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Our grunge-beaten brains of old crave nostalgia, and a good poking through of Alone is inevitable for listeners of a certain age. Twentysomethings, namely. We need a reminder of how conveniently we forgot we ever liked Weezer to begin with. Songs like "Blast Off!" remind us of why we gave up, a whiny tune with a dragging, down-tuned chord progression similar to Weezer's nauseating hit "Beverly Hills." So we can kind of track the band's progression from nerdy-yet-cool hit makers to nerdy-yet-washed-up hit makers.

Nostalgia aside, Alone is worthy for its charm. "Lover in the Snow" is a catchy toe-tapping, sappy love ballad and a classic example of Rivers Cuomo's excellent ability to harmonize while delivering thoughtful lyrics.

To his credit, the Harvard grad makes a good argument: He knows it's not Weezer, and knowing that this album is just a guy and his Tascam 688 home-recording unit gives it some integrity. Songs like "The World We Love so Much" start out with an unassuming melody coupled with teen angst-ridden lyrics only a middle-schooler in 1992 could appreciate. Which is why this album can only expect to have a bittersweet reception: It recalls what Weezer once was, and provides glimpses of how great it could have been. A fine case in point: the funky danceable freestyle of "The Bomb." It's an experiment that never made its way onto any Weezer records, but should have.