Odelay

I loved this period in the 90s when the floodgates were temporarily opened to allow for truly unique and idiosyncratic music to make it's way into the mainstream. Record labels were taking chances again, trying to find the next unpredictability big thing in the wake of Nirvana's success and the creation of the "Alternative" classification. Is Alternative still a thing or has that simply evolved into Indie? Had Beck come up in any other time period I think he would have remained a fascinating sort of semi-outsider artist that was beloved in hip circles, but because he came up when he did, he was able to really let his musical ideas run wild and we're all the better for it. As a lad, I really identified with Beck's whole approach. His melding of genres, his surreal lyrics laced with humor, his thrift store hodgepodge aesthetic, his back catalog of smaller indie records that revealed his true range and depth, and then of course records like this one that showed he was capable of practically creating a genre of his own. In my opinion this record temporarily broadened the palette for pop music in the 90s and early 2000s; loosening genre barriers, interweaving samples more fluidly, allowing for more esoteric material, and essentially popularizing a sort of free wheeling collage aesthetic outside of a purely hip hop context. Though "Mellow Gold" is great and "Loser" was, and still remains, his biggest hit, I fear Beck would have remained a one hit wonder had he not met up with The Dust Brothers. They were able to give his musical vision the scale, flow, and shine it needed to cement his appeal with a mass audience. Together they made something that was not only unique and innovative and fresh, but something that was fun as hell. One of the first real big shows I ever went to was seeing him play on the "Odelay" tour with The Roots as the opener. Man, it was a good time. Almost as good a time as I had blasting this album on repeat from a boombox in the backseat of my friend's car during the summer of '96.

People say this album is ahead of its time and groundbreaking. I say its a pretentious mess of experimentation that doesn't work.

Everybody's gonna throw rocks at me, but... I never got into Beck's music. All the songs seem to me a collage of somewhat haphazard ideas. There's a lot of work and pretty innovative stuff, but unfortunately it never becomes memorable or catchy (at least for me). It was like 52 minutes of "oh yeah, we're gonna put a tambourine there, oh and a robot voice here... And a sampling of that song at this moment", but it remains irrelevant at each time. Sorry. :(

This was very obviously a Beck album from the first song. He seems to skip from genre to genre in a care-free manner but he manages to keep a consistent theme through the album as well. Hotwax is country and High 5 is hip hop and other songs are blues. I see where he got his reputation as being able to master any musical genre. Fav songs: Devils Haircut, Hotwax, Ramshackle

A somewhat strange album in the sense that I don't get the hype. A couple tracks are pretty good but a lot of them are just nonsense. Album felt scatterbrained even though I normally like eclectic albums.

This truly was a huge disappointment for me. A Grammy winning album that is jumping from genre to genre with each song, each time in a worse manner while sounding awfully a lot like Kid Rock

beck has some good ideas and there must be a reason for him being so liked but oh my god i find him so fucking irritating i feel like there's a kid next to me trying to tell me the plot to their favourite video game that they can't remember properly when I listen to this music. for that reason fuck this album its a 1

A bizarre yet unique trip through the imagination of alternative rock and hip hop. Not always spot on, but a darn good experience. Favorites: "Devils Haircut", "Where It's At", "Ramshackle"

I had picked up this album a while back, and at the time I did not really care for it. Think I sold it back. It's interesting how my taste has evolved, because listening to it now I am really enjoying it. Maybe it's the wide range of songs, or my larger appreciation of Beck in general, but it's just got something to it. Call it a swagger, call it what you will. It reminds me a lot of Beastie Boys' "Ill Communication," but in a good way. The big hit songs are great, but the other tracks stand by themselves, too. Really surprising to me.

How in god's sacred secretion's name, does BECK have a SECOND album on here? And what in the most insidious of infernos is Beckerton trying to do here? This album has less direction than Columbus with a broken compass. Hold this sympathy 2, and may I NEVER have to listen to this confused man ever attempt to rap or speak Spanish ever again.

Yes

Beck rules, no idea how he does it but I look forward to every song as they come next. This album is so good and has so many hits on it, but even the non singles are great. Will listen to again

Alternative rock, 1996. Despite the fact this record was released in the 90s it still sounds really fresh and actually good. Since the first tracks it's clear that in this album Beck is very inspired and the tracklist is really well balanced between the different moods of the songs. Maybe this is not a masterpiece, but it's definitely a cult.

Exceptionally creative and unique; a genre-hopping, one of a kind album that was as much of a breath of fresh air in 1996 as it today, in the midst of partaking in this challenge.

I hate finding something like this that I should have gotten 25 years ago. I really love it. "Devil's Haircut" and "Where It's At" played pleasantly in my background in the 90s, and I suspected that I might like Beck, but I never pursued his music as I ought to have. I love this whole thing lots. Its trip through genres is a trip I loved. Although I would like to share my affection for each track, I will just share my favorite pants-related lyrics from three different songs: "In the chain-smoke Kansas flashdance ass pants" "Going back to Houston/To get me some pants" "Okay, now do like designer jeans [...] ooh, la la Sasoon"

Wait, this is where I meant to put the Quintessential Beck comment. It's a dope ass album, and like most Beck albums are pretty solid even over 20 years later.

Odelay blends a lot of genres and sounds into an album that doesn’t feel cohesive and can border on obnoxious. I really don’t get Beck.

Ah Beck. I love Morning Phase and Seachange so much, you'd think I'd know this album back to front and inside out by now. But that's the magic is Beck - always something different every time. I've never really bothered to listen to this one. But that's my problem, because this is joyous, chaotic, and masterful.

A bit too noisy for my preferences. I like melodic Beck a lot more, and that only shows up on a song or two here. This still has a lot of famous songs, but they aren't my favorite songs. Liked it, didn't love it.

This shit is weird, but not like in a fun way. It’s more in a concerning “are you okay?” way. It’s got some captivating rhythms, but some songs definitely gave me the creeps when I listened through the album. Something just sorta felt off throughout it. Overall, it was not an enjoyable experience.

8/13, 62%

Stone cold classic

That distorted screaming at the end of Devil's Haircut isn't made in anger, and it's not felt in anger. It's an expression of the joy of expression itself, and it makes you want to smile and scream along too. It's the removal of the shackles of genre. Does anyone remember the "anything but rap or country" saying? Surely this album killed it. I'll take rock in my rap in my country in my samples in my hip hop if it makes me smile like this. If you start to wonder whether he's serious, the penultimate heartfelt Ramshackle is a highlight. Capped off by the fart of Computer Rock, as if to say, I'm serious, but not *that* serious.

Manic and experimental, wild and weird, there’s nothing quite like it. So many of these songs (and the entire album in general) feel haphazard and randomly stitched together and yet everything clicks. Every sudden genre switch, every vocal effect and every sound effect feels like it’s right where it’s supposed to be. I’d love to learn more about the editing and mixing of this album. It’s perfectly paced and sequenced. Beck knows when to push it and when to reward the listener. The easy, country vibe of “Jack-Ass,” for example, feels like a cool breeze after the chaos that comes before it. Fun, playful and insanely entertaining.

Although I had owned Beck's Mellow Gold, for some reason I didn't listen to Odelay back in the day although I was familiar with the big hits ("Devil's Haircut," "The New Pollution," and "Where It's At"). Beck uses distortion, samples and effects quite a bit on Odelay. This was front-of-mind after struggling to cope with The Jesus and Mary Chain's heavy use of distortion. I never struggled with Beck - I enjoyed the gritty distorted parts, the donkeys braying, distortion on the instruments and vocals, the record scratches and the other unique sonic touches scattered throughout. They worked well here and mostly enhanced the listening experience. I love the laid-back nature of Odelay. Lots of eclectic styles to discover: the exotic sounds of "Derelict," the driving "Devil's Haircut," the down-homey "Hotwax," the harder edged "Novacane," the dreamy "Jack-Ass," the punk-like "Minus," the twangy "Sissyneck," the out-there-sample-laden "High 5 (Rock The Catskills)," the quiet "Ramshackle." All the songs feel really unique, interesting and still coherent together as an album. Beck's music is really unique and at times weird and wild while still managing to be cool, unassuming and surprisingly approachable. It didn't immediately demand a 5 from me, but I'm happy to give it a 5 'cause I got nothing but praise for it. Odelay is doing its own thing and doing it really, really well.

still sounds fresh.

