How timely to be releasing a song called “Blue Vs. Pinkerton” this week! Just a few days ago Olivia Rodrigo sat down with YouTube music critic Anthony Fantano and named Weezer‘s blown-out sophomore LP as one of her all-time favorites. Now Johanna Samuels has used the eternal debate between the band’s first two albums to illustrate the teenage search for identity.
“Blue Vs. Pinkerton” is the latest single from Sorry Kid, the forthcoming Samuels album that has already given us “Circles” and “Two People, The Moon.” This one’s a country-fried alt-rock tune with a friendly approach to melody. She wrote it in response to a songwriting prompt asking her to paint a visceral experience of a specific time and place. Samuels elaborates:
I chose my sophomore and junior year of high school. I sat and reflected on the through line for me during that time… of course there were crushes and friends and my first cigarettes but what connected me most to myself and to my community was the music that I loved. I love songs about music.
I thought about Weezer and how much I loved them. I found out about them when a boy I liked asked if I was a Pinkerton girl or a Blue Album girl and I pretended I knew what he was talking about. What he ended up turning me onto impacted me way more than the crush. I’ve oscillated between the two records during different periods of my life and have even dabbled in some Green Album which I don’t get to in the song. I felt the debate was a perfect metaphor for what that time was like so I wove the memories around that as a chorus. Those two records were somewhat of a soundtrack to those vignettes for me. Whether it’s Blue or Pinkerton is still a question I don’t have the answer to.
I think my answer is Pinkerton, but I, too, have vacillated many times over the years. Listen below.
Sorry Kid is out 8/14 via Odd Man Out/Jealous Butcher. Pre-order it here.
