Rivers Cuomo, front-man of the nerd rock band Weezer, takes a giant step away from the pop-friendly rock of his past and enters a world that has a less refined sound but full of eccentricities in his solo album Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (1992-2007).
The album is a 15-year span of Cuomo’s career, and it contains the sugary pop and childish sound that Weezer fans will bask in for all 45 minutes.
The album’s first four tracks are literally all over the place, with a hymn-like “Ooh” giving way to a soothing ballad “The World We Love So Much,” which oozes sincerity and emotion. “Lemonade,” along with numerous tracks throughout the album, has the feel of a typical Weezer track that you will feel like you’ve already heard a thousand times. The final song of the four is a cover of Ice Cube’s “The Bomb.” It has all the appeal you would expect of a white nerd covering a gangster rap selection, which is to say, not much.
A third of the album are songs that are no more than two minutes and feel like they’re something Cuomo just came up with when he was bored. Cuomo, a mainstream emo pioneer, does nothing to shake that stereotype and his “I’m so lonely and sad” style wears thin after the impressive “World We Love So Much.”
It’s safe to say that Cuomo was unchallenged and resigned himself to not standing out in the slightest. Cuomo collected these 18 tracks to represent the best of his demo work and if that is the case, he should head back to the drawing board. His latest works are good, but not great and he fails to be any different than the generic Weezer sound.
5/10
Download: World We Love So Much, I Was Made For you
Avoid: Lemonade
Geffen Records
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