Rivers Cuomo - Alone: The Home Recordings of…

This overly self-reflective culture of ours has many issues, but in the music world, one of the most glaring is the necessity to hear every last bit of recorded material by a particular artist, no matter how raw, unfinished or terrible it might be.

Case in point: this recent collection of home demos recorded by Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo. There’s obviously a contingent of the world that feels that hearing this artist do a hack job cover of Ice Cube’s “The Bomb” or a ridiculous less than one minute heavy riffage experiment given the unfortunate title “Who You Callin’ Bitch?” is necessary to understand Cuomo’s development as a songwriter or to provide some insight into his methods.

In some respects, this collection delivers just that with a rough version of the band’s first major chart hit “Buddy Holly” as well as a handful of songs written specifically for Weezer albums, but that weren’t considered for the simple fact that they aren’t some of Cuomo’s best ideas. Some songs, like “Chess” and the slow dance anthem “I Was Made For You”, are cute enough, but are weightless and drifted out of my consciousness three seconds after the songs were over. Everything else on this album, though, is pure chaff, offering up nothing but a stopgap to keep rabid Weezer fans satiated until the next album and tour.