Having heard two singles – Drop Dead and The Cure – we already know what a portion of Olivia Rodrigo’s third album is going to sound like, but she may just have given us another hint of where her musical head is right with the revelation that her current listening is focused on just one band and album.
“Weezer is like my favourite band at the moment,” she reveals in an interview with Dazed. “I’m super into Pinkerton – it’s the only album I listen to these days.”
Though now regarded as one of Weezer's finest hours, the band’s frontman, Rivers Cuomo, recalled in a 2010 interview that the critical reaction to Pinkerton, the band’s second album, was anything but pretty. A rougher, more ragged record than their eponymous debut, it was self-produced by the band and designed to better reflect what they sounded like on stage.
"We put out Pinkerton, and it seemed like what I was hearing at that point was, 'What happened to our fun band?’” reflected Cuomo. “‘They're catchy and poppy and fun and energetic, and now they're...bizarre, grotesque, obscene, noisy...' And at the same time, it was such a personal record for me. I felt like I was saying, 'OK, world! Here's the truth. Here's what I'm really like.'
"I guess part of me assumed that it was going to be very successful, and I'd become like this superstar, because the record was so focused on me. And it came out and sold a tenth of the Blue Album...That was just crushing for me - all of that together - and it took a while to build up the confidence to even step back in the spotlight again."
Critics and fans have now reappraised Pinkerton, to the extent that it’s now considered a ‘90s classic. Rodrigo wasn’t even born when it came out, in 1996, but that hasn’t stopped her forming a deep relationship with both band and album. In fact, she invited members of Weezer to perform with her during a festival show in 2025.
“I was so lucky to get to perform with them at Lollapalooza last year,” she says now. “It was so, so special and those songs are just so well made and brilliant. I just love them and they inspire me to be weirder and more myself.”
Speaking of festivals, Rodrigo also reflected again on her performance at Glastonbury last year. “I think it truly was the best weekend I’ve ever had in my 23 years,” she says. “All the people that I love, my whole family and all my friends, came over.”
Much as she enjoyed it, though, the fact that she got to perform with another of her musical inspirations meant that one particular member of her family may have cherished the experience even more.
“I got to sing two songs with Robert Smith from The Cure, who is one of my heroes,” she says. “I think it was the happiest that I’ve ever seen my dad, too. His screensaver is still a picture of him and Robert Smith.”
With the release of her new album just a week away (it comes out on 12 June), Rodrigo also discussed her own music-making, and one instrument that‘s of particular importance to her.
“Piano is the first instrument that I learned how to play – I was, like, nine when I started,” she says. “I’m no maestro by any means, but it’s so much fun for me to play and I love writing songs on piano. I wrote a few of the songs on You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love on piano, and one of them is my favourite song on the record I think – it always changes.
“But good old faithful piano – always there for me when I need it.”
