10 Classic Rock Music Songs That Sounded Better Stripped Down

For most of the mainline Weezer fans, it would be for the best if no one were to bring up Raditude ever again. Even though Pinkerton got its fair amount of scorn back in the day, Rivers Cuomo’s attempts at turning Weezer into a pop outfit was pretty much dead on arrival, especially the song Can’t Stop Partying using a guest feature from Lil Wayne. This is about as cynical as it gets, so how does the unplugged version work so well?

Because outside of being played on just an acoustic guitar, nothing has really changed here, with Rivers singing the same way that he did on the original song about hitting up all the clubs he can find and being drunk on his own excess. What really seals the deal for this version though is context. On the original version of the song, you can picture yourself in that grimy club as these nerd rockers try their best to look the part amid the rest of the party crowd.

When you take all of that away, Rivers is playing the role of a broken man, trying desperately to convince himself that he’s having a good time when he’s a shell of a human being inside. Though there’s definitely a celebration aspect to the first song, this version is what happens well after the party’s over and everyone else has gone home. It might be fun at the moment, but you get pretty lonely at the end of the night.