Rivers Cuomo is an extremely introverted and at times highly insolent individual. His sanity has been questioned many a time over the years, and his isolation from others is clear for all to see. Despite his questionable state of mind, Weezer as a band have continued for the most part to release excellent albums over the years and now comes this latest release from Rivers Cuomo as a solo artist. ‘Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo’ is exactly as it says on the tin, it is a collection of demo recordings that he has recorded between the years of 1992 and 2007. Being demo recordings, the quality is often quite bad, but nonetheless some excellent tracks can be made out as Rivers Cuomo progresses his way through this collection. Many mistakes are made, and at times the vocals are completely off key, but the makings of some brilliant material can often be heard and the musical expertise of Rivers Cuomo is always apparent.
Notably included here is a demo recording of ‘Buddy Holly’, a song that would later go on to become one of Weezer’s most commercially successful singles. It is not too dissimilar to the final recording of the track that was present on Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’, just a little on the grainy side what with it being a home demo recording and all. It is the original demo that was recorded and yet I hear no differences whatsoever between this and the tracks final cut, a testament to the excellence of Rivers Cuomo as a musician and the few difficulties he must encounter in progressing his material from demo to fully polished album track. ‘Buddy Holly’ is the only Weezer track included on this release, and all others present are either never heard before songs, cover tracks, or material from his unfinished rock musical.
Covers featured here include Dion’s ‘Little Diane’, Ice Cube’s ‘The Bomb’, and Gregg Alexander’s ‘The World We Love So Much’. It is certainly an eclectic array of covers, however I feel it is when Rivers Cuomo is producing his own original material here that the album is at its best. Many of the tracks featured here sound like they could easily be moulded into successful Weezer tracks, they have all the makings of Weezer tracks that never were in fact. The formula is just right, and tracks such as ‘Blast Off!’ and ‘Superfriend’ for example sound like they would fit in perfectly on any one of Weezer’s five studio albums to date. The opening line of ‘Superfriend’ made me laugh, it starts with a twenty second guitar introduction before throwing at you the line ‘What the hell am I doing, thinking with my willy’. The whole experience of listening to this album is really rather surreal, and when listening to this album there will definitely be a number of tracks that surprise you. So many different sounds are covered by Rivers Cuomo on this album and you never know quite what you will come across next as you eagerly and excitedly listen on.
‘This Is The Way’ is one of the tracks that stands out to me most when listening to this album, there is just something about it that makes it absolutely brilliant to listen to. The track is just so exceptionally well worked that it’s actually really quite difficult to regard it only as a demo and nothing more. With a bit of work I feel that this could easily become a rather successful single release, there’s definitely something about it which makes it stand out and be begged to be heard by all. It’s quite a bare track, simple in sound yet extremely effective and really quite hard hitting.
For Weezer enthusiasts I feel that this album is most certainly essential listening. Not everyone will be particularly excited about listening to the solo material of Rivers Cuomo, however those with a great love of Weezer will certainly enjoy what they hear here. There are a lot of potentially excellent tracks present on this album, ones that will amuse you, have you singing along, and generally thoroughly enjoying the music as Rivers Cuomo takes you on a trip through his home recordings spanning a period of fifteen years. If you’re after a cleanly produced, perfect album then this is not the album for you, the production is far from smooth and mistakes are made more than merely on the odd occasion. ‘Alone’ makes for compelling listening, and hearing the solo workings of the great Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo is never short of enthralling. Whilst only one track present here made it on to become a fully fledged Weezer track, you can definitely hear elements of a number of popular Weezer songs coming through on this album. Definitely do not disregard this solo release from Rivers Cuomo, particularly if you’re a fan of Weezer then you should enjoy what you hear from Rivers Cuomo with this ‘Alone’ album.
Label: Geffen Records
Release Date: 4th February 2008
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
