Odelay

There are those who dislike melody in comparison with "experimentalism"..those who favour lyrical inscrutability as "depth"...those who see accessibility as a cardinal sin compared to more "authentic" lo-fi barebones production. They will see "Odelay" as a "step backwards". They will be wrong.

Beck hooks up with the Dust Brothers on this album and it has the immediate effect of making the hooks hookier, the melodies more indelible, and tracks that are admittedly filler sound better in comparison to the weaker tracks on "Mellow Gold". Beck's lyrics here also seem at times more personal and it enables me to "connect" more with the music.

HIGHLIGHTS:
Jazz drumming meets blues harmonica on smash single "Devil's Haircut". It features the great line "Stealing kisses from the leperous faces" in what seems to be a song about the rampant materialism in modern America. "Jackaxe" combines 60s Carole Kaye-style bass (listen to a Beach Boys record..) and the sound of alt-country into a song about finding yourself in a rut ("I've been drifting along in the same stale shoes/Loose ends tyin' a noose in the back of my mind". The song stampedes into hip-hop territory near the end. "Where It's At" may be the perfect party anthem and at the same time perfectly showcases Beck's "let's throw the record shop into a Cuisinart" sensibility combining jazz sax, turntable scratching, old school rap samples, shreaking feedback, and thrift shop kitsch into a truly artful way to shake your tuchas. "Sissyneck" is a snarky look at phonies who dress in cowboy chic as a way to fake machismo. The track is a shotgun wedding of country guitar and funk.(There's a good helping of irony here as Beck is apt to do this himself. For what it's worth, he cuts them slack as he's introduced this in concert as "a song about how it's OK to be whack".) "Ramshackle" is a tender acoustic tune that celebrates the community of the poor (It's semi-autobiographical as Beck was near homeless at various times before hitting the big time.) It ends the album on a low-key introspective note, though it's a bit out of place among the genre-stapling of the rest of the disc. "New Pollution" is, according to Beck, a song about information overload. The woman in the song is "alone in the new pollution" because she resists the tide. It's an intriguing image but I have to admit I like this more for the catchy musical appeal than any attraction to the message here.

LOWS:
"High 5" is where the pastiche officially runs amok. (As Beck said 'We spent weeks on that one. That's what I got for a lot-putting three or four songs into one.') It sounds like it..in a bad way. It's a messy collision of Schubert, hip hop samples, scratching, 70s funk, distorted vocals, and keyboard blips..a low-rent version of "Where It's At". "Minus" is a fairly confused fusion as well. I believe the song's about corporate exploitation of black rage via gangsta rap but the song's too slapdash musically to make an impression.

BOTTOM LINE:
Beck here gets a better budget and creative assistance from the Dust Brothers and finds a way to stay experimental but make it accessible. If you're new to Beck, this is probably the best starting point.

"Odelay" is the album that established Beck as a superstar, and for good reason. It's an adventurous, yet insanely catchy melange of genres loaded with pop hooks and samples galore.

From the trigger-fuzz blues/rock/pop of "Devil's Haircut" to the resigning, affecting folk of "Ramshackle", and everything in between..you never know what will pop out next.

"Novacane" goes from Texas to New York in its course, seemlessly blending bluesey passages with hyper white noise and computer blips. "The New Pollution" has this turbelent, 1950's black & white pop feel, with commercial-esque interludes and stylish, jazzy saxophone samples.

In terms of sampling, "High 5" puts everything else to shame; the dancefloor/raucous hip-hop number even samples a previous track from the album. How wacky is that? "Where It's At" is also a massive collage, and surely one of the most unlikely pop hits in recent years.

Other highlights include the heartbreaking folk of "Jackass", the sugar rush indie-rock of "Minus", and the infectious twang-covered pop of "Sissyneck".

In theory, the album is a total mess. But Beck's knack for crafting clever, catchy pop songs makes this cut and paste job stick together and work a good 95% of the time.

When I think of this album, I think of the time my friend worked at a record shop and simply hooked me up. I remember this album and it brings back a lot of memories. Most of the songs are really good. Becks best by far.

for all the hype i'ma have to say that i think mutations is a better album and sea change is a little bit worse!! nineteen ninety-six musta been cool oh wait i was there. p.s. charlie haden isn't much of a star, whoops.

Picture Rock, Pop, Heavy Metal, Blues, Country, Hip Hop, Soul, Folk and Dance. Now take all these genres and put them into one song. What you now have is Beck's trademark sound, and Odelay is his most accomplished album to date.