Review by LarryG
3 stars out of 4
Beck Hansen is one of the few musical geniuses of our time. He's achieved
success by being able to make great, quirky dance songs but he's comfortable
in many musical styles, such as the country and folk rock of his
surprisingly strong and coherent last cd, Mutations. Beck always
wants to challenge himself and his audience, to the point where his short
attention span and desire to always add more to the song can overwhelm
the listener. His debut, Mellow Gold clearly showed Beck's brilliance
but the samples and diversions could be a little much. Odelay shows Beck
at his best, staying fairly focused on making interesting and very
appealing dance music. Where It's At is an excellent dance song with a
lot of great touches, like when his filtered voice segues into a computer
voice singing,"got two turntables and a microphone." He adds
good texture with jazzy horns and shifts mood and tempo but everything
fits together and the beat keeps moving. The New Pollution, which Beck
does live as a James Brown-style revue, is irresistably fast and straight
forward dance music. Devil's Haircut is also excellent dance music with a
70s groove of fuzz guitar and a huge clean drum sound. Jack Ass foreshadowed
Mutations and is actually better than anything on that slightly flat
record. He removes the big beat and replaces it with light percussion
and keyboards as Beck sings a elegant psychedelic ballad about
"a strange invitation." Mutations is also brought to mind by
Ramshackle, the goofy country blues of Lord Only Knows and the countryish
dance rock of Sissyneck. Odelay also has more obscure vocal and beat
experiments like Derelict, Novacane and High 5 but generally Odelay is
accessible. It is the best example of the skills of an inventive performer
who's likely to be making interesting records well into the next century.
Here's what others reviewers have to say:
"...A more ambitious individual probably couldn't have made an album
as relaxed, funky, stylish and left-of-center as ODELAY....the album...mooches
attractively between country, folk and hip-hop..." 4 Stars (out of 5)
Q Magazine 8/96, p.111
"...[Beck] plunges into the deep foreboding lake of received musical
wisdom....All around is madness. Beck takes the thinking man's solution
and makes music to make sense of it all. Or nonsense, even....Genius means
never having to think too hard..." 8 (out of 10) New Musical
Express 6/22/96, p.54
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