Really great. He messed around with synths alot on this album and I loved how chill it was.

Still awesome and bonkers.

Fuck yeah what a freaky little album beautiful sax flutters throughout (especially Where It's At) excellent outros on Hotwax and Novacane (and a Daft Punk sample?), all the weird little dial tones, big cuica time in the bridge of High 5 (sick track overall).. heaps of cool little moments that culminate in an overall excellent listening experience.

Noise jams, reminds me of childhood.

The most uninspired, derivative, boring dreck I've heard in a long time. Packed with random bits and bobs that make no sense, nothing is cohesive, lyrics are bad, and no shape to any of the songs. They go nowhere.

Three Beck records into this project and the hierarchy is now clear. Sea Change earned a four for patient emotional honesty. Guero earned a four for returning to the playful, genre-hopping energy of this record with polish and confidence. Odelay earns a five for being the original — the record that slightly reinvented something and created a template that a generation of music borrowed from, including Beck’s own later work. The Dust Brothers production here is wilder and more joyful than anything on Guero — more samples, more chaos, more genuine surprise around every corner. “Devil’s Haircut” opens the whole thing with immediate confidence, and “Where It’s At” delivers on the promise of two turntables and a microphone by actually being as good as that line suggests. The genre-collision — hip-hop, country, folk, psychedelia, noise — feels genuinely new rather than calculated, which is the distinction that matters. What makes Odelay a five rather than a four is exactly what it did to the musical landscape around it. Records that reinvent something earn a different category of respect than records that execute brilliantly within an existing framework. This one kicked a door open. Everything that came through it afterward, including Guero, was working in the space Odelay created. “Ramshackle” closes the record with quiet reflection that shows the range without quite reaching transcendence on its own terms. The record doesn’t need it to. Everything before it already made the case.

I'm editing this rating because I've realized how great this album is. First of all, it may sound weird to people. But I must say I really enjoyed how he break the rules. He has his own style and I really enjoyed it. Between all of them, Hotwax is my favorite. And the only reason why I've changed my rating, it made me see the whole album in a new perspective.

My album before this was 'Play' by Moby. For two artists so superficially similar, these albums could not be more different. Where 'Play' was very "meh", 'Odelay' really holds up and soars. This is an absurdly fun album. It is experimental, playful, absurd, and almost poking fun at itself - but it does so with so much conviction and intention to pass through the realm of being a joke, to coming full circle to being serious art. It includes intentionally absurd samples, nonsense lyrics, or jarring and dissonant instrumentals - but it knows exactly what it is doing throwing them in.

This is my bag. It never settles down into one groove but is packed with great tunes. Novocane -> Jack Ass -> Where It's At is an incredible run of songs.

Yes Beck. All grooves and creativity. An absorbing listen as there’s always something new to discover no matter how many times you play it. A classic of its time, and still fresh today.

Odelay feels like the turning point for Beck. Beck almost shifted from a more rock and guitar based sound to an electric-y feel more recently. This feels like the start of something brand new, while also feeling like the logical next step from Mellow Gold

Classic very eclectic album, every track works and the production is amazing. Beck at his best.

Sehr coole Musik

The summer this album was released, I was doing some serious yard work. As I scraped moss from the driveway cracks, a fuzzy drum heavy The New Pollution to the rambling Sissyneck kept me on my musical toes, or, in this case, knees. Along with DJ Shadow’s Entroducing, Odelay was my favorite albums of the year.

Absolutely brilliant album from Beck

Lowkey kinda love this. So chaotic and I feel like it sounds like the chaos in my head

on the first listen i thought it had a major drop-ff in the second half, but i listened again and its a special type of weird. kind of blends rap, country, hip hop, electronic...jarring at times but ahead of its time.

