[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/front_-_Copy_2857.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Goddamn, you half-Japanese girls\\
Do it to me everytime...'']]

->''"A collection of get-down party anthems for agoraphobics."''
-->-- '''Jeff Gordinier''', ''Entertainment Weekly''

''Pinkerton'' is the second album by AlternativeRock band Music/{{Weezer}}, released in 1996. The album was initially planned as a RockOpera named ''Songs from the Black Hole'', but the concept was eventually abandoned, and the final album combined songs that were discarded from ''Black Hole'' and new CreatorBreakdown-influenced material. The title of the album comes from the character in ''Theatre/MadameButterfly''[[note]]whom Rivers Cuomo described as an "asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star"[[/note]]; the [[PinkertonDetective Pinkerton security agency]] sued for trademark infringement right before its release, only to have their case thrown out almost instantly.

As mentioned above, frontman Rivers Cuomo's initial plan to follow their self-titled debut ''Music/WeezerTheBlueAlbum'' was to create an ambitious album that he described as "an analogy for taking off, going out on the road and up the charts with a rock band, which is what was happening to me at the time I was writing this and feeling like I was lost in space". The songs were also influenced by Cuomo's mental state, as he had undergone painful surgery to correct one of his legs being shorter than the other since birth, and was accepted to study at Harvard with a letter describing his disillusionment with the rock lifestyle but only found himself more isolated and lonely.

The album was recorded between late 1995 and mid-1996 at a variety of studios[[note]]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[[/note]] 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 [[Music/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. Cuomo, bassist Matt Sharp and guitarist Brian Bell also eschewed overdubbing vocals like on their previous album, choosing instead to record them live around three microphones.

The album's first single, "El Scorcho", stiffed on MTV, possibly due to Cuomo's refusal to indulge in the Creator/SpikeJonze-esque videos that made "Buddy Holly" a success (which he grew to consider "gimmicky"), and despite subsequent singles "The Good Life" and "Pink Triangle", ''Pinkerton'' stalled at #19 on the ''Billboard'' charts. The additional mixed critical response the album received embarrassed Cuomo, drove Weezer into a hiatus for three years, and influenced the band's more traditional and less personal LighterAndSofter direction in future albums, starting with their next album, ''Music/WeezerTheGreenAlbum''.

However, the album would eventually gain a [[CultClassic cult following]] and [[VindicatedByHistory significantly boosted reputation]] as soon as the TurnOfTheMillennium, going on to be deemed the band's ''magnum opus'' and an incredibly influential album for rock acts of future generations (particularly in the {{emo}} subgenre), and eventually being certified Platinum in 2016. Even Cuomo would come back around to it, stating in 2008 that he found the album "super-deep, brave, and authentic" and stating in 2010 that he considered the experience of playing the songs live[[note]]as Weezer went on a tour in 2010 where they played ''Pinkerton'' alongside ''The Blue Album'' in their entirety[[/note]] to an enthusiastic fan response to be "incredibly validating".
----
!! Tracklist:
# "Tired of Sex" (3:01)
# "Getchoo" (2:52)
# "No Other One" (3:01)
# "Why Bother?" (2:08)
# "Across the Sea" (4:32)
# "The Good Life" (4:17)
# "El Scorcho" (4:03)
# "Pink Triangle" (3:58)
# "Falling for You" (3:47)
# "Butterfly" (2:53)

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: The deluxe version of the album featured, apart from live versions and remixes, the following tracks: ]]

# "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly" (1:57)
# "Devotion" (3:11)
# "Waiting on You" (4:13)
# "I Just Threw out the Love of My Dreams" (2:39)
# "I Swear It's True" (3:19)
# "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" (3:29)
# "Long Time Sunshine" (4:17)
# "Getting Up and Leaving" (3:28)
# "Tragic Girl" (5:26)
''''
-----
!!''Pink Triangle Tropes'':

