No Country for Old Troglodytes, AKA Take on Odelay

 Unbridled amusement in a business suit.

Praise and adore this doggo mimicking a mop.

Truth is teeming with mortals. They exist in different sizes, shapes, colors and behavioral patterns; feeble-minded folk have realized. The consumers of this very blog consider that a cakewalk to comprehend. Why is the reviewer adamant on flexing his Captain Obvious muscles? See, this is where Beck Hansen enters the picture. Born Bek David Campbell, the man on the surface isnʼt unlike normal humans: modest; perceptive; agog; crazy with the Cheese Whiz... but beneath that facade is a clownish innovator who has rejected labels and stopped at nothing to stay relevant. Woe to the people who misplace Beckʼs Becktionary, as heʼs equipped with two turntables and a microphone -- instruments he can handle. 

What else did he manage? The successor to Mellow Gold, Odelay -- an ultramodern record during the time it materialized. Up until the latterʼs release, Beck was viewed in certain circles as flavor of the month, in large part due to the rousing success of “Loser”. Possessing impromptu lyricism about Beckʼs (inadequate) rap flow with a newfangled combo of alt rock, hip hop and folk, the good Beck name catapulted, and that groove the track oozed turned him into a model Gen X icon; much to his chagrin. With the pressure on Beck to shatter preconceived notions of ‘flash in the pan’, he enlisted the help of E.Z. Mike/King Gizmo -- aka the Dust Brothers. Acclaimed because of their fingerprints on Paulʼs Boutique via Beastie Boys, this duo employed a copy paste approach that Beck found liberating. Taking Beckʼs penchant for mashing together disparate genres and imbuing this with Dust Brothersʼ encyclopedic finesse resulted in a project that shut skeptics up... and letʼs not forget Mario Caldato Jr. was in the studio.  

Odelayʼs title carried a dual meaning: it was the Mexican slang exclamation ‘órale’ read in phonetic English, and a pun on Oh Delay thanks to a stretched out creative process. Fueled by tragedies that occurred after Mellow Gold  -- Beckʼs grandfather and closest friends passed away, to illustrate -- Beck joined forces once more with the team of Tom Rothrock/Rob Schnapf as he wrote and recorded an abundance of bleak numbers. Of these earlier sessions, only dispirited, acoustic-laden joint “Ramshackle” appeared on the final tracklist, “Feather in Your Cap” and “Brother” relegated to B-sides. As for the remainder of Odelay? Bearing in mind general mood, far more playful than the unfinished album. It was rife with samples, layers upon layers and a legitimately cool aura emanating from not just Beckʼs vocals, but his bizarre lyrical content. The LP struck a middle ground between fun and suave. That extended to the affairʼs cover, the snapshot of a Hungarian sheepdog (or Komondor) jumping a hurdle -- a vivid image that embellished eternal compositions to the same degree. 

Again, before this recipe, Beck was already dead set on fusing styles so his catalog could escape such suspect tags. It was with Odelay that he perfected the skill; he threw everything but the kitchen sink while putting out thirteen indivisible songs. Dance and jazz influences energized “The New Pollution”; punk rock beatdowns were delivered in “Minus”; “Derelict” dove headfirst into unsettling neo-psychedelia terrain; “Readymade” sported informal trip hop; “Novacane” had apocalyptic raps in front of a dense electronic routine... Long story short, Odelay could be digested by anyone. The outing featured a noteworthy balance of source lifting and live musicianship, which “Devils Haircut” especially prided itself on; the trackʼs signature earworm riff? That originated from Themʼs “I Can Only Give You Everything”, emulated by Beck himself as opposed to borrowing the real deal. The instrumentation was solid across the board, strengthened by spacious production/mixing decisions that allowed for a big array of gadgets to come through -- exemplified nicely on “Where Itʼs At”, an ironclad classic in abstract hip hop and smart parties. 

1996 was a great time to delve into the alternative scene indeed. Odelay sounds fresh even now, and is oft-viewed as Beckʼs zenith; though itʼs common to endorse Midnite Vultures or Sea Change, too. Our enchanting wizard of rhythm did a banged-up job juggling commercial appeal with weird, but still coherent genre busting quirks. He also proved the universe there was more to his engaging body of work than a stupid, overexposed single that would later inspire Butthole Surfersʼ “Pepper” in a sense. ...Nah, “Loser” remains the beeʼs knees.