Here is something you will hear a lot if you talk about Weezer: the Blue Album is the good one, and Pinkerton is the one where they messed up. It came out on September 24, 1996, it didn't sell anywhere near what the first one did, and plenty of people reviewing it didn't get it.

I think Pinkerton is the better album. Not "also good." Better. I've been making this argument at lunch for two years and I have converted exactly three people, so now I'm making it on the Internet.

> THE FACTS FIRST

• The band produced it themselves. No Ric Ocasek this time.
• Rivers wrote most of it while he was a student at Harvard, by himself, far away from the band and the fame and everything.
• It's named after Pinkerton, the American naval officer in the opera Madama Butterfly, who marries a Japanese girl and then leaves her. A lot of the album is about the same kind of thing, only it's Rivers who comes out looking bad, and he knows it.
• The cover is an old Japanese woodblock print, a village at night with the snow coming down. It's beautiful. The Blue Album cover is four guys standing there. I rest my case on covers alone.

> REASON 1: IT SOUNDS LIKE A BAND IN A ROOM

The Blue Album is clean. Every part is in its place. Pinkerton is loud and fuzzy and the guitars are practically falling apart, and you can hear the four of them playing at once, like they set up and just went. When I put it on in my headphones it feels like I'm in the room. When we try to sound like that in James's garage, we just sound bad. They sound like it's on purpose.

> REASON 2: IT'S HONEST

The Blue Album is about being a goofy kid with your sweater and your garage. It's great. But Pinkerton is about being lonely, and being embarrassed, and wanting somebody and not knowing how to act about it, and doing the wrong thing, and knowing it's the wrong thing while you do it. Rivers doesn't make himself look cool on this album. Sometimes he makes himself look pretty bad. That's why it works. You believe every word.

I'm 16. I am embarrassed basically all the time. This album gets it.

> REASON 3: IT'S ONE STORY

You have to listen to it start to finish, in order. It starts out loud and angry and kind of gross, and it gets sadder and more honest as it goes, and then it ends with "Butterfly," which is just Rivers and an acoustic guitar, quiet, like he's finally saying sorry. The first time I heard it all the way through, at night, I just sat there when it was done.

> REASON 4: MATT SHARP

This is the last Weezer album with Matt on it, and he's all over it. Listen to the bass on "Why Bother?" and "Falling for You," and his high backing vocals everywhere. As a bass player, this is my textbook. If he never comes back, at least we have this.

> WHERE IT FALLS SHORT (TO BE FAIR)

Some of it makes me wince, and I think it's supposed to. A couple of the songs are not ones I'd play in the car with my mom. The sound is so rough that the first time you hear it you might think something's wrong with your stereo. And there's no "Buddy Holly" on it, nothing that's going to be on MTV every hour. If you want a fun party record, put on the Blue Album. I'm not saying Pinkerton is fun. I'm saying it's better.

> HOW TO LISTEN TO IT

1. Headphones.
2. Loud.
3. At night, by yourself.
4. All ten songs, in order, no skipping.
5. Don't read anything while it's on. Just listen.
6. Then e-mail me and tell me I was right.

> THE SCOREBOARD

People I've talked into it: 3 (Nicholas, my cousin, and a girl from my chemistry class who now borrows my CDs). People who still think I'm wrong: everybody else. James says it's "too sad to practice to." James is wrong, but he has the garage.