Beck

Odelay

A Schizophrenic in Wonderland

Review Score:

(10/10)
Ever wondered what would happen if you took every popular stlye of music from the last twenty or thirty years and put them all in a blender? Probably not, but apparently Beck has, because Odelay seems to be the end result of such an experiment. Of course, only someone with a musical history like Beck could pull this off, but believe it or not, he makes it work and it works damn well.

How do I describe this album musically? Well, I can't really. Some songs rock hard ("High 5," "Novocane," "Devil's Haircut"), some have a laid back, turntable lilt to them ("Hotwax," "Where It's At"), some are surprisingly soft and pleasant ("Jack-Ass," "Ramshackle"), some sound like country on acid ("Lord Only Knows," "Sissyneck") and some are just from another planet ("Derelict"). The thing is, Mr. Hansen has his fingers in a million different pies at once on every song, which makes him really hard to nail down.

Lyrically, Beck is...well, Beck. His lyrics are hard to interpret, and often a little silly. He seems to have kind of a thing for pants on this album though: they're mentioned on several songs, the best one being at the end of Lord Only Knows when he wails "Going back to Huston / Do the hotdog dance / Goin back to Huston / to get me some pants." What more do you need me to tell you?

I suppose I can see where some people might find this a little tricky to digest. It's not an album that you can let wash over you before you go to sleep (at least not unless you wanna have really screwed up dreams), it's more of a party record. But it can be truly said that this album has something for everyone.

More Reviews: