Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo is a compilation album by American musician and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo. It was released on December 18, 2007 by Geffen Records. It is available as a digital release, CD release and 12" vinyl (released on January 8, 2008). The album features home demos that Cuomo has recorded from 1992–2007. "Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo" leaked online on December 12, 2007. When released, it opened with sales of 14,000, and debuted at #163 on the US "Billboard" 200. The album also topped the Billboard  Top Heatseekers chart. The album had sold 43,000 copies as of December 2008. It was followed by "" (2008) and "" (2011). Background. Rivers Cuomo has long been known by fans to have recorded a great deal of unreleased material, nearly 800 songs in his lifetime. This material was recorded with Weezer, earlier bands, and self-recorded demos. Despite the large amount of unreleased material that has been made available by Cuomo on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for "The Blue Album", various songs from the scrapped "Songs from the Black Hole  project, over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout 1999 (songs which he has described as ranging from drone-y Romantic," "abrasive dissonance" and "riffy pop-rock") and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for "Make Believe". Cuomo brought up the idea for the compilation album to his record company in 1998. However, they discouraged him from the idea because they didn't want to "dilute the Weezer name" by putting out less polished material. It was not until 10 years later that Cuomo pushed harder for the collection and it gained enough support  for a release. There were some legal issues between Cuomo and Geffen about releasing the album: Song selection. When deciding on the track listing, Cuomo listened to a great deal of his past recordings. He described choosing the songs to be very difficult. However, he knew very early in the process to include "Blast Off!" and other tracks from the aborted "Songs from the Black Hole" because of the well-known high demand from fans for these songs. "I knew 'Blast Off' and some of these other "Songs from The Black Hole" had to be on there, because for years  Weezer fans have been wanting to hear these songs, and I knew if I put out the album without these songs on there, they would hunt me down and kill me." Cuomo also considered releasing the entire "Songs from the Black Hole" album, but felt it wasn't right considering most of the songs have been released anyway, either as songs on "Pinkerton" or otherwise: Artwork and liner notes. The album's cover photo was taken by Weezer's webmaster, friend, and historian Karl Koch. It was taken in 1993 in a rehearsal studio during "The Blue Album" era. The  original photograph featured Weezer guitarist Brian Bell, but he was cropped out for the album cover. Other photos were taken by Robert Fisher, Julie Kramer, Beverly Shoenberger, and by Cuomo himself. The pictures were taken during various periods of Cuomo's life. While reviewing the album, "Pitchfork"'s Jason Crock described the inside cover: The album's liner notes featured detailed descriptions and offered much insight into where Cuomo draws inspiration to write and arrange his music, specifically stating the time and dates where songs were written. Pete Townshend of The Who is specifically thanked in the liner notes "for  paving the way with his Scoop series." Music videos. On January 6, 2008, Cuomo announced on his MySpace blog that he would be making a video for the song "Blast Off!" The video, which also features "Alone" track "Ooh," premiered on January 11, 2008 on Yahoo! On March 19, 2008, a music video for "Lover in the Snow" was released via Rivers' MySpace page. Reception. "Alone" was positively received by critics. Highly praising the album, AllMusic gave the album four and a half stars out of five, stating, "..."Alone" will stand as an idiosyncratic gem in his catalog, showcasing him  at his eccentric best." "Pitchfork" gave "Alone" a positive review, stating "[The Album] remind[s] us why we fell for dorks with horn-rimmed glasses and flying-V guitars in the first place,' and that, 'If nothing else, "Alone" reminds us that a lot of those over-ambitious, silly-on-paper ideas often blossomed in Cuomo's hands, and [that] there was more to Weezer in their early days than just crisp power-pop and cute videos.'" "PopMatters" claimed that the album featured "some of the strongest material that Cuomo has ever recorded." Additional archival recordings. On December 27, 2007, Cuomo  stated "I would love to put out at least one more, I'm talking with the record company (now) to figure out what's the best way for me to get more of this stuff out, and if they're gonna be involved or not. But it's certainly my hope to put out as much of this stuff as I can." Track listing. Track origins. All information is taken from the liner notes. Personnel. All information is taken from the liner notes.