Set fire to the paper tigers—not because they weren’t beautiful—but because Beck has moved on. He has reunited with the Dust Brothers who produced the astonishing, “Odelay” and while the results are not a sequel, it would be safe to call “Guero” the closest relative to anything else in his catalogue.
Compared to Beck’s last record, 2002’s “Sea Change”, which was pure, unadulterated misery, “Guero’s” music is more upbeat, but it’s not a party in a jewel case either. Take, for example, the song “Girl.” It starts off with happy synths, a bouncy beat and chorus that repeats the innocuous line “my summer girl”. It is an immediately likeable song, especially as the temperatures rise and we all start dreaming about the warm days that await us. Press play, turn up the volume and let the good times roll! But wait. Did he just say “She doesn’t even know what’s wrong/And I know I’m gonna make her die/Take her where her soul belongs?” Yes, yes he did. It’s not all pop and happy circumstance.
“E-Pro” starts off with loaded, fuzzy power chords that runs into a chorus of “na na na’s” that sounds like distant sports fanatics chanting for the home team. On “Earthquake Weather” Beck displays some of his best vocal work that lifted my spirits every time I pressed repeat. Jack White guests as bass player on the creeping, but one of the weaker songs, “Go It Alone”. Christina Ricci contributes her voice as a Japanese waitress on the difficult to categorize “Hell Yes”; which also includes sampling from seventies funk band The Ohio Players and Love Unlimited, a girl group founded in the seventies by Barry White.
Standout tracks are “Que Onda Guero”, a rap inspired song about life in a predominately Spanish neighborhood and “Last Farewell”, a slide guitar song that has a decidedly Southern Gothic feel thanks to its funereal lyrics and trudging rhythm.
Beck’s brain is a fertile breeding ground for any and all things pop (and sometimes completely obscure) culture. When trying to describe his work words like mishmash, potpourri and pastiche all come to mind. All of them are applicable to the man who snips off pieces of hip-hop, samba, pop, folk, rap, blues, electronica, and weaves them together for a sound that is so exclusively his own. Just when new the majority of new releases were beginning to all sound alike Beck gives us “Guero” which further solidifies himself as one of the most diverse and original songwriters working today. |