MOBILE FIDELITY SOUND LAB 180g AUDIOPHILE 33RPM BLACK VINYL LP. LTD EDITION, NUMBERED.
"Few records claim a more bizarre history than Pinkerton. Upon initial release in 1996, Weezer’s sophomore effort failed to meet sales expectations, lacked a hit single, and drew primarily negative reviews from the press. Then, via word of mouth and reevaluation, the Little Album That Could began to build a reputation as an initially misunderstood masterwork — a bold, brave creation on which hyper-contagious hooks accompany a stream of confessional lyrics. Today, it’s cited on virtually every Best Albums of the 1990s list in existence.
Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g LP of Pinkerton brings the band’s live-in-the-studio vocals and raw feelings to the surface. Leader Rivers Cuomo’s decision to record group choruses around three microphones rather than capture them separately can be experienced as originally intended, translating in the form of an edgy immediacy that parallels the songs’ frustrated themes. Scraping guitars that augment the trials and tribulations documented in the lyrics come across with thrilling immediacy and in full-bodied fashion. You’ll hear details, tones, and dynamics absent from prior versions; crucial sonic fields such as separation, depth, soundstaging, and balance all reach new heights.
Comprised of personal narratives largely based on Cuomo’s dissatisfaction with rock-star life, and written by the singer/guitarist as he attended school at Harvard University, Pinkerton confronts disappointment, loneliness, isolation, awkwardness, and romantic irony with a universal perspective to which almost anybody can relate. Cuomo selected the character Lieutenant Pinkerton from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly as a touchstone, believing the persona symbolic of the tormented protagonists in his songs—and recognizing similar struggles to come to terms with identity."