Blast from the Past: Beck' Odelay

Twelve years since it was first released Beck's Odelay is widely considered one of the best record of the 90's and one of the landmark albums of all-time. It is in short a record with such a diverse style that it's appeal is enormous in scope but it also maintains simple pop aesthetics by taking a melody and jamming it into that thick skull of yours. The songs on Beck's Odelay are near perfect blends of pop, funk, hip-hop, alternative, and folk and they are so easy to get down to and sing-a-long with that they create the perfect comfort zone for any listener. But honestly who could have seen this coming?

Back in 1996 Beck was surviving on the reputation of a lone single that was already 2-years old. "Loser" turned him into a star, but his independent follow-up, One Foot In the Grave, was mostly ignored due to the strength of the one song off of Mellow Gold. Then Beck opted to switch producers after recording three songs. switching from Tom Rothrock and Bob Schnapf to the Dust Brothers. It must have been a bit disconcerting to his label at the time and you could only guess all the frantic phone calls that were exchanged during the recording of Odelay. At the time few people could have imagined that the album would spawn 5-singles and over 2 million records sold, and personally I probably wouldn't have known Beck unless you mentioned "Loser" in the same sentence.

Then all of a sudden Odelay hits and it was one of those rare albums that was immediately welcomed by both the press and the mainstream public making it an overnight success. Of course Beck wasn't an overnight success, but it sure seemed that way by how much attention this album garnered. The songs were all over the radio, videos were played constantly on MTV, and it seemed nearly every publication was tapping the album as one of the year's best.

It's still hard to argue against this album, it is so perfectly pieced together with samples and instruments and lyrics that there are few albums that could be properly compared to it. And since it's release Beck hasn't quite matched what he did on this one. But that's okay, few artists give us more then one masterpiece in a lifetime and this is certainly that. Odelay has been one of my favorite records for a long time, I wasn't immediately head-over-heels for it but after it worked it's magic inside my brain I was pretty easily hooked. I put the album on the other day after downloading the deluxe edition (which came out in June for anyone who's keeping tabs) and was shocked at how many of the lyrics I remembered and how fresh it still sounds today. This is one of those albums that easily spans time and could be just as good if it were released today as it was back in '96 when it actually hit store shelves. If it's been a while since you listened maybe it's time you took another listen!
Beck - "Devil's Haircut"
Beck - "The New Pollution"
Beck - "Jack-Ass"
Beck - "Where It's At"
Beck - "High 5 (Rock the Catskills)"