Rivers Cuomo — Alone: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo

Over the years the size of Rivers Cuomo's catalogue of home recordings has achieved legendary status among uber-fans. Most accounts put the number of unreleased Weezer songs well into the hundreds, which explains why every minute of this career-spanning B-sides collection feels significant. Among a Beastie Boys-inspired and entirely unironic cover of Ice Cube's "The Bomb," five movements from the abandoned Songs From The Black Hole rock opera, a collaboration with Sloan and an early '80s argument about how to be more like KISS, not one of the 18 tracks is wasted. Two in particular, the Gregg Alexander-penned "The World We Love So Much" and closer "I Was Made For You," rival the best of the Weezer catalogue. Newcomers beware: these songs are meaningless when removed from their original contexts and the sound quality is pretty awful. Still, dedicated fans (of which Weezer have legions) will consider Alone the most significant archaeological expedition not involving Lara Croft.

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