It's time I got back to the good life

Sometimes a band you love dies. And sometimes that death is beautiful. Weezer's Pinkerton was that last breath of greatness before they spiraled into oblivion. Seeing one of your favorite bands die is tough. The amount of love you put towards a band and the amount of enjoyment you get from them squashed by their own personal problems is tough. But something about a record where they pour their soul out on to a CD is just sheer brilliance. And as far as I am concerned, Pinkerton is a pop album of epic proportions. I think all people that truly love Weezer realize that they will never be able to do something like this again and it's almost like a part of your chidlhood has died.

But that's the kicker to growing up. You get over things. You learn from your mistakes and from your adolescent ways and you then become nostalgic about certain things that you used to love. Pinkerton is exactly that. It was an album that any angst ridden pre-teen/teenager can relate with. It's about love and loss and anger and whining etc. It's also an album of really catchy and fun although dark songs. There is something strange about youth relating to such a dark album. Does that speak for us as a way that we seek comfort in someone else's problems or are we relating to them? I think relating is the best way to describe it. I've never had a huge heart destroying end of a relationship, but when your young, they all feel that way. Love is lost and it feels like death, so it's suiting that Pinkerton is something young romantics are drawn to. Even if you aren't, it's just damn good pop music. It's a shame that Weezer could never follow through after this album and after Matt Sharp left the group.

Needless to say, the opening distortion on "Tired of Sex" acts like a ten year portal back to my frivolous high school days. It's a grungy pop song for Weezer who was relatively not grungy at all. The lyrics are stupid, but the beat and the music is sheer fun and angst. "Getchoo" and "Why Bother?" are a little more straightforward in their style and continue in their harsher pop sound. It isn't until "Across the Sea" comes in that we have a true pop music masterpiece even though it may be the creepiest pop song you will ever hear. The music and structure of the album is probably Weezer at it's finest musical moments. The singles "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho" will stand as sing-along anthems of the day and the closer melancholy "Butterfly" ends on a power pop note of heartbreaking proportions.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton

Up Next: Brian Eno - Before and After Science