How could they? But, really, why should they? The unfortunate trope of bands that start the way Weezer did is that they’ll never live up to that past, no matter how they attempt to appease old fans. Sure, they will never make another “Blue Album” or Pinkerton. The highs, where they exist, are less dizzying, and sometimes it seems as if only diehards have stuck around to dig through it all for the gems.Īnd, fair enough, Weezer’s run from 2001 to today is clogged with persistent mediocrity and the occasional disaster, making that search for gems seem harder than it really is. Like Oasis, another ’90s great, Weezer’s story has long since been defined as such: a meteoric, genius beginning, a complete flameout, and then a protracted latter-era equally populated by ill-fated stylistic detours and reliable, almost workmanlike exercises in what they were first known to do best. The weight of that, the frustration of trying to create in the wake of that, must be nearly paralyzing. And it all exists in the long shadow of Pinkerton, the album that broke Cuomo at the time but also the album that his fans now adore beyond anything he’s done since. Cuomo has tried going back to basics, he has tried not writing about himself he has tried experimenting with pop he eventually really did get back to something like the basics he wrote some embarrassing but very successful songs and he wrote lesser-known tracks that his fans loved. A beginning defined by dizzying highs, followed by all sorts of course-corrections and left turns along the way. That is, essentially, how much of Weezer’s career has unfolded. It’s now pretty easy to rank it as one of the band’s worst albums. The slick power-pop of “Green Album,” with all of Cuomo’s personal songwriting sucked out? That’s not what Weezer fans wanted, either. There wouldn’t be any new Weezer music until 2001, when they released their second self-titled album, the “Green Album,” with artwork echoing their lauded debut because the whole endeavor was an explicit move towards, in Cuomo’s mind, erasing Pinkerton and getting the band back on the track promised by the “Blue Album.” The phrase “in Cuomo’s mind” is important here, because the man has always zigged and zagged in reaction to his fans, or in reaction to his reaction to his fans. Weezer’s insular frontman Rivers Cuomo, who got extremely personal in Pinkerton’s songs, was distancing himself from the album within months thanks to the backlash. The damage it did to Weezer was permanent. The turnaround in perception of Pinkerton didn’t really matter, though, aside from the album claiming its rightful place in its decade’s hierarchy. Pinkerton is one of those infamous examples from rock history, an album that was disliked and derided upon its release, only to find a cultish following in subsequent years, only to eventually be (usually) considered Weezer’s finest work and one of the greatest albums of the ’90s. Following up an acclaimed debut with some already decade-defining songs to their name, Weezer were approaching their sophomore album as so many big-name bands have in the past. It was, in many ways, the turning point in Weezer’s story. In September 1996, Weezer released their sophomore album, Pinkerton.
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