History Music / Pinkerton

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Considering some of the lyrics the "heroic" part may be in question, but on some songs Cuomo goes to worrying extremes with the self-criticism, such as asking for his head to be cracked open in "Why Bother?".
* IgnoredEpiphany: Several songs have moments where Rivers acknowledges that his behaviour is wrong, like in "Tired of Sex" ("I know I'm a sinner"), "Getchoo" ("You know this is breaking me up/You think that I'm some kind of freak"), the chorus of "Across the Sea" ("I think it would be wrong"), "The Good Life" ("Excuse the bitching/I shouldn't complain" and "Who do I got to blame?/Nobody but me"), but it takes about a half-hour before "Butterfly" drops the self-pity and PlayingTheVictimCard.

The title of the album comes from the character in ''MadameButterfly'', but right before its release the [[PinkertonDetective Pinkerton security agency]] attempted to sue for trademark infringement, only to have their case thrown out almost instantly. The first single, "El Scorcho", stiffed on MTV, possibly due to Cuomo's refusal to indulge in the "gimmicky" videos that made "Buddy Holly" a success, and despite subsequent singles "The Good Life" and "Pink Triangle", ''Pinkerton'' stopped at #19 on the ''Billboard'' charts and endured a severe critical beatdown: it only got two good reviews, one of which, (''Melody Maker'''s) advised listeners to ignore the lyrics entirely. Infamously, ''Rolling Stone'''s review criticised every song save "Butterfly" and a reader poll named it one of the worst albums of 1996. The terrible response drove Weezer into a hiatus for three years and influenced the band's LighterAndSofter direction afterwards.

The title of the album comes from the character in ''MadameButterfly'', but right before its release the [[PinkertonDetective Pinkerton security agency]] attempted to sue for trademark infringement, only to have their case thrown out almost instantly. The first single, "El Scorcho", stiffed on MTV, possibly due to Cuomo's refusal to indulge in the "gimmicky" videos that made "Buddy Holly" a success, and despite subsequent singles "The Good Life" and "Pink Triangle", ''Pinkerton'' stopped at #19 on the ''Billboard'' charts and endured a severe critical beatdown - infamously, ''Rolling Stone'''s review criticised every song save "Butterfly" and a reader poll named it one of the worst albums of 1996. Despite this, the album settled on being a CultClassic and slowly but steadily gathered a fanbase, and years later the consensus altered and it became recognised as Weezer's MagnumOpus.

The album was recorded in September 1995, January, March and June 1996 at a variety of studios (Sound City and Hollywood Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, Fort Apache in Boston, Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park and Electric Lady Studios in New York) during Cuomo's breaks from Harvard, which left the other band members plenty of free time to indulge in their own projects. Intending a rawer, DarkerAndEdgier sound, Cuomo chose to have the band self-produce the record with 12 engineers, replacing [[TheCars Ric Ocasek]]'s earlier radio-friendly production with a pounding drum sound and vicious, aggressive guitar sounds accomplished by connecting them to multiple distortion pedals at once.

* ContinuityNod: "Falling for you" gets mentioned in "El Scorcho", only for a song named "Falling for You" to appear shortly afterwards. "Falling for You" itself mentions "turning in my rockstar card", which is a nod to the lyrics of "The Good Life", and the redhead girl's cello from "El Scorcho" makes another appearance.

* StudioChatter: The beginning of "Across the Sea" consists of a door opening, Pat Wilson laughing and several random notes on piano and flute. The beginning of "Falling For You" features one of the band members' amps randomly picking up a Korean radio signal, specifically an advertisment saying "What company makes this product?".

* RecordProducer: The band '''self-produced''' the album, with engineering by [[{{Kyuss}} Joe]] [[{{Tool}} Ba]][[QueensOfTheStoneAge rr]][[VerucaSalt esi]], Billy Bowers, Jim Champagne, David Dominguez, Greg Fidelman, [[MercuryRev Dave]] [[FlamingLips Fridmann]], Rob Jacobs, [[FooFighters Adam]] [[PearlJam Kasper]], Dan [=McLaughlin=], Cliff Norrell, [[{{Hole}} Jack]] [[Music/{{Beck}} Joseph]] [[GreenDay Puig]] and Jim Rondinelli.

