Pinkerton

09/24/1996 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Epstein

Just when we all thought reluctant alterna-rocker Rivers Cuomo had abandoned pop stardom in favor of the hallowed halls of academia, the enormously succesful Weezer is, in the immortal words of Ratt, back for more. Indeed, just as those Stephen Pearcy-led metal mavens followed their multi-platinum Out Of The Cellar with the carbon-copy riffage of Invasion Of Your Privacy, Pinkerton shows Weezer trying to recreate the winning formula of their 1994 debut. Unfortunately, while the fat guitars, high backing vocals and grunge-pop arrangements of the first album are all present and accounted for, Pinkerton sorely lacks the non-stop hooks that made the first Weezer record so appealing.

Not that the album's a total wash-out; the chorus of "Getchoo" hammers nicely and "Why Bother?," a wry dismissal of interpersonal relationships, sports a typically Weezer-esque mix of wit and tunefulness. Problem is, while these songs--along with "Across The Sea," "El Scorcho" and "Pink Triangle" (an instantly hummable lament about finding out that the girl of your dreams is a lesbian)--come across as Pinkerton's high points, none of them can hold a candle to such first-album delights as "Holiday," "My Name Is Jonas," or "Buddy Holly." Also, while Weezer's grunge-pop attack sounded fresh in 1994, it sounds pretty stale in a year when Superdrag and a million others are actively mining the same vein. Go back to school, son; at least you'll always have your education to fall back on.