This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
He goes by just one name. But there have always been two distinct sides to Beck.
Seen from the right, he’s simply a pop star — the baby-faced guy who writes instantly identifiable, instantly addictive chartbusters like Loser, Where It’s At, Devil’s Haircut and The New Pollution. But viewed from the left, he’s an artist — a musical magpie who collects and combines sounds and styles into a magical mashup that’s more than the sum of its parts.
Luckily, you always know which one is going to show up: It’s the one who wasn’t around last time. Ever since he followed up his commercial smash Mellow Gold with the indie-folk of One Foot In The Grave, Beck has alternated between lightweight accessible discs and riskier, less commercial fare. And since his last disc was the dour 2002 acoustic breakup album Sea Change, guess which Beck to expect on Guero? That’s right, kids, it’s funkmaster Beck, back to the get the retro-disco roller-boogie party started once again.
For his sixth major-label album — featuring cover art by Winnipeg’s own Marcel Dzama — the 35-year-old Beck (late name: Hansen) reteams with Odelay (and Beastie Boys) producers The Dust Brothers on a 13-track set dominated by relentlessly groovy, sonically creative, inescapably hooky tracks. Opening cut and first single E-Pro is a fuzzed-out stomp that borrows the drum sample from the Beasties’ So What’cha Want. Quen Onda Guero is a head-nodding piece of low-rolling hip-hop with mutated mariachi horns and Latino street sounds. Hell Yes does the robot with its lurching beatbox groove, ropy bassline, samples and scratches. Farewell Ride is a slamming hip-hop video-game soundtrack with distorto-vocals and a sample that sure sounds like Gene Simmons. Rental Car jives to a ’60s garage-guitar lick and handclaps.
It isn’t all Return to the Land of Odelay, however. Missing resurrects the bossa novas of Mutations. Black Tambourine is a darkly funky come-on with thumpy tom-toms and Princely undertones. Broken Drum has an angular David Bowie quality that we haven’t heard before from Beck. The bluesy Go It Alone features Jack White on bass, supposedly one of several collaborations. And the closer Emergency Exit, with its plodding groove, acoustic guitar and electronics, is a sonic update of a work-gang holler.
In a way, that variety makes the 53-minute Guero one of Beck’s most inclusive and accessible albums, landing at least briefly on all the sonic touchstones of his career. Or, depending on your viewpoint, it makes it one of his least focused discs. Ultimately, maybe it’s a bit of both — an album almost guaranteed to have more hits than a T-ball game, though it won’t necessarily go down as a classic. But since it does seem to find him attempting to unify his Jekyll-and-Hyde personality more than ever before, it does leave us wondering which Beck is going to show up next time.
