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Beck Odelay Released in 1996 10.0/10 Styles Alternative Pop/Rock Lo-Fi Hip Hop / White Boy Music Amalgam Song Highlights Lord Only Knows Jackass The Rest of the Album |
Let me start by pointing out that this review is going to be wildly biased. For me to even attempt a proper review of this album, which is by far my favourite of all time, would be simply ridiculous. So I'm taking off the reviewer hat, and putting on the fan hat. Here we go. After "Loser", many people had Beck pegged as a one hit wonder. The release of his first major label album, Mellow Gold, shortly afterwards (which contained that song), proved this was not the case, yet still only hinted at his potential. In my opinion, the release of Odelay showed Beck to be the most original, multi-talented artist of the past decade (remember - fan hat!) The album is an absolute monster. On a CD I consider to be very, very good, there'll be maybe half a dozen tracks that blow me away on first listen. On Odelay there were two tracks that didn't blow me away on first listen. Those that did, almost all still do to this day. The album opens with "Devil's Haircut", a great bluesey track driven by a pounding guitar riff, which contains some of Beck's most bizzare lyrics yet. He sings of "Stealin' kisses from the leperous faces" and "Comin' to town with the briefcase blues." It might mean something, it might not mean anything, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. "Hotwax" and "Lord Only Knows" follow respectively, and both surpass the opener, the former with it's groovy slide guitar rhythm, the latter with it's great country style music, both with their utterly brilliant sampling. Speaking of sampling, this album is absolutely bursting with it. Odelay was produced by The Dust Brothers, and Beck made full use of their 10,000 strong record collection. "Where It's At", which is definately the albums big dancefloor party track, contains the hillarious sample of a drum break followed by a shaky voice exclaiming "that was a good drum break!" That one still makes me laugh today. The only time Beck drops below perfection is on the tracks "Derelict", a slow droner, and "Minus", a pretty straightforward rock track. Keep in mind these songs are merely good, and yet they manage to sound dissapointing when compared to the rest of the album. The really amazing thing about Odelay, though, is it's incredible genre hopping. Beck jumps from style to style, covering blues, folk, country, rap, hip hop, soul, funk, noise & hard rock, often several of these in the same track. This album is a perfect showcase for Beck's versatility, proving him to be something of a modern Bowie-esque changling. In my music fan opinion this is the best album I've ever heard. If I absolutely force myself back into that reviewers hat I would have to at least say it's one of the best albums of the 90s, and quite possibly of all time. And I didn't even comment on "Jackass." |