Did anybody pick this up? I'm gonna try and go later tonight. A couple of reviews I've read have been pretty good. Beck Guero (Interscope) After the final out of the 2004 World Series, NBC played Beck's "The Golden Age" during the closing credits. It was a weird choice -- they obviously picked the song to celebrate the Red Sox victory, judging it by the title but ignoring the fact that it's a heinously depressing breakup ballad. Jesus, talk about a buzz-kill. But it was a perfect Beck moment, given the strange way he's spent his career foraging through American junk culture. On Guero, his eighth album, he returns to what he does best, hopping from genre to genre, hustling for scraps of beat and rhyme. He has reunited with the Dust Brothers, the producers behind his 1996 masterpiece, Odelay, for his liveliest and jumpiest music in years. Suggested ad slogan: The slack is back! Ever since Beck hit his peak with Odelay, he's stood firm in refusing to make a sequel, or even an album that sounded remotely like one. His MO has been to push one of his tricks all the way to album length. So he became a morose folkie on Mutations, a comedy-funk party yutz on Midnite Vultures and a broken-down love junkie on Sea Change. All these records had their good and bad moments, and all had their fervent admirers. But they erred too far on the side of consistency, and whoever wanted consistency from Beck? Guero is the first record since Odelay where Beck mixes up the medicine the way he did in his Nineties prime -- we get stun-gun rock guitar ("E-Pro"), cracked country blues ("Farewell Ride"), psychedelic bossa nova ("Missing"), goth atmospherics ("Scarecrow") and laid-back fire-hydrant-Seventies R&B ("Earthquake Weather"). Throughout Guero, Beck dips deeply into Latin rhythms, reveling in the street culture of the East L.A. neighborhood where he grew up. "Que Onda Guero" is a walk through the barrio, with traffic noises and overheard Spanglish voices over Latin guitars and hip-hop beats. Guero is slang for "white guy"; Beck's an outsider here. The song ends with some stranger saying, "Let's go to Captain Cork's -- they have the new Yanni cassette!" "Hell Yes" and "Black Tambourine" sound like they were knocked off in a session that began, "Hey, let's do some of those wacky, zany numbers we used to do," but they're still pretty great. Guero will get Beck accused of copying Odelay, but it has a completely different mood. Tune in "Missing" or "Earthquake Weather," and you can't miss the melancholy adult pang in the vocals. The closest he comes to a funny line on the album is "The sun burned a hole in my roof/I can't seem to fix it." Which isn't too close. Beck is thirty-four now and can't pretend to be the same wide-eyed, channel-surfing kid who buzzed with wiseass charisma on Mellow Gold, Odelay and Stereopathetic Soulmanure. On Guero, he sounds like an extremely bummed-out dude who made it to the future and discovered he hates it there. The lyrics are abstractly morbid -- lots of graves, lots of devils. Nearly every song has a dead body or two kicking around. At times, Guero feels as emotionally downbeat as Mutations or Sea Change. But there's a crucial difference: The rhythmic jolt makes the malaise more compelling and complex, with enough playful musical wit to hint at a next step. Beck isn't trying to replicate what he did ten years ago; instead, on Guero he finds a way to revitalize his musical imagination, without turning it into a joke.(ROB SHEFFIELD) http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7222710/?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1 Pop/rock: Beck, Guero (* * * out of four) With the Dust Brothers on board again, Beck buffs might expect a replay of 1996's Odelay. Guero does exhume that playful milestone, plus every other signpost on Beck Hansen's long journey through the sonic wilderness. Guero isn't so much fresh turf as a scrapbook of his earlier excursions: We hear the folk troubadour of Mutations, the funk jester of Midnite Vultures, the heartbreak kid from Sea Change. They coalesce in a kinetic hopscotch of ideas and designs as a revitalized Beck revisits rock, R&B, bossa nova, blues, country, electronica, hip-hop and loads of Latin rhythms. His cut-and-paste adventurism yields songs bursting with energy and unpredictability. Lyrically, he remains enigmatic, surreal and just plain vague. The tone is darker, wise without the wisecracks, with all the levity and edginess pumped into the grooves to make a hopping, happening hodgepodge. —Edna Gundersen http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2005-03-28-listen-up_x.htm
if you are expecting more Sea Change, not gonna happen... if you are expecting more Odelay, you're on the right track!!
Sea Change was expelling the demons! Guero is back to the party! I'm picking it up on the way to the airport in about an hour for a week in the Florida Keys! VaVoom! Play nice boys and girls!
Ordered it off Amazon the other day along with Moby's newest, "Hotel". I am hoping it will be at my house by tomorrow. I have been looking forward to this album for some time! BTW - Rob Sheffield is a God!
Got an advanced copy through my job and it's BADASS! I've been rocking it for the last week. As soon as I get off of work tonight, I'm gonna go buy the real copy.
im in good company in this thread, I plan on copping the album this week. The Dust Brothers are back, Beasties are sampled in E-Pro... the DVD edition is worth it, eh, esse?
Ah yeah, checked with Amazon's tracker through the USPS - it has arrived in my hometown today. Will be listening to it tonight.
Well that all depends. It's the 13 album tracks in 5.1 channel surround as well as 2.0 channel stereo, along with the videos for e-pro and black tamborine and a photo gallery. The other "videos" are sort of like your Windows Media player visualizations and they change with every song. Nothing spectacular and actually somewhat monotonous they are. Its aiight although putting it in your DVD player and cranking it up on your home system is kinda nice. If your a nut for surround sound, "hell yes", if not just buy the CD.
Just got done listening to this album for the 2nd time (first time with headphones), and I absolutely love it! I think in time it will be a more favored CD for me than "Odelay". Don't know if it will overtake "Sea Change" as my favorite Beck CD, but Mr. Hansen produces another winner, IMO. Favorite tracks so far are "E-Pro", "Que Onda Guero", "Hell Yes", and "Girl". If you enjoyed "Odelay", you must pick up this album.
Hmm...are you saying the E-Pro video that they play on MTV is on the DVD? I can't seem to find it...a little help?
Sorry for the Bump...but apparently you have to go on a stupid Easter egg hunt to find the videos. Esse?
I am loving this cd! Some of my favorites so far are Girl, Black Tambourine, Earthquake Weather, and Hell Yes.
Hell Yes, indeed! I've been blasting this on my Monsoon system for the last few days and it sounds good in my little GTI. I've actually been enjoying traffic b/c of this disc.
I really like this CD... my favorite had been Odelay, but this could give it a run for its money. My only complaint is that he should have included a couple of those remixes - Ghettochip Malfunction and Bad Cartridge - on the extended CD/DVD. I actually like Ghettochip a lot more than the Hell Yes version included on Guero. As for finding the two videos on the DVD, I had no trouble finding them when I popped the disc into my DVD-ROM and launced it with Windows Media Player. Again, I wish Beck had the Ghettochip video on this disc, too.
HELLS YES!!!! Just got a call from a good friend! Guess where I'll be tonight! I'm sooo excited!!!! Beck Playing Secret Show In New York Fri Apr 15,10:00 AM ET LAUNCH Radio Networks Beck will play a secret show in New York City Friday (April 15) at the Hiro Ballroom in the Maritime Hotel, according to fmqb.com. Tickets for the show went on sale at ticketweb.com Thursday (April 14) at 5 p.m. ET, with fans receiving an email alert about the gig beforehand.