A little over a year ago, while I was struggling through being madly in love with a girl who wasn't at all interested in me and somewhat drowning in open air, a friend suggested that I sit down and listen to Pinkerton after hearing that I hadn't tried to listen to it in about nine years. It's understandable that back when my musical diet was purely Nine Inch Nails, The Beatles, and Radiohead, that Weezer probably wouldn't have made much sense to me.

So I listened to Pinkerton, about a year ago, and it was wonderful. I listened to it a lot, probably at least 20 times, in the span of a week or two. My first couple play throughs it became clear: the last two songs on the album are totally expendable. Butterfly is a waste of time and Falling For You takes the relatively honest "I'm a guy and sometimes being a guy is hard and I want to sing about it" philosophy of the whole album and turns it into "I'm a giant pussy and a moron". IMHO, of course.

Pink Triangle annoyed me the most at first. The verses' ascending-descending motif totally fucked with my head, and to this day I still kind of feel like my ears are going to bleed during the verses, but the chorus eventually caught my attention after repeated listens. I like it mostly because while most choruses are just a sentence or two repeated over and over, Pink Triangle's chorus is a linear section that almost feels like a relief after the up-down coaster ride of the verses.

It's also so incredibly fun to sing along with. Let me know the truth, let me knoowww the truttth...

I was going to rant about how much I dislike Weezer, but I don't really feel like it. Their legacy sort of speaks for itself and while they're phoning it in people are still gobbling it up. Good for them. (I reference a Spin article a lot in defense of how much I hate Weezer, I actually found it. Here it is.)

My friend, who recommended Pinkerton, said that as a Weezer fan you're mostly listening in the hopes that there will be another Pinkerton. While I sat behind him and his brother listening to leaked Red Album tracks a while back, it was kind of clear to me that he was right. They were picking each song apart, comparing bits and pieces of it to Blue Album and Pinkerton-era Weezer, looking for parts of those albums in the new material. Even though they were listening to new material, they were reminiscing the entire time.

I'll reminisce when I listen to new Nine Inch Nails, like how "In This Twilight" off Year Zero almost sounds like it could have fit in somewhere on The Fragile (if you some how mixed the mood of The Fragile with the mood of The Smashing Pumpkin's Mellon Collie), but when the material doesn't measure up (With Teeth, The Slip) I move on (or do the smart thing and listen to the artist's good material and try to forget that the new stuff exists). I don't hold on.

So, I'm perfectly happy listening to Pinkerton and some of the Blue Album. I'll throw a little Hash Pipe into my rotation as well, but I don't want to be a Weezer fan. I don't want to be that sad.