* StudioChatter: The beginning of "Across the Sea" consists of a door opening, Pat Wilson laughing and several random notes on piano and flute. The beginning of "Falling For You" features one of the band's amps randomly picking up a Korean radio signal, specifically an advertisment saying "What company makes this product?".

* RecordProducer: The band '''self-produced''' the album, with engineering by [[{{Kyuss}} Joe]] [[{{Tool}} Ba]][[QueensOfTheStoneAge rr]][[Veruca Salt esi]], Billy Bowers, Jim Champagne, David Dominguez, Greg Fidelman, [[MercuryRev Dave]] [[FlamingLips Fridmann]], Rob Jacobs, [[FooFighters Adam]] [[PearlJam Kasper]], Dan [=McLaughlin=], Cliff Norrell, [[{{Hole}} Jack]] [[Music/{{Beck}} Joseph]] [[GreenDay Puig]] and Jim Rondinelli.

* RecordProducer: The band '''self-produced''' the album, with engineering by Joe Barresi, Billy Bowers, Jim Champagne, David Dominguez, Greg Fidelman, [[MercuryRev Dave]] [[FlamingLips Fridmann]], Rob Jacobs, Adam Kasper, Dan [=McLaughlin=], Cliff Norrell, Jack Joseph Puig and Jim Rondinelli.

* ElegantClassicalMusician: The redhead girl mentioned in "El Scorcho" and "Falling for You" is hinted to be this.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Surprisingly averted: Geffen was very pleased with the album, and A&R representative Todd Sullivan even described it as "very brave". However, the fact that it sunk led Geffen to refuse to allow Weezer to self-produce ''The Green Album''.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Surprisingly averted: Geffen was very pleased with the album, and A&R representative Todd Sullivan even described it as "very brave".

* RecordProducer: The band '''self-produced''' the album, with engineering by Joe Barresi, Billy Bowers, Jim Champagne, David Dominguez, Greg Fidelman, [[MercuryRev Dave]] [[FlamingLips Fridmann]], Rob Jacobs, Adam Kasper, Dan McLaughlin, Cliff Norrell, Jack Joseph Puig and Jim Rondinelli.

* IgnoredEpiphany: Several songs have moments where Rivers acknowledges that his behaviour is wrong, like in "Tired of Sex" ("I know I'm a sinner"), "Getchoo" ("You know this is breaking me up/You think that I'm some kind of freak"), the chorus of "Across the Sea" ("I think it would be wrong"), "The Good Life" ("Excuse the bitching/I shouldn't complain" and "Who do I got to blame?/Nobody but me"), but it takes about a half-hour before "Buttefly" drops the self-pity and PlayingTheVictimCard.

* ContinuityNod: "Falling for you" gets mentioned in "El Scorcho", only for a song named "Falling for You" to appear shortly afterwards. "Falling for You" itself mentions "turning in my rockstar card", which is a nod to the lyrics of "The Good Life".

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Most of the album is stuck on a 5, with "Tired of Sex" and "Getchoo" pushing the album into a 6, and the acoustic "Butterfly" representing a 1.

* ContinuityNod: "Falling for you" gets mentioned in "El Scorcho", only for a song named "Falling for You" to appear shortly afterwards.

-->'''Rivers''', 2001: It's a hideous record... It was such a hugely painful mistake that happened in front of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to happen on a grander and grander scale and just won't go away. It's like getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself.

* StudioChatter: The beginning of "Across the Sea" consists of a door opening, Pat Wilson laughing and several random notes on piano and flute. The beginning of "Falling For You" features one of the band's amps randomly picking up a Korean radio signal, specifically an advertisment saying "What company makes this product?".
* UnfortunateImplications: "Across the Sea" has the line "They don't make stationery like this where I come from/So fragile, so refined", which implies an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism Orientalist]] view of Japan. Additionally, some of the lyrics are quite problematic in their attitude towards women - the first couple of lines in "Butterfly" could be interpreted to mean that Rivers tends to treat women more as objects of sexual conquest than actual persons.

