Rivers Cuomo

An excavated peak-years Weezer document this is not, even if it occasionally recalls the stuff that made us head-over-argyles once upon a time. The lolling power ballad "Lemonade" is the tow-headed stepchild of the Blue Album and the gnarly overdrive of "Blast Off!" (one of a handful of songs allegedly taken from a scraped concept LP about space exploration) has the glorious, nerdly rage of Pinkerton. But keep your finger on the skip button so as to avoid duds like "Who You Callin' Bitch" and the shrieking twee rant of "The World We Love So Much."

As Weezer's frontman, Rivers Cuomo has proved adept at writing jagged little pop-rock
songs. But there's plenty of evidence that Cuomo is a bit, how you say, off-kilter — a
talented space cadet prone to depression, sexual frustration and locking himself inside the
studio, the sort of guy who may have trouble finding his pants in the morning. So you might
hope this collection — demos and home recordings from just before Weezer's in... More >