Los Angeles power-pop band Weezer have pumped out records since 1994, but they’re largely beloved for their first pair of albums; 1994’s Weezer and 1996’s Pinkerton. Both records featured bass player Matt Sharp and were the only records Weezer made before a five-year hiatus. Pinkerton was initially unsuccessful, and it caused the band to splinter; it only became popular in retrospect.
Pinkerton wasn’t originally planned as the follow-up to Weezer – front-man Rivers Cuomo originally worked on a space rock opera named Songs from the Black Hole. It was intended to feature characters like Jonas (played by Rivers Cuomo) and Laurel (Rachel Haden of That Dog). Cuomo later explained the plot to Rolling Stone in 2007; “There’s this crew – three guys and two girls and a mechanoid – that are on this mission in space to rescue somebody, or something. The whole thing was really 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.”
Cuomo never completed Songs from the Black Hole – he later told fans in an online chat that “it was kind of a lame idea”. Several of the songs later turned up on Pinkerton; ‘Tired of Sex’, ‘Getchoo’, ‘No Other One’, and ‘Why Bother?’ were all intended for Songs from the Black Hole. Many other songs from the era have surfaced in collections of Rivers Cuomo’s home demos and on the deluxe version of Pinkerton.
One notable outtake is ‘I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams’ – it was originally released as the b-side of ‘The Good Life’. It’s written by Cuomo but features Rachel Haden on lead vocals. This would have made it a weird fit on Pinkerton, but it’s clearly a top-tier Weezer song, energetic and tuneful. Their high-octane power-pop works well with a female vocalist, giving it some extra lift.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
11 Comments
That song was pretty cool.
I thought it was one of their best, but can understand why it got pushed to a b-side.
Good song…they really put the power into power pop…a lot of fun songs. I need to listen to the first two albums…I know songs by them more than albums.
I don’t think their first two albums are super surprising – apart from maybe that acoustic emo track at the end of Pinkerton – so if you’ve heard the singles you probably know what to expect. But they’re good.
People always say that Weezer has only two good albums (the first two). I like them a lot, but what would of happened if Pinkerton had a better reception from everyone? I believe the negative reception of it cause Cuomo to change his songwriting altogether.
Yup, I was reading about that while writing this. I always held the impression that losing Matt Sharp was crucial, but he didn’t actually write the songs. They took a five year hiatus after Pinkerton too.
Exemplary choice – one of many excellent 90s weezer B-sides!
That song was really good – sounds like I’d probably enjoy their 1990s outtakes more than their 21st century work.
Though they’ve had some moments of brilliance over the last 20 years (such as The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived), those b-sides would be my preference too!
I had never heard about that one! But you can’t go wrong with a B-side from that era of Weezer.
Yup – sounds like I should explore their b-sides more.
That song was pretty cool.
I thought it was one of their best, but can understand why it got pushed to a b-side.
Good song…they really put the power into power pop…a lot of fun songs. I need to listen to the first two albums…I know songs by them more than albums.
I don’t think their first two albums are super surprising – apart from maybe that acoustic emo track at the end of Pinkerton – so if you’ve heard the singles you probably know what to expect. But they’re good.
People always say that Weezer has only two good albums (the first two). I like them a lot, but what would of happened if Pinkerton had a better reception from everyone? I believe the negative reception of it cause Cuomo to change his songwriting altogether.
Yup, I was reading about that while writing this. I always held the impression that losing Matt Sharp was crucial, but he didn’t actually write the songs. They took a five year hiatus after Pinkerton too.
Exemplary choice – one of many excellent 90s weezer B-sides!
That song was really good – sounds like I’d probably enjoy their 1990s outtakes more than their 21st century work.
Though they’ve had some moments of brilliance over the last 20 years (such as The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived), those b-sides would be my preference too!
I had never heard about that one! But you can’t go wrong with a B-side from that era of Weezer.
Yup – sounds like I should explore their b-sides more.