Pinkerton IGN record review
| Pinkerton | ||
|---|---|---|
|
||
| Studio album by Weezer | ||
| Released | September 24, 1996 | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|
|
||
| Metascore | 100 | |
| Pinkerton Reviewer: "JR" (IGN) Publishing date: December 21, 2007 Rating: 9.5/10 |
  (9.5/10)
|
Pinkerton is a mess. It's a relentless, obstreperous deluge of distorted guitars and high-hat cymbals. Compared to the crisp, clean-cut pop of Weezer's eponymous debut, Pinkerton is a madman's demo tape. The band most certainly had not delivered more of the same -- when "the same" was precisely what everybody wanted. So it's easy to see why music-criticism-circa-1996 regarded it with derision and a parade of inimical condemnations. But now we know better.
A cold, malnourished bastard son, wanted by neither the world nor its own father, Pinkerton struck out on its own, relying on the departures that ostensibly doomed it (cacophony, rawness, emotion) to save itself. Fans old and new latched onto its shameless honesty, driving frontman and creator Rivers Cuomo to unadulterated regret (he once equated the album to a cathartic tirade the drunk regrets the following morning). So few mad scientists can kill their monsters.
Pinkerton is Weezer's best album, and, sad to say, it probably always will be. Somewhere between the beautiful noise of "Tired of Sex" and the delicate acoustics of "Butterfly" lay the underpinnings of the magnum opus of a band sent from the heavens to help quell the pain of Kurt's exit. Buoyed by singles "el Scorcho," "The Good Life," and thirsty-Thursday anthem "Pink Triangle," Pinkerton excels at everything, yet does it in a shy, insecure, practically self-hating way. Its fanbase relates.
Sometimes it's an obligation to sit down and take inventory of all the mistakes you've made in life. At least, with Pinkerton, you can do it with a sympathetic, if a little neurotic, friend.
"Download Worthy"
- "Across the Sea"
- "Getchoo"
- "Butterfly"
"Kickin' B-Sides"
— "JR," December 21, 2007
IGN Rating Description (9.0 - 9.9): - A must-have album. An album in this range stands as a great example of what the artist is capable of.
