Music
Weezer's 'Pinkerton' has finally gone platinum
by Richard Howard
September 20, 2016
Weezer's classic sophomore album has gone platinum just days before it's 20th anniversary.
I don’t need to tell you how sweet a good “Nyah nyah, suck it/You like apples? How you like them apples?” moment is. Well, as far as album reception goes, Weezer might be having the mother of those moments right now. After the world embraced and bought millions of copies of their debut album (commonly called ‘The Blue Album’), a legion of fans anxiously awaited the follow-up…which turned out to be Pinkerton. People. HATED. Pinkerton. Frontman River Cuomo’s recovery from leg surgery and disillusionment with rock stardom had a huge effect on his writing, and after the joyous pop of their debut, the self-produced Pinkerton‘s dark themes and harsher sound pretty much bummed people right out. Pinkerton did achieve gold status after half a decade but at the time of its release it received mixed reviews and, compared to their debut, was considered a commercial failure.
But then a funny thing happened. Years later, many fans and critics did an about-face and started touting the album as not just one of Weezer’s best, but one of the best albums of the 90s altogether. Rolling Stone, which initially gave the album a three-star rating and included the album in it’s Critic’s Poll ‘Worst Albums of the Year’ went on to change their rating to a perfect five and name Pinkerton as their 16th greatest album of all time in 2002. Still, it remained a cult favourite and as such, sales chugged slowly along behind the scenes. Then last Friday, a week off from its 20th birthday, Pinkerton sneakily achieved that desired (and increasingly rare) pinnacle – platinum certification by the RIAA.
Undoubtedly helped along by the RIAA’s new guidelines of 10 track sales or 1500 track streams being equal to a full album (making the now 38-year-old jock who maintains “Pinkerton sucked but ‘El Scorcho’ was tight an ally), it’s regardless a pretty amazing occurrence.
Funnily enough, Rivers can celebrate Pinkerton‘s success but can’t really pull an “I told you so,” since after its release few people shit on the album more than the famously self-critical singer himself. He eventually changed his tune, though, and according to Pinkerton‘s new status, it looks like he was right.
