What up whitey? Remember, October 26, 2004? Fans with a long attention span, a cable modem, and downloading software certainly do. Folks, Beck Hansen has turned in his homework late.
Despite stringing us around for well over a few months now, dodging the infamous internet leak earlier this year and becoming a staple for FOX's The O.C., Beck has finally released his sixth studio album—depending on who is counting. Those who waited will be satisfied for the most part. (By the way, to all you have the unmastered album that leaked on to the internet a few months back, you'll find discrepancies with it and the store-bought release. Just ask your friend who bought it at Best Buy for $9.99; they'll tell you.)
The Dust Brothers—Odelay producers—are back on board to lace the track while Beck locks the flow; no more notably than on the spanglish-ridden "Qué Onda Guero" which showcases real-life vatos whooping it up in the background from the likes of an East L.A. thugtropolis. "Hell Yes" also successfully displays Beck spitting the rhymes we've not heard from him in a span of about nine years now. After about a decade, his flow has stayed pretty well intact: "Power is raunchy / rent-a-cops are watching / make your dreams out of paper mache / cliché wasted, hate taste tested."
Okay, sure, The Dust Brothers are back and that's all well and good, but where is Smokey Hormel? JMJ (Justin Meldal-Johnsen)? Joey Waronker? Good question. While their play on the album overall is sparse, they came together on one of the album’s gems, "Earthquake Weather.” The unhurried, finely polished chorus alone serves as one of the best he has penned to date; meanwhile the instrumentation is flawless like on that of "Tropicala" from Mutations.
Even Jack White lent his hand on bass on the moody yet cool, blues riff 'n' beat "Go it Alone.” Handclaps, "na-na-na's", and all, the collaboration turned out quite well for the both of them.
While musically the album is all over the place indeed, Beck was unable to sidestep a few stumbling blocks along the way. The over blipped-up "Girl" is one of Beck's more noticeable overstrides. Not even the quirky slide guitar played in the bridge is enough to shake the song's too-happy chorus, proclaiming "Hey, my... [summer] girl", words I can only assume Brian Wilson must have misplaced on tour in L.A. in 1968.
Like on Sea Change, the string arrangements often seem all too unnecessary for the songs as a whole. While songs like "Missing" and "Black Tambourine" teeter on the brink of repetitive annoyance but are seemingly forgivable given the direction of the record as a whole.
I'm sure many critics will be hailing this album as Beck's ultimate departure— kinda like they did with his last album and the one before that (are you sensing a pattern?)— but that simply may not be the case. Guero somewhat successfully weds the Beck of old with the more current incarnation of himself displayed on Sea Change and the like, but it is far from a recreation of any sort. It also is quite a stretch, while there are similarities, to write it off as Odelay part two.
Some may have seen Beck's
Midnight Vultures departure as his best Prince impression, while
Mutations and
Sea Change displayed more of his Hank Williams (Sr.)/Bob Dylan/Elliot Smith approach to writing in the more traditional singer/songwriter genre. All of which Beck pulled off pretty damn good, keeping his own creative take on things.
Guero, however, has Beck back to doing his best Beck impersonation; which as telling as that may be, is really not bad at all.
Powered by AkoComment 2.0!