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: A huge theme on the album is the ordeal of falling in love with someone who you can never have a relationship with, because they're in a different country ("Across the Sea"), or have an IncompatibleOrientation ("Pink Triangle"), or you CannotSpitItOut ("El Scorcho").
-->'''"Pink Triangle"''': ''We were good as married in my mind, but married in my mind's no good.''
%% * AsianSpeekeeEngrish: The opening lines of "Across the Sea" have this, since they're quoting from a letter Rivers got from a Japanese fan (who apparently lives in a small city ''named'' Japan).
* AuthorAppeal: "El Scorcho" outlines the very specific tastes of Rivers Cuomo, as he pines over a woman of partial Japanese ancestry who happens to play the cello and is also a fan of both Wrestling/{{ECW}} and ''Theatre/MadameButterfly''.
%% * BelligerentSexualTension: "Getchoo"
* BookEnds: As snarked in the Pitchfork review, ''Pinkerton'' begins with "Tired of Sex", where Rivers Cuomo rants about having meaningless sex and desiring true love, but ends with "Butterfly", where Rivers Cuomo abandons the newly-found true love in favour of more meaningless sex.
%% * CannotSpitItOut: "El Scorcho"
* CarefulWithThatAxe: Rivers lets out a few wordless screams between verses of "Tired of Sex", and the relatively soft "No Other One" starts with a burst of feedback and a scream. These instances mainly stand out because Weezer songs almost never include that style of vocal.
* ChangingChorus: The chorus to "Tired Of Sex" changes with each repetition, with only the final line staying consistent:
--> '''First chorus:'''\\
''Monday night, I'm makin' Jen\\
Tuesday night, I'm makin' Lyn\\
Wednesday night, I'm makin' Catherine\\
Oh, why can't I be makin' love come true?''\\
'''Second chorus:'''\\
''Thursday night, I'm makin' Denise\\
Friday night, I'm makin' Sharise\\
Saturday night, I'm makin' Louise\\
Oh, why can't I be makin' love come true?''\\
'''Third chorus:'''\\
''Tonight, I'm down on my knees\\
Tonight, I'm begging you please\\
Tonight, tonight, please\\
Oh, why can't I be makin' love come true?''
* ConceptAlbum: While the RockOpera idea was scrapped, ''Pinkerton'' retains some elements of a concept album, chiefly due to its lyrical subject matter.
* 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 aforementioned girl's cello from "El Scorcho" makes another appearance.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Big time compared to ''The Blue Album'', both in sound and subject matter. While ''The Blue Album'' dealt with themes such as failing relationships and alcoholism, ''Pinkerton'' takes it even further with songs about crippling isolation, sexual frustration, disillusions concerning the [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll rock star life]], and the Cuomo's own questionable (and sometimes disturbing) views of women at the time. In terms of a band following up a crowd-pleasing pop-oriented debut with a much more sophisticated, complex second album, it was like if Music/TheBeachBoys had immediately followed up ''Surfin' Safari'' with ''Music/PetSounds'', or Music/TheBeatles released ''Music/{{Revolver|Beatles Album}}'' right after ''Music/PleasePleaseMe''.
* DarkestHour: "Across the Sea," which reveals the depth of Rivers' dysfunction for the first time on the album.
* DeconstructedTrope: From Pitchfork's review: "'El Scorcho' reminds that fictional [[RomanticComedy RomCom]] behavior is actually borderline sociopathic in real life."
* DooWopProgression: The chorus of "Why Bother?" and parts of "Butterfly".
* DownerEnding: "Falling for You" is about Rivers finally finding love and sets up for an EarnYourHappyEnding moment. Then the next song (and the final song on the album) "Butterfly" reveals that, due to the faults in his own character, he ruined the relationship he so desperately sought out, hurting his lover in the process, and can only apologize for his own selfish behavior.
-->''I told you I would return when the robin makes his nest, but I ain't never coming back. I'm sorry.''
* DreadfulMusician: Alluded to in "Falling for You", where Rivers tries to play the cello but fails miserably ("I can't believe how bad I suck, it's true"). This could be more SelfDeprecation since he is a bit of a multi-instrumentalist, or simply a reflection of the fact that the cello is quite hard to play for beginners.
* EmoMusic: ''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!") and the videos for "El Scorcho" and "The Good Life".
* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Pink Triangle" fades into "Falling For You".
%% * FreudianExcuse: The bridge of "Across the Sea" tries to invoke this.
%% * FriendlessBackground: "The Good Life"
* HappyEndingOverride: "Falling for You" is a song about Rivers finally finding his one true love. The very next song, "Butterfly" is about him having lost said love due to his own selfish behavior.
* 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 (see: "Why Bother?" and that lovely line about head-cracking, maybe "The Good Life").
* 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. (Not that it helps, as the BookEnds entry shows...)
* ImAManICantHelpIt: Some of the lyrics enter this territory, especially "Tired of Sex" ("I'm sorry, here I go/I know I'm a sinner/But I can't say no!") and "Getchoo" ("But if you'd come back to me/Then you would surely see/That I'm just fooling around").
%% * IncompatibleOrientation: "Pink Triangle"
%% * LadykillerInLove: "Tired of Sex"
%% * LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: "Across the Sea"
