just because some letters, if he is not in a deep despair of searching a true love?
2. El ScorchoThis song is started by a wacky drum beat and then you can hear Brian Bell (the guitarist) said "El Scorcho...Rock and Roll" with awkward voice. That witty beginning is followed by hilarious look that Rivers made in the video clip and then a "swear" word about a girl. Yeah, this is another song about a girl, (again) a Japanese girl. It was about a man who fell in love with a girl but didn't know what to do, and so did the girl. So, it was like a dead-end love story. But, this song has a sequel, so we can get another piece of the story from that. Its sequel was believed to be "Falling for You" track. Both of those songs used the same phrase to express the feeling, that is "falling for you".
3. Pink TriangleAlthough "El Scorcho" and "Falling for You" are connected, but in this album, they are separated with this song. This is another favorite song of mine from Weezer and also based on Rivers' personal experience. As the songs above explained, at that time, Rivers was (at least) a bit lonely man who was looking for his true love. Then this song is started with "When I'm stable long enough, I start to look around for love". Yes, after officially had been a Harvard student, Rivers started to look for a girl in his college. It is said that he met several "potential" girls that he did not brave enough to make a move into. However, he finally found a girl in his campus whom he thought he search for. Unfortunately, that girl is a lesbian and so Rivers again came into a heartache. That's this song is all about.
4. Falling for You
As explained before, this is a sequel of "El Scorcho". In this song, the man in question finally has summoned the courage to speak to the girl, but he is now questioning himself on whether he deserves his position, and how to deal with it. The girl is said to be much younger than him, so that he was a little bit afraid of that condition, although he likes that girl too much. The man also started to think to marry that young girl, "get fat and old" with her as he was really desperate to settle down. However, their age gap made him feel so tangled since he felt that the girl may deserve a brighter future ahead, and also he thought that he, as an "old goat", didn't deserve to be a man for such a "young chick". Therefore, the man is afraid that he is falling for her, as the song said "my baby I'm afraid I'm falling for you...". Quite funny,though.
5. Butterfly
Finally, this personal album is ended by this song. "Butterfly" is told from Pinkerton's point of view in the opera Madame Butterfly. Known for its sincere lyrics and simplicity, "Butterfly" remains Weezer's only completely acoustic song to be commercially released.(Source : www.weezerpedia.com)
The album is actually containing ten songs, but here, I only give a review of my favorite tracks. You can also try to hear another songs from this album which are also good. As I said before, despite its emotional background, this album had a commercial failure. Rivers said that he would never want to write with such personal style anymore. And yes, I didn't find another Weezer songs that has such personal style like this album's anymore, and it make me love this album even more.
NB: All of the italic lines between brackets in this post were taken from its lyrics.
Here is "Across the Sea" for your eagerness to finish reading this post. Thank you very much!
