Odelay by Beck (CD, Jun-1996, Geffen)

Album Features
UPC:	720642482322
Artist:	Beck
Format:	CD
Release Year:	1996
Record Label:	Geffen
Genre:	Lo Fi, Rock & Pop

Track Listing
1. Devils Haircut
2. Hotwax
3. Lord Only Knows
4. New Pollution, The
5. Derelict
6. Novacane
7. Jack-Ass
8. Where It's At
9. Minus
10. Sissyneck
11. Readymade
12. High 5 (Rock the Catskills)
13. Ramshackle

Details
Playing Time:	51 min.
Contributing Artists:	Charlie Haden
Distributor:	Universal Distribution
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Personnel: Beck Hansen (vocals, acoustic, slide & electric guitars, harmonica, electric piano, celeste, Clavinet, organ, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion); Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar); David Brown (saxophone); Mike Boito (trumpet, organ); Charlie Haden (acoustic bass); Joey Waronker (drums, percussion); Ross Harris.Producers: Beck Hansen, The Dust Brothers, Mario Caldato Jr., Brian Paulson, Tom Rothrock.Personnel: Beck (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, celesta, electric piano, Clavinet, organ, keyboards, drums, percussion); David Brown (saxophone); Mike Boito (trumpet, organ); Joey Waronker (drums, percussion).Audio Mixers: Beck; The Dust Brothers; Mario Caldato, Jr.; Rob Schnapf; Tom Rothrock; Brian Paulson.Recording information: Conway Studios (1994-1995); G-son Studios (1994-1995); Pcp Labs (1994-1995); Sunset sound (1994-1995); The Shop (1994-1995).Photographers: Nitin Vadukul; Bob Ludwig.Unknown Contributor Role: Ross Harris.Like its creator's freewheeling songwriting process, ODELAY is a monument to wondrously precise pastiche. It's a glowing junkyard of musical styles, absurdist images, distorted samples, postmodern anti-emotions, you name it. Over the course of his three previous albums, Beck tinkered with more traditions and aesthetic approaches than an average cultural-studies professor sees in a career: hip-hop beats, acoustic folk-blues, indie-punk guitar squalls, DIY production, commercial smash! ODELAY accounts for all those things, too, but it also furthers the seamless, rump-shaking sheen of its collage nature, turning process into possible meaning.On one hand, the thematic darkness that hangs over most of these songs exposes Beck for the creative doomsayer he is--just another sullen young man with a gift of the native tongues. On the other, the life-affirming irreverence with which he drops harebrained couplets, monologues and call-and-response chants based on designer-jeans brands betrays the glowing confidence of someone in love with all the places the creative process can take you. Grooving all the while, Beck seems like the loving creator of a '90s version of the electric Dylan frenzy. And ODELAY seems sorta like his BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME.

Editorial Reviews
8 (out of 10) - ...[Beck] plunges into the deep foreboding lake of received musical wisdom....All around is madness. Beck takes the thinking man's solution and makes music to make sense of it ...
NME

Ranked #1 in NME's 1996 Critics' Poll.
NME

4 stars out of 5 -- [I]t was skeetering, excited, a grab bag of ideas.
Mojo

Ranked #10 in Mojo's 100 Modern Classics -- Even better than ODELAY's crazy-quilt sampling...was the dazzling songwriting.
Mojo

4 stars out of 5 -- [I]t's a definition of '90s pop....ODELAY is as cannibalistic as a Tarantino movie: a riot of decontextualised pop-cultural detritus.
Q

Ranked #1 in the Village Voice's 1996 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Village Voice (19970225)

...ODELAY is intoxicating, proving Beck to be one of the era's more inventive songwriters. His observations are as catchy as his...songs....ODELAY is largely upbeat, even punk, but occasionally Beck reveals a sad soul under his clown's mask...
Musician (19960901)

Ranked #6 on Melody Maker's list of 1996's Albums Of The Year.
Melody Maker

...a brilliant kaleidoscope....a lazy, cruising groove....a sprawling, confident album....Nothing sounds out of place in Beck's world...
Option (19960701)

...Beck goes Hollywood....Drums pounce with blunted park-jam finesse. Turntable-scratched hooks pan whimsically throughout....a more sophisticated Beck relays his own introspective emotions...
Vibe (19960901)

Included in CMJ's list of Top 25 College Radio Albums of All Time
CMJ (20030106)

5 stars out of 5 -- A '90s cultural landmark....Beck's freakfolk freestyle yields some solid gold nuggets among the jive.
Uncut

4 Stars (out of 5) - ...A more ambitious individual probably couldn't have made an album as relaxed, funky, stylish and left-of-center as ODELAY....the album...mooches attractively between country, folk and hip-hop...
Q (19960801)

Included in Q Magazine's 90 Best Albums Of The 1990s.
Q (19991201)

Ranked #28 in Q's Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime
Q (20011001)

...Beck has enlisted the Dust Brothers, the producers responsible for...the Beastie Boys' seminal PAUL'S BOUTIQUE. The result: a pastiche of twangy country licks, hip-hop beats, surrealistic folk, jive-turkey rap, and samples...that further affirms Beck's rock-chameleon identity... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (19960621)

10 (out of 10) - ...Just as Dylan created an entire universe around his helplessly strange vocal instrument, Beck uses sound and imagery to turn his congested yelp into the voice of a prophet....It's a beautiful thing.
Spin (19960701)

Ranked #1 on Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of '96.
Spin (19970101)

Ranked #4 in Spin Magazine's 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s.
Spin (19990901)

4.5 out of 5 stars -- This splatter painting of breakbeats, electric blues, garage-style kitsch, and Dada versifying still sounds fresh...
Spin

4 Stars (out of 5) - ...[crams] his encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century musical styles into three- and four-minute nuggets of pure pop....while Beck may appear to be flip in his no-holds-barred approach to music, no other contemporary artist...comes close to his ambitious sense of adventure...
Rolling Stone (19960613)

Ranked #1 on Rolling Stone's list of the Ten Best Albums of 1996.
Rolling Stone (19970123)

Included in Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the 90's.
Rolling Stone (19990513)

Ranked #27 in Rolling Stone's 50 Coolest Records.
Rolling Stone (20020411)

5 stars out of 5 -- [F]or Odelay, he hooked up with the Dust Brothers to play around with punk, hip-hop, acoustic folk, bossa nova, Latin soul, mainstream R&B and line-dance country -- there's as much Babyface as Bob Dylan on this record...
Rolling Stone