The Weeze is in the "Pink," still can't get a date

Pinkerton

Pinkerton (DGC)

Weezer surprised me. I had never heard anything but "The Sweater Song" until I went to a show on Halloween 1994 where they played with Live. Before then, I had lumped them in with any number of grunge-esque pretenders clogging the airwaves across the country. However, I was impressed enough after that night to go out and buy the album, and two years later it still impresses me.

They're back, with the same high school geek lyrics, clean guitar that knows how to drop out at just the right moments, and contrapuntal vocals. This time these are well-supplemented with more broken melodies and experimentation. Their second effort, Pinkerton, is a worthy sequel to the popular self-titled debut that should help them stand out a bit more from the crowd.

The first video, "El Scorcho," features lead singer Rivers Cuomo jumping all over the scale while disjointed chords twist in the background. Often unfairly accused of banality and unoriginality, he shows off a lot in one song. Usually, trying to sound like Pavement isn't much to rave about, but the comparison should at least clarify and emphasize a creative streak denied Weezer b y its detractors.

The usual high school whining and posturing is as strong as ever, with lines like the ecstatic verse from "El Scorcho": "I asked you to go to the Green Day concert / You said you never heard of them / How cool is that?" There are still the four or five obligatory pining songs that can basically be boiled down to "I want a girl," but now, in "Why Bother?" they're looking for more than "just sexual attraction."

Yes, they're celebrities now and are learning to cope. The rock star lifestyle might be hard to pity, but its not pity they want: the labored lament "Tired of Sex" expresses a need to really "make love." Too much of a good thing for these four 26 to 27-year-olds? "The Good Life" was before they became famous: "I don't want to be a nomad anymore/It's been a year or two since I was out on the floor/Shaking booty, making sweet love all the night / It's time I got back to the good life." They must know, of course, that there's no going back, especially with songs as hit-ready as that one.

Also in "The Good Life," Cuomo asks us to "Excuse the bitching, I shouldn't complain," and says he blames no one but himself. I excuse his early lapses into the epidemic rock star syndrome of having nothing to write about but being a rock star. He's come a long way and played through many shows full of people that haven't heard anything but that sweater song. Far from the days of "In the Garage" and "Holiday," both written in the euphoria immediately following the signing of their record deal, Weezer is pining for more than girls now. In innocence was a joy that can never be recaptured--not a terribly original sentiment, but not as stock as "I want a girl." As Cuomo knows, strong works like Pinkerton will make this band's popularity doalmost anything but fall.

--Dan McGarry