Recently released an album (Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo - non-affiliate Amazon link) of essentially demos and songs that didn’t quite make the Weezer cut. Some good stuff, some not so good stuff, some experimental stuff, some weird stuff. Thoroughly Cuomo through and through. There’s a lot on this album I like a lot. But this is what I share:
This is the Way - youtube
Here’s Rivers’s review of the whole album. Here’s what he had to say about “This is the Way”:
For Weezer’s sixth album, I was feeling extremely adventurous again. I wrote an epic, six-minute, symphonic type of art song called “Daydreamer.” After I wrote the song, though, I reversed myself again, deciding to write a straight-ahead, nothing-fancy, middle-of-the-road, urban pop type of song. I took the chords from a Mario hit, fired up the drum machine and the synth pads, and wrote “This is the Way.”
Sometime between writing these two songs, I realized that one of them wouldn’t work. Which one, I’m still not sure: I think I might ask Rick [Rubin]. He’s the most extraordinary producer. He has these big beardy jowls because of all the producing he does. At the same time, though, he’s a huge Danzig fan and has a caustic wit.
Everyone around us was saying “‘This is the Way’ is the bomb—you should really do that song.” Scott [Shriner], in particular was like, “I want to sing that song. I can own it.” Even with all the professional respect I have for Scott (he’s been the best, really) I just sort of felt that an urban type pop song wasn’t where I wanted to be. I mean, I’m a married man now. Last year I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard. In any case, Weezer has already conquered that territory—multiple times, and with other bassists—in the guise of “Hash Pipe,” “El Scorcho” and “We Are All On Drugs.” It was time to move on. I’ve resolved to do this pretty regularly from now on.
But who knows. Maybe “This is the Way” will end up on Weezer album number seven. We’ll see.
So incredibly weird. Not bad weird. Just weird when not knowing much about the songs on the album, just listening, I thought my iPod skipped to some other album. But straight up Rivers rocking some R&B. I kind of hope some up and coming R&B artist covers this song.