Pinkerton was a failure among critics and within Weezer itself. Hardcore fans still demand Pinkerton at every concert (which is evidenced by the write-ups on the Weezer message board, and the ringing shouts of El Scorcho at almost every performance). Rivers Cuomo manages to put down Pink at least once in every interview. He can’t stand it and is open about the fact that after the failure of the album he went into seclusion, living in an apartment with black walls and covered windows, not speaking to people for months at a time.
But with all the screaming fans, why the failure?
Pinkerton was doomed from the start. The problem seems to be that it forked so sharply off of the path that Weezer had started on with the Blue album. The first album had the chunky guitar riffs coupled with a few releasable songs and freshly geeky lyrics, which appealed to the alternative youth set, who were looking for something a little hard with lyrics they could relate to. Nothing too outlandish, just your standard angst. So, after such innocent songs as In The Garage and Buddy Holly, Pinkerton was shocking.
And thus, because of both its subject matter, and its deviation from what fans thought of as Weezer, Pinkerton bombed. Rivers Cuomo (who was solely responsible for all lyrics and melodies on both albums) went from cute, little wallflower to lecherous groupie-fucking man-whore. Or at least that was the image he seemed to present with Tired Of Sex (his lament on the ease of bedding groupies) and Across The Sea (where he sings to a young Japanese fan about needing sexual help).
But it’s not a question of the album being made up of bad songs. El Scorcho is fun and The Good Life is catchy as Hell. The real problem with Pinkerton is that the songs don’t grab at the emotions. They are River’s and not everyone’s. Fans couldn’t relate. Critics couldn’t relate. And this was especially damaging because of Weezer’s young fan base. They wanted more of the catchy, crunchy teenage-anthems that they had sought solace in on the Blue Album. Instead they were treated to River’s personal demons.
So why the fans screaming for ‘Pink’ at every show? Weezer fans support the underdog. Why does Rivers deny them almost every time? I think he realized his mistake.