First off, Guero is not the “return to form, comeback” album
\nthat fair-weather Beck fans and ignorant critics claim.
\nMidnight Vultures<\/i> and especially
\nSea Change<\/i> and
\nMutations<\/i> were more than adequate releases from the
\nfolkster-turn ironic alternative icon – turn morose confessional
\nsinger\/songwriter. Like The Beastie Boys, Beck has made a career
\nout of reinventing himself with each album. But
\nGuero<\/i> represents Beck’s first album that sounds like “a
\ntypical Beck album,” much like
\nIll Communication<\/i> represented The Beastie Boys first “stay
\nthe course” album.<\/p>\n
\nGuero<\/i> started a stream of releases from some of the top
\ncommercial and critical defining artists of the ’90s within a
\ntwo-month of time (followed by Garbage, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails and
\nthe Dave Matthews Band). With
\nGuero<\/i>, Beck re-recruited the services of the Dust Brothers,
\nthe same producers who made Beck’s most commercial defining
\nrelease,
\nOdelay<\/i>. And like that album,
\nGuero<\/i> is filled with pop culture imagery (Burger King
\ncrowns), shoutouts in Spanish and inventive samplings.<\/p>\n
What’s missing is the obvious “What the hell was that?” feelings
\nyou got listening to
\nOdelay<\/i> and
\nMutations<\/i> for the first time. Like The Beastie Boys, one of
\nthe problems of releasing such diverse records (almost belonging in
\ndifferent genres with each release) is that when the artist
\nreleases something that sounds like their previous work, they get
\ncriticized for treading water. Once you get past the fact that Beck
\nbreaks little ground with
\nGuero<\/i>, you can actually start enjoying the album for its own
\nmerits.<\/p>\n
The album starts off weakly with “E-Pro.” The song represents
\nthe first of a flurry of “nah nah nah” choruses that Beck drops.
\nThe second track, “Que Onda Guero,” has lyrics that seem to be too
\nhip for their own good: “Here comes the vegetable man in the
\nvegetable van \/ With the horn that’s honking like a mariachi
\nband.”<\/p>\n
Things don’t look too good, but thankfully, Beck starts to
\nembrace his weirdness with the strumming, breezy “Girl.” It’s the
\nfirst song that the listener will find it hard to push out of their
\nhead. And it’s definitely the catchiest song involving necrophilia
\nin years. “Black Tambourine” keeps the momentum going — fusing
\nfolksy lyrical delivery and guitar riffs that aren’t quite country,
\nnot quite rock and roll and not quite hip-hop.<\/p>\n
\nGuero<\/i> starts and ends weakly, making it one of the few
\nalbums where the middle section is its strongest element. After a
\nfew listens, it still doesn’t have the “instant classic” ring of
\nSea Change<\/i> (fans of
\nMutations<\/i> and
\nSea Change<\/i> can rejoice — producer Nigel Godrich, who worked
\non both albums, is rumored to be the producer for Beck’s next
\nwork). Sadly, what
\nGuero<\/i> needs most is time.
\nMutations<\/i>,
\nOdelay<\/i> and
\nSea Change<\/i> are so beloved, it may take a few years before
\nGuero<\/i> finds its audience. Until then, it may not be album of
\nthe year, but
\nGuero<\/i> is the perfect soundtrack to enjoy a humid, late
\nspring day with a margarita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5717],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38362","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-beck","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38362"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38362"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}