As we go through life, we find songs that emulate a specific event or feeling that we can relate to whether it be present or past. Hey, that’s the entire point of music: to evoke a feeling and have the song represent and embody it. My emotions run the highest when I listen to any song that sticks a big middle finger to anything that I feel very strongly about.
The first article I wrote for Datingish was about hitting rock bottom
after the worst breakup of my life and Weezer’s Pinkerton was my anthem in the aftermath of all of that as I began to put myself back on the market, and learned what a truly grizzly world love, men, and sex can be.
After the incredible success of their first album, Weezer initially decided to make their sophomore record into a space-themed rock opera. Ultimately, this concept was dropped and
Pinkerton was produced, sporting songs that the band had written before their first album. Also included were some songs that front man Rivers Cuomo wrote while studying at Harvard, where he lived life as a dark, depressed hermit and you can really feel these emotions in the abrasive riffs and dark ambiance the album provokes especially compared to just about any other song written by Weezer.
The album was released in 1996 to meager sales and general dislike among the population. In fact,
it was named one of the worst albums of 1996 in a readers poll taken by Rolling Stone. Fortunately, word of mouth kept the sales trickling and in retrospect the album has gained a large, solid fan base and was
ironically ranked 48 on Rolling Stone’s Best Albums of the Nineties.
Each song on the album is very relatable, especially to a college student caught up in the anxious, grueling headache that is sex and relationships. Wanting sex, hating sex, unlucky-in-love, admiration, and wanting to say screw it all; it’s all in this album and really defined a specific era in my life when I felt especially lost and angry with the world. In fact, it was at this time in my life that I first heard this album, namely the track, “Why Bother?” which preached to my current situation of repeated heartbreak and not being able to catch a break.
Love at first listen, this album is always in my heavy rotation. True, the overall theme of this album is pretty pathetic, but that is what makes it so relatable. Who hasn’t been a pitiful schmuck who has been had by some other person or felt emotionally drained and ignored by an SO however casual or serious the relationship may be? Who among us hasn’t wanted to just say, “FUCK YOU ALL I’M DONE”? And who hasn’t found some anthem to sympathize with their feelings and rock out to over and over again?
Pinkerton is one of my all-time favorite albums and one that will always have a very sentimental tie to my heart for likely the rest of my life. It’s like a scent that you pick up one time in one place and you will forever be brought back to that time and place every time you sense a whiff.
Music evokes these emotions and cements these memories in all of us and even after the situation has passed and you can find endless humor in its retrospect, you likely have a song that you will appreciate and listen to fondly, however often, for years to come.
What albums/songs have you turned to for emotional support through a rough patch?
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Comments (4)
I like Regulate by Warren G feat. Nate Dogg. that song is so soothing. nate dogg harmonizes so well. how can a gangsta song sound so chill like lounging on a beach sippin on gatorade
warren g is so fine. I had a crush on him when I was younger. I still want him now
I listen to happy songs like jason mraz, I'm Yours
or other cute guys singing upbeat songs. I really like victor kim's version but he set his cover song to private
Marilyn Manson's "High End of Low" album.
He wrote it after the break up of his marriage, and it came out when mine was falling apart and I was going through lots of upheaval in my life. There are a variety of styles of songs on it and emotions, anger, sorrow, fear, pain, sarcasm etc. So it addressed SO much of what I was going through. Something for all the jumble of emotions you go through when your life is going through the blender.
@cheddarsox@xanga - I totally agree with you. When an album can not only evoke one but multiple feelings whether it defines you as a person or a specific time n your life. Weezer's sophomore album Pinkerton is like that for me.
One of my all-time favorite albums. "Why Bother?", "El Scorcho" and "Falling for You". The album's epicness is unsurpassed.