Rivers Cuomo
Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
Geffen

3.5 out of 5 stars

Rivers Cuomo is truly one of a kind. The Harvard-grad-turned-emo-poster-boy has slowly worked his way to full-blown rock star status while fronting the alt-rock hit-makers known as Weezer. Fifteen years and six albums later, Cuomo and his band have sold millions of records and play to thousands of people every night. To say life is awesome for Cuomo would be an understatement, but it was time to step back from the screaming fans, bright lights and anthemic riffs of the arena-rock life and invite his loyal fans into his own place of residence for a more humble offering.

Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo is Cuomo’s second collection of demos, recorded from 1992 to 2007. The 19 songs that appear on Alone II were selected from a pool of 500 unreleased tracks that includes solo cuts and rejects from Weezer albums (including a three-song set from the storied Black Hole Sessions, a Weezer project that never materialized), along with a cover and very unlikely collaboration.

Due to the fragmented nature of the album, Alone II is really more of a scattered song collection than a conventional album. Taking this into consideration, Alone II includes a handful of engaging tunes. “I Want to Take You Home Tonight,” “My Brain Is Working Overtime” and “I’ll Think About You” are all shaped in the conventional Weezer mold: three-minute sing-alongs with witty verses and the obligatory guitar break. In short, they’re very accessible tracks. Lyrically and stylistically, the songs are very similar to Weezer’s earliest work on albums like Weezer (The Blue Album) and Pinkerton. The highly sought-after Black Hole tracks are far less listenable and don’t meet their lofty expectations: Clocking in at a combined 2:36, and severely lacking in production quality, it’s difficult to judge whether or not Black Hole could have been the masterpiece it was anticipated to be.

This minor disappointment is easily countered by many solid tracks. Most notable are “My Day Is Coming,” “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Can’t Stop Partying,” each providing its own bit of unexpected creativity. “My Day Is Coming” initially sounds like a prophetic ballad about becoming a famous rock star as Cuomo sings, “My day is coming / It’s coming someday … It might be today.” The assumed meaning is then shattered as Cuomo rattles off a litany of U.S. soccer players and is backed by the faint roar of a cheering crowd, demonstrating Cuomo’s love for the game. With its modest piano arrangement and obscure subject matter, it would sound utterly out of place on a Weezer album.

Cuomo pays tribute to one of his greatest influences, Brian Wilson, on a stunning rendition of The Beach Boys’s “Don’t Worry Baby.” The cover is generally consistent with the original, but Cuomo adds a distorted guitar with a brief solo to give it a little edge. Cuomo’s ability to sing harmonies truly does the song justice.

“Can’t Stop Partying” is unquestionably the most entertaining effort on the record. The song was written by hip hop producer Jermaine Dupri and resembles Ben Folds’s cover of “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” The goofy, middle-aged white-guy singing lyrics like “I got to have Patron / I got to have the E / I got to have a lot of pretty girls around me,” provides an ironically sincere and wildly entertaining experience.

The record is enjoyable because of Cuomo’s knack for combining catchy tunes with subtle humor and is enhanced by splashes of creativity and experimentation not often seen in Cuomo’s work with Weezer. Alone II is essential for any Blue Album-era fan and is a nice addition to the less avid Weezer fan’s collection.