Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (Geffen)

A Holy Grail of sorts for nerdy Weezer fans everywhere, Rivers Cuomo’s collection of demos ranging from the early ’90s to now is a solid reminder that the man currently responsible for radio schlock like “Beverly Hills” used to be infallible. The most exciting of these long-lost nuggets are the handful of tracks culled from Songs From the Black Hole, a rock opera abandoned between Weezer’s 1994 self-titled album and 1996’s misunderstood Pinkerton.

Full of self-reverence, the space-travel-as-fame metaphor of “Blast Off!” thrives on big rock guitars and goofy vocoder work. The vocalist casts himself as the ship’s captain and his bandmates as his reckless, hard-partying crew. “Goddamn, get your head out of your hands/Here’s to all the times we’re gonna have,” the shipmates chastise their fame-weary leader on the quirky track.

Along with his skewed take on Queen-sized arena rock, Alone shows off the awkward, heartbroken side of Cuomo that fans haven’t heard in years. “Lover in the Snow” tugs at the heart with its single-guitar-and-handclap structure. Cuomo’s cover of former New Radical Gregg Alexander’s “The World We Loved So Much” is painfully beautiful, with the musician’s voice straining through a choked falsetto. Although not devoid of stinkers, like the paint-by-numbers pop excursion “I Was Made for You”, Alone compensates for much of the lacklustre bubble-gum rock Weezer has barfed up since reforming at the beginning of the decade.