* Music/{{Emo}}: ''Pinkerton'' has commonly been cited as an influence not only on AlternativeRock in general but on {{Emo}} specifically, possibly due to its raw production and the lyrics painting what Pitchfork called "an uncomfortably honest self-portrait" of Cuomo. However, unlike later {{Emo}} bands that cited it as an influence, ''Pinkerton'' contains a few songs where the band's PowerPop roots shine through ("The Good Life" and "Across The Sea"), some clearly less angsty moments ("Falling for You") as well as a sense of humour, chiefly in the [[SelfDeprecation self-mocking]] lyrics of "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho" as well as Matt Sharp's backing vocals and interjections ("I've ''HAD'' it!").

* StudioChatter: The beginning of "Across the Sea" consists of a door opening, Pat Wilson laughing and several random notes on piano and flute. The beginning of "Falling For You" features one of the band's amps randomly picking up a Korean radio signal, specifically an advertisment saying "What company makes this product?".

** LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces ("Across the Sea")

* AngstDissonance: Some listeners may find it hard to sympathise with the lyrics of "Tired of Sex", which essentially whine about having too much sex.

* JerkassWoobie: The lyrics can produce this effect, as some of them which might invite more sympathy are contrasted with ones that come across as [[{{Jerkass}} assholish]] (the third verse of "Getchoo", which undercuts its protest about being seen as a "freak" with an insenstively-worded dismissal of his behaviour as "just fooling around"), creepy (the sniffing-a-Japanese-fan's-letter-and-imagining-her-wank business of "Across the Sea", which arguably subverts the longing chorus), stalkerish ("So I went into your room, and read your diary!" in "El Scorcho") or outright WhatTheHellHero-inducing ("Butterfly").

* StudioChatter: The beginning of "Across the Sea" consists of a door opening, Pat Wilson laughing and several random notes on piano and flute. The beginning of "Falling For You" features one of the band's amps randomly picking up a Korean radio signal, specifically an advertisment saying "What company makes this product?".
* {{Squick}}: "Across the Sea", in which Cuomo admits to sniffing a letter from a Japanese fan he was obsessed with and wondering how she masturbates.
* TrueArtIsAngsty

* CreatorBacklash:

* DarkerAndEdgier: Big time compared to ''The Blue Album''

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Most of the album is stuck on a 5, with "Getchoo" pushing the album into a 6, and the acoustic "Butterfly" representing a 1.

* SelfDeprecation: "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho", while inspired by Cuomo's real life angst at being lonely, are mostly of the joking variety.

* {{Squick}}: "Across the Sea".

* Music/{{Emo}}: ''Pinkerton'' has commonly been cited as an influence not only on AlternativeRock in general but on {{Emo}} specifically, possibly due to its raw production and the lyrics painting what Pitchfork called "an uncomfortably honest self-portrait" of Cuomo. However, unlike later {{Emo}} bands that cited it as an influence, ''Pinkerton'' contains a few songs where the band's PowerPop roots shine through ("The Good Life" and "Across The Sea"), some clearly less angsty moments ("Falling for You") as well as a sense of humour, chiefly in the [[SelfDeprecation self-mocking]] lyrics of "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho" as well as Matt Sharp's backing vocals and interjections.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Most of the album

The title of the album comes from the character in ''MadameButterfly'', but right before its release the [[PinkertonDetective Pinkerton security agency]] attempted to sue for trademark infringement, only to have their case thrown out almost instantly. However, the first single "El Scorcho" stiffed on MTV, possibly due to Cuomo's refusal to indulge in the "gimmicky" videos that made "Buddy Holly" a success, and despite subsequent singles "The Good Life" and "Pink Triangle", ''Pinkerton'' stopped at #19 on the ''Billboard'' charts and endured a severe critical beatdown - infamously, ''Rolling Stone'''s review criticised every song save "Butterfly" and a reader poll named it one of the worst albums of 1996.