Weezer's geek god of love returns with solo album
The Drop music blog
By Jillian Mapes, Assistant Managing Editor
December 19, 2007 | noon
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo feels more like an ex-boyfriend than some far-off rock star to me. I’ve had a relationship with the 37-year-old singer/guitarist since the age of 12, even once writing him an eight-page letter expressing my eternal love for him at the tender age of 14.
I never sent the letter and now keep it in the top drawer of my desk. If you’re lucky enough, I might just let you read the horrendously embarrassing and revealing note.
Needless to say, I’ve read every interview he’s ever given (and it’s less than you’d think due to his introverted nature), and I have every unreleased Weezer/Cuomo song on my iPod (there are hundreds). After spending my middle school days convinced that I’d marry the bespectacled musician, I’ve single-handedly attributed my taste for nerdy and shy males to the Rivers Cuomo factor.
In Weezer’s Blue Album and Pinkerton days, Cuomo was my musical soul mate. In the recent years of Weezer, however, Cuomo has closed himself off musically after the commercial and critical failure of the emotionally transparent Pinkerton. Disjointed, uninspiring power pop albums have been the new norm for Weezer, much to the dismay of Weezer’s old-time, loyal fans who have been surviving on the rarities, demos and b-sides that superfan Karl Koch posted on the official Weezer Web site. There was a time when I was checking this site twice a day for updates.
December 18, 2007 marked the release of Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, an album whose conceptual making spans longer than Weezer's rocky 15-year history as a band. The disc packs some punches with fan favorites such as the sullen piano ballad "Longtime Sunshine" and the distorted synth hell-raiser "Blast Off!" - songs that deserve to be released in a form more substantial than grainy MP3 files. On the other hand, a few mistakes are to be expected - and are delivered - from the leader of a band such as Weezer. Weak songs that go off on a tangent aside, Alone portrays the evolution that Cuomo's songwriting tactics have made through the years.
There are silly songs that are trying to be funny, like "Who You Callin' Bitch?" C'mon, you can't help but smirk when Cuomo, the whitest kid you don't know, proclaims, "he acts like he knows that he has a big dick" on this track. There are also semi-earnest songs that make you laugh anyway, though, which is probably not a great sign. Seriously, "The World We Loved So Much" features Cuomo singing lyrics such as "I'm ending my life with you/because you're sharp as a knife" in what sounds more like a bad impersonation of the lead singer of a sub par emo band. Oh, who am I kidding? All emo bands are below sub par.
Alone's most entertaining tracks must be those that were originally intended for release on Songs from the Blackhole, the sci-fi-themed rock opera that Weezer almost released instead of 1996's cult classic Pinkerton. That's right, I said a sci-fi rock opera. This is not shocking. The geek rockers of Weezer have written about the complexities of chess, geek rock pioneer Buddy Holly, X-Men and D&D, so a sci-fi concept album seems to fit in perfectly. If anyone had any doubts, Alone proves that Cuomo is not a faux nerd icon in plastic-rimmed glasses but actually a genuinely nerdy guy.
There’s a fine line between personal taste and critical taste. As a critic of a musical work, one’s priority should be to focus on quality and creativity when determining if an audience will respond positively to a given album, song or musical artist. There are, however, always exceptions to these rules because critics have their favorites, too.
As biased and even uncool as it might be, Rivers Cuomo will always have a special place in my heart, and so will Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. After all, any friend of Rivers is a friend of mine.
Remember kids, rock’n’roll won’t kill your soul, just your ears.
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