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Pinkerton (view source)

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{{quote| Much like ''[[Hamlet]]'' is a young man’s play, I feel that ''Pinkerton'' is something of a young man’s album.|'''Teenage Victory Songs''', [http://tvs.soymilkrevolution.com/?p{{=}}133 "Why Bother?"] }}
 
''Pinkerton'' is [[Alternative Rock]] band [[Weezer (Music)|Weezer]]'s second album, released on 24 September 1996. The album was initially planned as a [[Rock Opera]] 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, [[Creator Breakdown|Creator Breakdowny]] material.
 
As mentioned above, frontman Rivers Cuomo's initial plan to follow their self-titled debut was to create a [[Rock Opera]] 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 somewhat of a [[Creator Breakdown]] as Cuomo underwent painful surgery to correct the fact that he was born with one leg shorter than the other, and was accepted to study at [[Ivy League for Everyone|Harvard]] with a letter describing his disillusionment with the rock lifestyle but found himself isolated and lonely.
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== ''Pinkerton'' provides examples of: ==
 
* [[Asian Gal Withwith White Guy]]: Certain lyrics of the album nod to Rivers' famous [[Race Fetish]], such as "Goddamn you half-Japanese girls/Do it to me every time!" from "El Scorcho".
* [[Asian Speekee Engrish]]: The opening lines of "Across the Sea" have this, since they're quoting from a letter Rivers got from a Japanese fan (who apparently "are 18 year old girl/Who live in small city of Japan").
* [[Book Ends]]: 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.
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* [[Dreadful Musician]]: 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 [[Self-Deprecation]] 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.
* [[Executive Meddling]]: 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 so badly made Geffen refuse to allow Weezer to self-produce ''The Green Album''.
* [[Emo (Music)|Emo]]: ''Pinkerton'' has commonly been cited as an influence not only on [[Alternative Rock]] 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 [[Power Pop]] 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 [[Self-Deprecation|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".
* [[Freudian Excuse]]: The bridge of "Across the Sea" tries to invoke this.
* [[Heroic Self-Deprecation]]: 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?".
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** [[Love Martyr]] ("No Other One")
** [[Twice Shy]] ("Why Bother?")
** [[Looking for Love In All Thethe Wrong Places]] + [[Freudian Excuse]] ("Across the Sea")
** [[Friendless Background]] ("The Good Life")
** [[Cannot Spit It Out]]/[[Stalker Withwith a Crush]] ("El Scorcho")
** [[Incompatible Orientation]] ("Pink Triangle")
** (A very confused) [[Love Confession]] ("Falling For You")
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* [[Most Writers Are Male]] And [[Angst|Angsty]]: The lyrics of ''Pinkerton'' are essentially a [[Too Much Information]]-sharing of Rivers Cuomo's romantic misadventures, so at some points they can come across as creepy or self-centered.
* [[Pop Punk]]: "Why Bother?".
* [[Pretty Fly for Aa White Guy]]: The chorus of "The Good Life", and some lines in "El Scorcho".
* [[Reality Subtext]]: Rivers once admitted to fans one of the original lines in the second verse of "Tired of Sex" was "Tuesday night I'm making Gwen". Gwen happened to be a real person he was dating but her family disliked him somewhat, so he changed the name to "Lyn".
* [[Record Producer]]: The band '''self-produced''' the album, with engineering by [[Kyuss|Joe]] [[Tool|Ba]][[Queens of the Stone Age|rr]][[Veruca Salt|esi]], Billy Bowers, Jim Champagne, David Dominguez, Greg Fidelman, [[Mercury Rev|Dave]] [[Flaming Lips|Fridmann]], Rob Jacobs, [[Foo Fighters (Music)|Adam]] [[Pearl Jam|Kasper]], Dan McLaughlin, Cliff Norrell, [[Hole|Jack]] [[Beck (Musicmusician)|Joseph]] [[Green Day|Puig]] and Jim Rondinelli.
* [[Self-Deprecation]]: "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?", [[Hypocritical Humour|coming right after one of the more complex chord progressions and solos of the album]].
* [[Shout -Out]]: The album's title comes from the main character of ''[[Madame Butterfly]]''.
** The album itself is loosely based on the same opera.
** The opening piano and flute in "Across the Sea" apparently are quoting from [[The Beach Boys]]' "You Still Believe in Me".
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