Pinkerton:Weezer

Artist: Weezer

Date Released: 1996

Label: Geffen

Produced By: Weezer

Tracklisting:
 * 1) Tired of Sex
 * 2) Getchoo
 * 3) No Other One
 * 4) Why Bother?
 * 5) Across The Sea
 * 6) The Good Life
 * 7) El Scorcho
 * 8) Pink Triangle
 * 9) Falling For You
 * 10) Butterfly

Review: The fans Weezer earned with Weezer (Blue) initially reacted quite unfavorably to this album upon release; indeed, it was voted worst album of the year in a Rolling Stone reader's poll. However, many fans now swear by this as lead singer Rivers Cuomo's masterpiece (even if he has since disowned it, comparing it to "getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself.") and many point to this album as the origin of emo. While the music holds little in common with the emo genre as it exists today (the album is a blast of largely uptempo power-pop songs performed with an intensity reminiscent of grunge), the lyrics presage emo in their embarassing yet endearing honesty. The largely autobiographical chronicles of Cuomo's struggles with relationships are tied together by allusions to the opera "Madame Butterfly," whose plot involves an American sailor named Pinkerton who uses and abuses a geisha named Cio-Cio San. - Charlie C.