Zack: In the wise words of one Bender Bending Rodriguez, Beck is “a musician/poet who transcends genres even as he reinvents them.” You really can’t sum it up any better than that. For those of you who haven’t picked up on the multiple hints I’ve left so far throughout this blog, Futurama is a wonderful show and I especially recommend Bendin’ in the Wind as a particularly good episode. It evens provides a great breakdown of this album is particular:
Beck: “You know, when I'm upset, I write a song about it. Like when I wrote Devil's Haircut, I was feeling really... what's that song about?”
Bender: “Hey, yeah! I could write a song! With real words, not phony ones like 'odelay.'”
Beck: “'Odelay' is a word! Just look it up in the Becktionary!”
Zing! Odelay was a really fun album. I’d listened to a few other Beck works prior and was really disappointed that Guero, Modern Guilt, and Mellow Gold had all been left off. I can’t speak for Sea Change, but I’m totally okay with Odelay replacing those others. It really showcases Beck’s signature ability to avoid being pidgeonholed. Oh, you think I’m just some indie/folk artist? Boom! I just mixed a little hip-hop in. What’re you gonna do about it? My one critique would be that it didn’t finish strong. It leads off with a solid mixture of singles and just generally great tracks, but it really winds down with a few mehs at the end. I think a simple track reshuffling would have made it even better. Perhaps starting the same way but ending with Where it’s At, Readymade, High 5 (Rock the Catskills), Jack-Ass in that order? Other than that tiny little hiccup, though, Odelay was a modern masterpiece.
Favorite Tracks: Jack-Ass; Devil’s Haircut; Where it’s At
Emily: First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love the cover of this album. I want one of those dogs to run around my house being cute and mopping the floors as he goes. Anyway, Beck is an interesting artist. He’s never content to stick with one successful sound, instead eschewing the rules of popular music to constantly change and evolve his music. He’d rather gamble with something innovative and cool than sticking with a top-selling strategy from a previous train of thought. Odelay is probably the first of Beck’s albums to demonstrate this mentality. He was riding high off the success of the slacker anthem Loser, but instead of sticking with the drawling slackerdom of the hit single Beck added different influences and sounds to the follow-up to his fun wordplay and sometimes nonsensical lyrics. The result is a creative album that is truly alternative, drawing on a wide variety of genres (folk, grunge, jazz, and hip-hop, among others) but not sounding like any one in particular. In fact, it doesn’t necessarily even sound like Beck up to that point, but his near-constant reinvention is where the artistry lies.
Favorite Tracks: The New Pollution; Devils Haircut; Where It’s At
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