One Weezer album made Rivers Cuomo hate himself

by Nicolas


There are so many eras in the history of rock that it is hard to keep up. But one era was defined by a certain lostness that seemed to permeate everything that happened, and that was America’s post-grunge era. Something Weezer tried to fill in.

With Kurt Cobain’s death, the art of grunge was given its own death sentence. Now, things began to open up once more, and the pursuit of stadium-sized rock bands once again grew. For those who wanted to rally against the system, only a few new artists remained.

By the time that rock reached 1994, it was anyone’s guess what would get popular. After the decline of grunge sent the genre into a tailspin, many artists began coming out of the woodwork as the perfect conduit for what alternative rock stood for, bringing an element of optimism back into rock and roll. While Green Day may have been responsible for the pop-punk revolution, Weezer offered a different take on that style.

Growing up, though, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo was far from the nerdy rockstar that most people know him for today. As opposed to the Buddy Holly glasses and songs about Dungeons and Dragons, Cuomo began life in Los Angeles with teased hair, dying to make it as a hair metal guitarist in the vein of his heroes like Randy Rhoads.

By the time his musical taste branched out, though, Cuomo had begun deep diving into every genre he could get his hands on. Outside of metal circles, Cuomo talked about developing an appreciation for pop songs by Madonna, which would help frame his melodic sensibilities when working on Weezer’s self-titled Blue Album in 1994.

Weezer - 2023 - SEAN MURPHY

Weezer in 2023. (Credits: Sean Murphy)

While the effect of Nirvana had changed the course of Cuomo’s career, the songs on Weezer’s first outing were much more optimistic. Celebrating the nerdy side of rock and roll, Cuomo was proud to represent the resident dorks of the music scene, crafting songs about the joys of being in one’s room playing music.

By the time Cuomo went on tour to promote the album, though, his rock and roll dreams were far from the reality he was given. Becoming more uncomfortable with his status by the day, Cuomo eventually withdrew from public life, preferring to study at Harvard University and occasionally write songs.

Once Weezer got back together, Cuomo’s idea for their next project was a vicious reaction to his alienation. Having a nasty approach to production, Pinkerton would be disliked immediately upon release, with many thinking that the band abandoned all of their worthwhile sensibilities in favour of caustic songs about relationships and loneliness.

While Cuomo took that criticism to heart, many people started to see the merit of Pinkerton years later, considering it one of the most effective emo albums of the 1990s. Despite the praise that it garnered, Cuomo was still ashamed of what he put his audience through.

Thinking that the album was too personal, Cuomo would later regret making the album at all, telling Vulture, “No one on Earth liked it. I really, really disliked myself for making the record I made and for thinking that that was the right record to make”. Then again, Cuomo may not have known what he had on his hands when he was making his sophomore release.

Despite the initial revulsion, Pinkerton is an album that showed Cuomo at his most human, with each song serving as both a warning about what fame does to a person and a cry for help from a man who just wants to feel something again. It may be far from a pleasant listen at times, but no Weezer album released since the 1990s has struck an emotional nerve quite like Pinkerton.

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