Unlike Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot in the Grave, the indie albums that followed his debut Mellow Gold by a mere matter of months, Odelay was a full-fledged, full-bodied album, released on a major label in the summer of 1996 and bearing an intricate, meticulous production by the Dust Brothers in their first gig since the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. Odelay shared a similar collage structure to that 1989 masterpiece, relying on a blend of found sounds and samples, but instead of lending the album its primary colors, the Dust Brothers provided the accents, highlighting Beck's ever-changing sounds, tying together his stylistic shifts, making the leaps from the dirge-blues of "Jack-Ass" to the hazy party rock of "Where's It's At" seem not so great. Like Mellow Gold, Odelay winds up touching on a number of disparate strands -- folk and country, grungy garage rock, stiff-boned electro, louche exotica, old-school rap, touches of noise rock -- but there's no break-neck snap between sensibilities, everything flows smoothly, the dense sounds suggesting that the songs are a bit more complicated than they actually are. Most of the songs here betray Beck's roots as an anti-folk singer -- he reworks blues structures ("Devil's Haircut"), country ("Lord Only Knows," "Sissyneck"), soul ("Hotwax"), folk ("Ramshackle") and rap ("High 5 [Rock the Catskills]," "Where It's At") -- but each track twists conventions, either in their construction or presentation, giving this a vibrant, electric pulse, surprising in its form and attack. Like a mosaic, all the details add up to a picture greater than its parts, so while some of Beck's best songs are here, Odelay is best appreciated as a recorded whole, with each layered sample enhancing the allusion that came before.
Another disappointing week in CD releases. Check out this list of everything worth noting. Beck - Modern GuiltWillie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis - Two Men With the BluesGreat Big Sea - Fortune's FavourGaelic Storm - What's the Rumpus?Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy TardustMelvins - Nude With BootsRon Sexsmith - Exit Strategy of the SoulUFO - Lights OutAlbert Hammond Jr - ...
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Beck Odelay Deluxe Edition 8 out of 10 Beck is the Renaissance Man of modern music, the Madonna of the rock world: crossing genres, mixing styles, and reinventing himself from album to album. Unlike Madonna, however, he still maintains an underground appeal that's part slacker and part pretty-boy. As an artist, would you rather be eulogized by the masses for something that has a shiny, polishe
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...Funky Friday + an album review = a "free-view"...to some, what I'm about to say might be a day late and a dollar short but if you read me, I check my tunage at my own pace (for maximum absorption) and try to stay away from whatever the herd is bum-rushing because 95% of the time, when you pull back and look at the big picture, the herd are a fickle lot...I also believe that 98% of the people...
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Sure, everyone likes a little drama at Festivals. You don't go to a festival with ~50,000 plus people without expecting something frisky. And we also expect a bit of beginner hang-ups coming from the production companies running the mammoth festival newcomer Outside Lands. But we were really dumfounded and depressed when we looked at the map to see that BECK, the infamous and raucous live musi...
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Beck's major label debut Mellow Gold introduced his eccentric sound to the masses in 1994, but it was his sophomore release, Odelay that would lead the alt.rock genre in a new direction. Originally released in 1996, the Grammy-winning Geffen honors Odelay 12 years later with a deluxe re-issue on January 29, 2008. The new 2 CD Deluxe Edition will feature two previously unreleased songs taken f...
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After catching my breath and recovering from my little death, I had a little rhythmic leap in my step, so I reached for my Deluxe Edition of Odelay. I threw it on and skipped immediately to Derelict. I've had this song in my head ever since I discovered the brilliant Beck outtake Sorrow.Beck rules. I so connect with him now a days. Probably even more than I did in the nineties. He's like a spac...
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...Funky Friday + an album review = a "free-view"...to some, what I'm about to say might be a day late and a dollar short but if you read me, I check my tunage at my own pace (for maximum absorption) and try to stay away from whatever the herd is bum-rushing because 95% of the time, when you pull back and look at the big picture, the herd are a fickle lot...I also believe that 98% of the people...
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and the video references Cool Hand Luke, so it's good enough for mehttp://www.spike.com/video/where-s-at-beck/2786746
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Beck Odelay Deluxe Edition 8 out of 10 Beck is the Renaissance Man of modern music, the Madonna of the rock world: crossing genres, mixing styles, and reinventing himself from album to album. Unlike Madonna, however, he still maintains an underground appeal that's part slacker and part pretty-boy. As an artist, would you rather be eulogized by the masses for something that has a shiny, polishe
More >
Another disappointing week in CD releases. Check out this list of everything worth noting. Beck - Modern GuiltWillie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis - Two Men With the BluesGreat Big Sea - Fortune's FavourGaelic Storm - What's the Rumpus?Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy TardustMelvins - Nude With BootsRon Sexsmith - Exit Strategy of the SoulUFO - Lights OutAlbert Hammond Jr - ...
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Beck fans who ran out and purchased one of the new Odelay reissues might be socially ostracized in the future. That is, if you have been memorizing the lyrics in the liner notes. It turns out that the production people inserted lyrics they found on the web as "placeholders" that were supposed to be swapped out for authorized lyrics before going to print. Only, they never got replaced. If th...
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Someone just posted about Beck and it brought to mind this sample from Van Morrison that he uses in his song Jack-ass. Hearing the original makes you think that Bob Dylan/Van Morrison really wrote the songand Beck's Jackass
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This could be fun. I felt like listening to something non-stop today, and this one seemed like a good one. And, look carefully, there might be someone besides Beck that you recognize in the crowd.I can't embed it, so you'll just have to watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw2KRsE60tY.Join me in celebrating Beck all day today. Why not.
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Beck's set was definite highlight of the weekend -- excellent performance,song choices, and pacing,
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actually no, i only have the one.these past few days i've been feeling kind of down. the girlfriend claims that she no longer loves me. i shouldn't call her the gf anymore should i?umm....i'm quite depressed about that seeing as i saw myself growing old with that lady.hahahaha, this is a depressing post and i tagged Beck to it.sorry Beck, but i am listening to him as i write this.all i want to ...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Devils Haircut |
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| 2 Hotwax |
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| 3 Lord Only Knows |
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| 4 The New Pollution |
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| 5 Derelict |
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| 6 Novacane |
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| 7 Jack-Ass |
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| 8 Where It's At |
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| 9 Minus |
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| 10 Sissyneck |
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| 11 Readymade |
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| 12 High 5 (Rock the Catskills) |
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| 13 Ramshackle |
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 "Odelay")
