Fullofkittens wrote:

So Theory #1 is the Goffin theory: Cuomo is just too comfy to make good pop music. He's a guy whose muse needs to be rescuing him from despair, and despair over creative lethargy apparently isn't enough. Also, he's like Goffin in another way: he's a lot older now, and musical motherfuckers' asses do not generally age like wine.

Theory #2: Somewhere in there Rivers decided not to give of himself in his songs anymore. What really gives some weight to the first two records is that the songs masquerade as geek pop fun but there's disturbing confessional undercurrents. "Say It Ain't So" busts away from talk about surfing to briefly accuse the protagonist's stepfather of making him an alcoholic. And then there's awesome unison bends which are supposed to rock us out and make us laugh. Pinkerton is basically a huge vaguely uncomfortable frank and open deep conversation (it brings him down slow), including the yikes moment where Mr. Cuomo admits in a very non-Hagar-y way that he wishes he could fuck his underage fans.

Theory #3 is the most obvious one, and probably the most correct: Matt Sharp left the band after Pinkerton, and without Kim Deal the Pixies become Frank Black and The Catholics.