Ah, Weezer...

Weezer has seen better days. Led by frontman Rivers Cuomo, they've taken a turn towards painfully simple melodramatic pop ever since the fateful Make Believe album of 2005. Over the past couple days, I've been reading about their upcoming album, entitled Ratitude. The album (which was named by Rainn Wilson of The Office) will be released October 27 and will include two songs called "I"m Your Daddy" and "The Girl Got Hot," which have both gotten lukewarm reviews. With song titles like that, I'm not holding out much hope but I'll definitely give the album a listen.

Anyways, I've been listening to Alone, Cuomo's 2007 release of home demos. It features a few early versions of songs like "Buddy Holly" and "I Was Made For You," but largely the demos are self-indulgent ventures that range from bubble-gum pop to straight up hip-hop. Keeping this in mind, I think it's still worth your time. Sifting through Cuomo's erratic demos, it's easy to see how Weezer's albums have taken the turn they have. And it's not as if the songs are all terrible. Here's a notable standout, "Lover In The Snow."

Rivers Cuomo - Lover In The Snow
Amazon / iTunes

-Chris