I just picked up “Guero”, the new CD by Beck. I haven’t listened to it much yet, but the few tracks I’ve heard sound great. Just thought I’d give all the Beck fans a heads-up, and start a thread for discussing the CD.
So far, it sounds like a return to the kind of music from Odelay, rather than the more somber stuff from Sea Change.
One thing I really like about this release - It’s available in a dual-disc package, which contains a standard CD and a 5.1 mix DVD-Audio high resolution disc with videos, alternate mixes, and all kinds of cool stuff. Plus, the package comes with a thick booklet of art, lyrics, and photos (the whole thing is packaged like a small hardcover book). That’s the way to combat music downloading - provide lots of value to the people who buy.
I’ll post more thoughts after I listen to it a couple of times.
The DVD package contains a CD AND an audio DVD? Arrrgh. That’ll teach me to trust the folks at Best Buy to know what they’re selling. They said it was just the DVD, so I took it back and picked up the CD instead.
As for the record itself, I’ve only heard the first two tracks so far. Not bad. It didn’t blow me away like the first time I heard Odelay, but that’s a lot to expect from every new release.
I hate it. Totally phoned-in, half-assed “beck by the numbers.” It’s like you can hear the machines of industry in action.
“Ok, we’ll take a hip hop breakbeat and then throw a “wacky” banjo loop over it, and Beck, you come in with a sort of joke-flow non-rap about vegetables and stuff.”
Odelay was the first album that I ever owned and is still one of my favourites. I love all of Beck’s work. It’s a shame that I won’t be able to pick up it for about a month or so. I still have to see him live…
Yes, the Dual-Disc package contains both. I think it’s great - now I have a CD I can keep in the car, and the 5.1 mix can stay at home in my listening room.
Still listening… So far I don’t think there are any tracks up to the standards of “Hotwax” or “Where It’s At”, but there’s some solid music here. I suspect it will take a few listenings to really form an opinion.
I feel like such a phony Beck fan because the only album I own is Sea Change, which I understand to be one of the lesser Beck albums. But I do like it, even if some people find it boring, and I’ll probably check out the new one eventually, but Odelay is next on the to-buy list for me.
We pre-ordered from Amazon, then found out about the CD/DVD package. So we are going out tomorrow to buy the booty for us, and Mr. Beckwall’s daughter will be getting the CD for her birthday.
I’ve heard “EPro” and “Earthquake Weather”. Can’t wait to hear the rest. Of course we love him, that’s why we are called beckwall.
Seen him 4 times in concert. Best show was a small amphitheater in Mesa, AZ and worst show was at Coachella last year (maybe we were just in the throes of heat stroke, but we couldn’t see him or hear him in the tent and a drunk girl fell on top of me and bruised my leg).
I’m a pretty big fan. There’s not an album of his I don’t put in from time to time.
Ooner, I don’t think Sea Change is a lesser album. Probably the one I put on the least is Mellow Gold. Build your collection up. There’s not a Beck album that I don’t still put on and get something out of everytime. I don’t regret buying a single one of his albums.
Sea Change and Mutations might be less accessible than Odelay or Midnight Vultures but I think they’re both as rewarding in the long run.
In my opinion, Sea Change was the second-best album Beck has put out with Odelay being the best.
A lot of Beck fans were put off by Sea Change because it was such a radical departure from what came before. But it contains a number of just gorgeous songs. Lost Cause alone is worth the price of admission.
I’ve heard that before (that sea change was a radical departure) but I didn’t think it was as different from Mutations than Mutations was from anything that preceeded it.
Mutations was a pretty radical change from Odelay I thought.
I’m not going to put down a rating of the different Beck albums here, but I will say that I probably drop Sea Change in more than any of the others. I don’t necessarily think that it’s BETTER, but a lot of times, I just in the mood for it. Feeling mellow. . .make a drink. . .get a book. . .chill. Perfect album for that.
I’m digging up this thread because, well, I’m digging the album. It took a while to grow on me, but now I can’t stop listening to it. I wish I could get “Girl” out of my head, but the only thing that seems to be able to drive it out is “Missing.”
It just flows well, and feels kind of like it builds on Odelay, Midnight Vultures, and Mutations, without sounding like nothing more than a rehash of stuff we’ve heard before.
And apparently, he’s stopped using the Becktionary. (“Complete from Bizooty to Whiskeyclone.”)
I didn’t really care for it at first, but it has grown on me. That’s a sign of a good album.
It’s the first album that “sounds like Beck.” Most of his other stuff has been so weird it seems like music that fell through a time warp from the future. This sounds like Beck doing his thing. Perhaps part of the problem is that now everyone sounds like Beck.
Well, not everyone. But he has had a big influence.
I’ve liked Beck for about 10 years now. I don’t think there was an album I didn’t like. When you listen to the contrast between Odelay and Sea Change and the fact that he pulls both of them off, you can see the guy can really do practically anything.
I just got Guero too, but haven’t listened to it yet. There’s been zero publicity on it, at least where I live. No posters, newspaper ads, anything that I’ve seen. The only reason I knew he even had a new album out was because I saw it by accident while browsing a record store on my lunch break.
Odelay is one of my favorite albums of all time, one of the few I can listen to over and over and over again. Mellow Gold I got because of Loser but then grew to like every other song as well. Sea Change I love for the car. I’ll get Guero based on the comments here and thanks for the head’s up. Obviously I don’t make it to record stores very often anymore and didn’t realize this was out. So how about Midnight Vultures or Mutations? Yea or nay?
I loved Sea Change and I’m digging on Guero now too. I got lucky and ordered the two disc set from the Beck website, and they had a problem so it was slightyl delayed and so they sent an additional disc along with the set. Its called the Nintendo Mixes (or something like that) and its apparently never been released before. I’m bragging, sorry. SolGrundy, if you’re a solid gold fan and want to rip it, I’ll loan it to you for a spell.
BTW, I think “Que ando guero” means “Where you going, white boy?”
Or, frankly, that Freejooky was saving up his gripes against Midnite Vultures to use against Guero. Because none of his/her complaints really apply. There are no wacky banjo loops on this one, no completely non-sequitur raps with made-up words, no “joke” or non-sensical songs. Part of the reason I said it sounds like it builds on the previous albums is because it has the anti-irony feel of Mutations or Sea Change, but the sound of Odelay and Midnite Vultures.
I’m all over that shit! Of course, I wouldn’t rip it, because that’s illegal and unethical. I would just listen to it as part of a review I plan to do.