Customer Reviews

El Scorcho

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Weezer's Pinkerton album was written largely while Rivers Cuomo was at Harvard. Having achieved some fame with their first album, Weezer (Blue Album), he felt somewhat disenfranchised by being a rock star and wanted to create something different. So musically the album is much rawer than the previous album and lyrically the album is much more personal than the previous album. The result was an album that Geffen A&R rep Todd Sullivan called a "very brave record" and the label said, "...no one's going to be disappointed."

Unfortunately upon its release almost everyone was disappointed. In Rolling Stone, Pinkerton was named by the readers the worst album of 1996. Rivers Cuomo himself said that it was a hideous record in 2001. (He amended his statement in 2008 calling it "...super-deep, brave, and authentic.") The disappointment of Pinkerton nearly caused the demise of the band as they wouldn't release another album for five years after its release. Actually it was the rise of Pinkerton that led to the re-emergence of Weezer. Rolling Stone readers would later name it the 16th greatest album of all time, and several publications would go on to list it in their must have albums list and best of the 90's.

The album wasn't helped by its first single, "El Scorcho", either. Many radio stations wouldn't play it and the video failed to get decent air time on MTV (yes, this was back when they actually did play videos and having your video on MTV could help your career). Of course for anyone looking for "Buddy Holly" or "Undone (The Sweater Song)" this seemed like quite the odd follow-up.

This song is a little rough around the edges, without the polished production of a lot of pop rock that came out at the time and since. At times the guitar riff seems to meander a bit and at other times the song gallops along with purpose. In its own way the song could be said to be somewhat progressive in its peaks and valleys. Throughout the song there are also these improvised vocals as if the song is being performed at a party or just a gathering for friends. It's a much different style of song than what was expected after their first album.

Lyrically this song saw Rivers Cuomo diving headfirst into a much more personal territory. It was inspired by a girl that Cuomo fell for at school but never had the courage to speak to. As always Cuomo takes a tongue in cheek approach to expressing his feelings, something that has set him apart from the emo artists that he helped to inspire. The subject matter could be taken very seriously, but Cuomo understands what he's doing: "How stupid is it?/ I can't talk about it/ I gotta sing about it/ and make a record of my heart."

5/5

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Love this song. Has that fukny guitar sound, those funky lyrics and the way he delivers them. and its a song thats ment to be sang along with.