* LoudnessWar: Played with; unlike their Ric Ocasek-produced debut album, which was mixed to sound good at lower volumes (like on the radio), ''Pinkerton'' was mixed to be ''cranked'': all the vocals and instruments were pushed to the redline (without going over), and Patrick's drum fill at 1:15 in "Tired of Sex" (right before the second verse) actually ''clips'', which is almost unheard of for drums.
%% * LoveConfession:"Falling for You")
* LoveHurts: The general theme of ''Pinkerton'' is Cuomo's troubles with love and sex, in various forms.
%% * LoveMartyr: "No Other One"
* LyricalDissonance: Out of the two bounciest, most accessible tracks on ''Pinkerton'', "The Good Life" is Rivers freaking out about WhatHaveIBecome, and "El Scorcho" cheerfully mentions going into a girl's room and reading her diary.
* MostWritersAreMale: The lyrics of ''Pinkerton'' are essentially a TooMuchInformation-sharing of Rivers Cuomo's romantic misadventures, so at some points they can come across as creepy or self-centered.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: "Butterfly" is the aftermath of Rivers' selfish behavior demonstrated throughout the album, resulting in him hurting those who have mattered the most to him. An allegory for this as given in the song is Rivers catching a butterfly in a mason jar to have as a pet, only for it to die overnight, as Rivers apologizes and admits that he didn't realize his actions were hurting people.
* TheNotRemix: The versions of "Pink Triangle" and "The Good Life" that were sent out to radio stations were slight remixes, meant to downplay the harsh production style of the album versions a bit. When it came time to remix "Pink Triangle", it was also decided the bass part should be altered, but Matt Sharp was unavailable due to working on the second Rentals album, so Letters To Cleo bassist Scott Riebling filled in.
%% * NotStayingForBreakfast: "Butterfly"
* OneWordTitle: "Pinkerton", "Getchoo", "Butterfly".
%% * PopPunk: "Why Bother?".
%% * PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: The chorus of "The Good Life", and some lines in "El Scorcho".
* RecordProducer: The band '''self-produced''' the album, with engineering by [[Music/{{Kyuss}} Joe]] [[Music/{{Tool}} Ba]][[Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge rr]][[Music/VerucaSalt esi]], Billy Bowers, Jim Champagne, David Dominguez, Greg Fidelman, [[Music/MercuryRev Dave]] [[Music/FlamingLips Fridmann]], Rob Jacobs, [[Music/FooFighters Adam]] [[Music/PearlJam Kasper]], Dan [=McLaughlin=], Cliff Norrell, [[Music/CourtneyLove Jack]] [[Music/{{Beck|Musician}} Joseph]] [[Music/GreenDay Puig]] and Jim Rondinelli.
* SelfDeprecation: "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho", while inspired by Cuomo's real life angst at being lonely, are mostly of the joking variety. "Falling for You" also contains the line "What could you possibly see in little ol' three-chord me?", [[HypocriticalHumour coming right after one of the more complex chord progressions and solos of the album]].
* ShoutOut: The album's title comes from the main character of ''Theatre/MadameButterfly''.
** The album itself is loosely based on the same opera.
** The opening piano and flute in "Across the Sea" apparently are quoting from Music/TheBeachBoys' "You Still Believe in Me".
** "El Scorcho"'s title comes from a packet of Del Taco hot sauce named "Del Scorcho", it quotes from Music/PublicEnemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" ("I'm the epitome of public enemy") and an issue of ''[[https://twitter.com/officialpwi/status/1245420142613409797 Pro Wrestling Illustrated]]'' ("watching Grunge legdrop New Jack through a press table"), the line about "listening to [[Theatre/MadameButterfly Cio-Cio San]]" was borrowed from an essay by one of Cuomo's classmates, and the line "I asked you to go to the Music/GreenDay concert" is a reference to how [[http://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=A_Mad_and_Furious_Master a lot of the female fans Cuomo met on tour were Green Day fans]].
** The line about "half-Japanese girls" at the start of "El Scorcho" was sometimes taken as a reference to prolific Art Punk band Half Japanese, but Cuomo confirmed that it wasn't actually the case.
* ShrinkingViolet: According to WordOfGod, "El Scorcho" was inspired by Cuomo's inability to say hello to a Harvard student he had a crush on, which is outright spelled out before the last chorus with "But that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize/Cos I can't even look in your eyes without shaking, and I ain't faking".
%% * StalkerWithACrush: "El Scorcho"
* 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?".
** A few songs on the deluxe edition contain audible studio chatter somewhere within the song. "Across The Sea Piano Noodles", "Butterfly (Alternate Take)", and "Longtime Sunshine" are notable examples.
** At the very end of "The Good Life", there's what sounds like a very muted bit of random harmonica playing.
* StylisticSuck: The piano intro in "Across The Sea" is deliberately made to be as corny and sappy as possible, giving the admittedly melodramatic lyrics some much needed self awareness.
* SurprisinglyGentleSong: On an album full of heavy emo songs, the closing track "Butterfly" is a soft piano rock number.
* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Played with - although the music sounds much more aggressive and punk-influenced, with much rawer and heavier production compared to the band's debut album, the compositions are also much more complex and technical. For example, the bridge from "Across the Sea" cycles through about four key signatures in thirty seconds while constantly shifting back and forth between the song's normal tempo and half-time.
%% * TrueLoveIsExceptional "Tired of Sex"
%% * TwiceShy:: "Why Bother?"
----