Have you heard the last 3 Weezer albums? No? Good, they're rubbish. Rewind back to 1992 and discover 'The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo' instead - you're worth it. Cuomo has been allegedly prolific in the fifteen years that his band Weezer have been active. He's apparently written eight hundred songs, so good on him. Here we get to hear some of them that are new to us, and other ones that have been on other CDs, just sounding a bit different.
Working in a more-or-less chronological way from 1992 to 2007, 'Alone' tells a number of stories. It shows Cuomo's personal development, as well as myriad projects panned, canned and alongside those that turned out to be just a little bit silly. There's the space travel concept album in the form of 'Who You Callin' Bitch?', which should have featured on rock opera 'Songs From The Black Hole', before that disappeared and became 1996's 'Pinkerton'. Throughout these eighteen snippets of the good, bad and ugly, there are many such tales of grandiose sagas that have sadly been cut short.
The term 'home recording' conjures up images of inwardly-embarassed, bespectacled dweebs twanging away with a 4-track. Fortunately, the vast majority of 'Alone' is buffed up into a comparable bench-pressing jock, making things entertaining as well as educational. There are no pissy, unfinished sketches here. Experience the throbbing, veinous development of dirge-pop classic 'Buddy Holly', nestling by previously-undiscovered gems and chip-chops of a cappella daftness. Best of all, don't expect any of the crud that Cuomo has had to peddle since someone thought up a suitable demographic for Weezer and made it all cringingly awful.
The main lesson to be learnt from 'Alone' is that persistence makes perfect. This is a journey of recordings that follows the endless polished drafts and sweaty late nights that Weezer have required to become key players over the last decade-or-so. It might be too neurotic for some, and it does run like a High School Movie from time to time, but that's what makes it all the more fun.Rating: 6/10
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