Pinkerton

VINYL FORMAT. From the pounding, primal assault of the opening track "Tired of Sex," it's clear from the outset that Pinkerton is a different record than the sunny, heavy guitar-pop of Weezer's eponymous debut. The first noticible difference is the darker, messier sound — the guitars rage and squeal, the beats are brutal and visceral, the vocals are mixed to the front, filled with overlapping, off-the-cuff backing vocals. In short, it sounds like the work of a live band, which makes it all the more ironic that Pinkerton, at its core, is a singer/songwriter record, representing Rivers Cuomo's bid for respectability.