Record review: "Alone: The home recordings of Rivers Cuomo"
That no one but a Weezer completist would even think of popping this in the CD player is a given. Archival material is always the provenance of the obsessive. Listening to this kind of stuff is less about a musical experience than a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the process of your favorite artist.
In case the title doesn't give it away, "Alone" is a collection of home recorded tracks, spanning from 1992-2007 (with a little bonus gem from Cuomo's garage rocking days in 1984), by Weezer's frontman. It's interesting stuff, worth hearing once (I probably won't listen to any of it again, though; it's definitely not going into the general shuffle pool). There are some excerpts from a rock opera (set in space) Cuomo was working on after the blue album hit it big.
What really struck me about the collection is what a literal songwriter Cuomo is. These tunes are all raw and unedited, and he really lets everything hang out. If he's sorry, girl, that those other guys are so mean to you, that's exactly what he says. If impending fame makes him feel ambivalent, well:
"Blast off! Up to the stars we go
And leave behind everything I used to know.
Someone's giving me a whole lot of money
to do what I think I want to
So why am I still feeling blue?"
That's from the opera.
The lengthy notes Cuomo includes with the album shed further light on the man's personality, and confirm my own suspicion that he's kind of a self-important jerk who really benefits from collaboration, but is good at driving away those willing to work with him. (I'm a Matt Sharp fan.) Maybe that's unfair — I've never met the guy, after all — but that's the picture this, ultimately self-indulgent, package presents.
eh.www.amNY.com
