Odelay was the album that made Beck Hansen's critical reputation, turning the slacker-jokester-one-hit-wonder into a genius in the eyes of Rolling Stone, Spin, et. al. Since that genre-mashing mid-90s masterpiece, Beck has remained a critical darling, but never again pervaded the nation's airwaves as he did with "Loser," "Where It's At," and "Devil's Haircut." He gave himself a significant makeover for every new album, turning from Odelay's rock/hip-hop/folk blend to Mutations' spacey coffee shop tropicalia to Midnite Vultures' disco funk to Sea Change's sad cowboy, but consciously tried to avoid "following up" Odelay, even trying to release Mutations on an indie label, Bong Load, before he was informed that he was too big a rock star for that sort of thing.
His latest, Guero, marks the first time in Beck's career where he has looked back. It is effectively a sequel to the nine-year-old Odelay, re-teaming Beck with that album's producers, the Dust Brothers, and introduced by a single, "E-Pro," which sounds a hell of a lot like "Devil's Haircut." Some of the critics have lamented this less blindingly original turn. But dismiss Guero at your own peril; it just might be the strongest album of Beck's career.
For one thing, Beck's signature mish-mash has already been continued on Midnite Vultures, and, to a lesser extent, Mutations. The biggest surprise Beck sprung on his audience during the last nine years was the leap in songwriting and vocal maturity on Sea Change. The first five songs of that album, beautiful if depressing break-up ballads, were a match for Beck's most affecting earlier tunes, like "Jackass," "Nobody's Fault But My Own," and "Beautiful Way," but with more biting wit and the revelation of a fantastic deep singing voice which no one had ever expected from Mr. Hansen. However, the album trailed off with weaker songs overpowered by producer Nigel Godrich's atmospherics towards the end.
Guero marks a return to the sound we have come to expect from Beck, but it does not feel calculated (even if it is). The artist is comfortable in his own skin and at the top of his game. Overall, this group of songs is stronger than Odelay's, which makes sense, as Beck has matured as a songwriter. Sea Change and Guero are hardly Beck's most similar albums?one is built around ballads and the other around beats?but the influence of the former on the latter is unmistakable.
"Missing" is one highlight, a vaguely menacing bossa nova that melds Mutations and Sea Change. "The sun burned a hole in my roof / I can't seem to fix it / I hope the rain doesn't come / and wash me down the gutter," Beck laments.
In "Qué Onda Guero," Beck literally walks through his past, through his old East L.A. neighborhood ("guero" means "white boy" in Spanish). The beat here is great and the random comments are hilarious. "Let's go to Capricorn, they have the new Yanni cassette," says some guy at the end of the song.
With the Dust Brothers' help, Beck is back to his old sampling ways and songs like "Hell Yes" and "Rental Car" thrive on the amusing juxtaposition of sounds like the voices of Christina Ricci and a computer.
Returning to Odelay form, Guero is also more radio-friendly than any of the intervening albums, so don't be surprised if Beck joins fellow 90s rock vets Green Day in re-conquering MTV and the airwaves. He's got plenty of weapons to choose from?"Qué Onda Guero," the pure pop gold of "Girl," the sample-happy falsetto-fronted "Earthquake Weather."
Rapping on "Hell Yes," Beck delivers a twist on a Jay-Z lyric: "Fax machine anthems / get your damn hands up." With Sea Change, Beck staked his claim for the ages. Now he's back to capture the masses.