Pinkerton

banana brains · Post by **banana brains** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:25 pm

A friend told me I might like the album Pinkerton by Weezer. I like the songs, they're great, but I don't really like the recording. To my ears it sounds really...uhm, I don't know what the word is...muffled, maybe?

I am interested in hearing others thoughts on the recording of that record and whether people like this sound. Why does it sound the way it sounds?

LimpyLoo · Post by **LimpyLoo** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:19 pm

tdrop wrote:A friend told me I might like the album Pinkerton by Weezer. I like the songs, they're great, but I don't really like the recording. To my ears it sounds really...uhm, I don't know what the word is...muffled, maybe?

I am interested in hearing others thoughts on the recording of that record and whether people like this sound. Why does it sound the way it sounds?

That's one of my fave albums of all time. Top ten, perhaps.

Yeah, it's raw. The first album was squeaky clean. Pinkerton's got grit.

Tragabigzanda · Post by **Tragabigzanda** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:23 pm

There's no accounting for taste, but I think you're nuts. That record sounds awesome! Definitely not muffled, to my ears. Not sure what you're hearing that doesn't sit right? Can you be more specific?

I've worked in the same room (Fort Apache/Camp St---RIP), and I would say that they basically just got the sound of that room and let that shine. It's a great live room, I believe designed by Michael Blackmer. Super brash, in a good way. Other records were recorded there by the Pixies, Radiohead, Hole (I think---they may have tracked that one elsewhere and then mixed there?). Awesome room, and last I knew it was sitting vacant.

goose134 · Post by **goose134** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:29 pm

Agreed. I love the sound of this record BECAUSE it is so different from their others. Great feel for the room sound, dirty guitars. Drums sound is epic. One of my favorite records. I know it was critically panned, but Pinkerton represents one of those artistic moments when exploration is crushed by commercial concerns.

Muffled? Maybe you have your stereo settings all wrong?

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:38 pm

I've held it as a standard for a certain type of rock recording for the last ten years.

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:44 pm

Pinkerton sounds unusual on purpose. The band knew exactly what they wanted, and that's why they hired David Fridmann, who did a wonderful job with the record. The sound of the album is unconventional, certainly, but that was certainly the intent. Sonically, Pinkerton is a smashing success at what it set out to be. Whether or not you like that is another question.

You're certainly entitled to your own tastes, and Weezer's blue album does have many more fans for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that it was specifically engineered to be more instantly palatable. Chris Shaw did that one. Also a wonderful job, although an entirely different aesthetic.

You can kind of think of the blue album as Weezer's Nevermind, and Pinkerton as their In Utero. And just like with Nirvana, die hard fans of Weezer tend to rave about the latter, while more casual fans tend to rave about the former.

Incidentally, I have a video interview with these two very different Weezer engineers (Fridmann and Shaw) coming out the first week of October. I'll try to remember to post it here when it's out.

CedarSound · Post by **CedarSound** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:59 am

It all comes down to what you like, of course.. Depending on the song, sometimes I like really dead sounding drums (later Beatles, John Lennon solo stuff for example).. but I LOVE bombastic roomy drum sounds in the right context, and when I want a reference for that, there are three examples I reach for... Zeppelin, Flaming Lips, and Pinkerton. I think the Nirvana analogy is dead on..

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:04 am

fossiltooth wrote: Incidentally, I have a video interview with these two very different Weezer engineers (Fridmann and Shaw) coming out the first week of October. I'll try to remember to post it here when it's out.

Please do.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:42 am

One of my all time favorites. Hands down amazing album start to finish and I really applauded the band for boldly going with a totally different sound on their second album. Of course as mentioned it was a critical disaster and they went back to their original formula which was never as good, imo.

Yes its raw and distorted, but that's what makes it such a great album.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:53 am

Did Brian Paulson (sp) engineer this album? Seems like I remember him doing it.

I was working at HMV when it was released and the day it was supposed to come out we had to pull it off the shelves because supposedly the Pinkerton security company had sued over the name. At the time I didn't question it but now I don't know if that was true or if the record label was having second thoughts? So it was officially released a few weeks (several) later to little or no fanfare other than the first video on MTV. At least that's what I remember - god I am old. . .I do remember being blown away by the album as soon as I heard it and seeing them when they came around to support it. I think they were the loudest band I have ever seen on that tour. Seriously, louder than any metal band I have seen. I could literally feel the kick drum move my chest every time he hit it. It was crazy.

GlowSounds · Post by **GlowSounds** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 11:06 am

Ya- agreed with everyone on this.
Tdrop- if you want to hear actual "muffled" listen to the kick on the Blue album. I can practically smell the nasty pillow stuffed in that drum!

Tragabigzanda · Post by **Tragabigzanda** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 12:52 pm

Yea, another record that I would call "muffled" is the Breeders' "Mountain Battles."

GlowSounds · Post by **GlowSounds** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:07 pm

Tragibigzanda wrote:Yea, another record that I would call "muffled" is the Breeders' "Mountain Battles."

Ya +1 to that. How about Wilco's A Ghost is Born. Probably one of the more muffled albums I know. We could probably go on all day

banana brains · Post by **banana brains** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:22 pm

Wow, a lot of great posts. I was doing a little research last night after I posted and I came across a thread on Gearslutz about the album. I didn't realize it was such a hit, sonically.

Like I said I enjoy the songs. I listened to it on the way to work to listen again, keeping in mind all that I had read. Most of the posts on Gearslutz were about the drums on "tired of sex".

I think that is what it is for me. The drums are really loud and the vocals seem distant. At times the drums seem to wash out the rest of the arrangements. I don't know though. Its obviously my bad taste.

Tragabigzanda · Post by **Tragabigzanda** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:31 pm

Hey, it's all good. If you were to dig back a few years, you'd find a post on here where I said that I didn't really like On The Beath. What the hell was I thinking? That record is now one of my all-time favorites.

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