Weezer garnered heaps of good will with its self-titled debut, a geek-rock totem for the alternative era. They needed it, too, not just to get over the initially ambivalent response to the since widely embraced Pinkerton, but also to help the band through its ongoing exploration of half-assed banality. A lot of the band's uneven output can be chalked up to leader Rivers Cuomo, and this collection of demos shows that there's just as much uneven stuff that got left behind. On one hand, we get the likes of "Lemonade," "Blast Off!" and an early version of "Buddy Holly," glimmers of the Weezer we know and (sometimes) love. But on the other hand, we get fragments and castoffs like "Who You Callin' Bitch?" and the lame ballad "This is the Way" -- unfortunately these are also glimmers of the Weezer we know and (sometimes) love. The big mystery is where Cuomo will take the group should it finally return to action, but sometimes it seems like the fans care far more than Cuomo ever will himself.

-- Joshua Klein