Still have this CD, this was one of those inescapable albums when it came out, so many hits. It's still solid, I hadn't sat down and listened to the whole thing in more than a few years. Yup, good shit.

Beck's ability to fuse multiple genres that don't seem to go together into a single track needs to be studied. A pretty insane rise from Mellow Gold and One Foot In The Grave, which are respectable great records, but Odelay is a completely different beast. Hip hop, alt dance, alt-country, electronica, jazz...I know "alternative rock" can be a bit of a blanket name but this is truly alternative. And for a record like this to be a true mainstream breakthrough? Not really sure if you see stuff like this anymore.

Excellent use of sampling combined with real instruments and Lennon-esque lyrical absurdity. The songs do all kinda hit the same vibe, but it’s such a unique vibe and there’s just enough variation that you really don’t mind.

Not a big fan of his but is the one LP I do own.

Highest number of ideas per second ratio of any Beck album, mostly for better

This is what I think of when I think of Beck. I can’t hear the phrases “bottles and cans” or “destination a little up the road” without launching into Where It’s At in my head. This is a great genre exploration album that clearly had a huge amount of influence on the alternative and indie scene for years to come. It wouldn’t be the first alternative album I would pick up, but I would happily groove to it while it plays.

Great intro to Beck's style

A pretty good album, especially if you're a Beck fan. Worth noting that this was (and kinda still is) the Beck album for a lot of people. The three big singles are all great and the album tracks are pretty good too.

J'aime définitivement beaucoup Beck, plein de styles différents et j'adore sa manière de chanter un peu nonchalante. 0 delay sur l'écoute de ses albums

Patikoooo. Beck turi labai įdomų garsą. Mėgsta eksperimentuoti su cypiančiais daiktais.

What a time capsule! I could do without the 40 seconds of noise at the end.

never really listened to Beck, but it’s familiar. Very eclectic, folk, hiphop, Beastie Boys and LCD Soundsystem, I hear a lot of influences/influencees. It’s experimental, weird sounds including static.

Never heard it before but it felt like a 90s-00s stroll through a Southern California movie and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

This feels like ordering the '90s Luxe Cravings Box at Taco Bell. Some really good stuff ("Devil's Haircut," "Lord Only Knows" and "The New Pollution") but some other stuff that tastes like a Gordita Supreme.

Haven't heard this in ages, forgot how good it was. Some fine tunes, and some great samples (esp. Them's Dylan cover underpinning "Jack-Ass"; so well-integrated here that the first time I heard the incredible original, a few years later, driving on a dark Spanish mountain road, I thought I was having a lucid dream). Gets a bit samey (I found myself muttering "two turntables & a microphone" during at least 3 other tracks) but well worth a 4.

The essential follow-up to Paul's Boutique (granted it was made with The Dust Brothers), Odelay showcases Beck's ascension from post-grunge slacker idealism to something far more eclectic and less predictable. Without this album, it becomes somewhat strange to envision a music atmosphere where indie rock musicians wouldn't pivot to two turntables and a microphone and remain complacent with their guitars and drums. We'd be doing sad hot dog dances in Houston at the thought of it. Good thing we don't have to. Favorites: Devils Haircut, Lord Only Knows, The New Pollution, Novacane, Jack-Ass, Where It's At, Minus, Sissyneck, High 5 (Rock the Catskills).

Sweet album. So completely unpredictable makes it really fun to listen to, and even with the mix of genres and random noises popping into songs they are still super enjoyable. 7/10

I can’t decide how I feel about this. On the one hand, it’s Beck at maybe his most unique. On the other, it sounds like Damon Albarn produced this record but made it sound kinda shitty on purpose. There are some standouts: I did really enjoy “Novacane” (in spite of Beck dialing phone numbers for thirty seconds near the end) and “Jack-Ass,” but I struggled to find many more tracks to latch onto. I’d be hard pressed to rate this lower than I am if for no other reason than the production value and the variety of instrumentation. But lyrically and stylistically, I just don’t think this is for me* *and to be totally honest, Beck is mostly not for me anyway

Beck keeps experimenting with new sounds and arrangements, which works often - but not always. Sometimes, this leads to his soungs sounding very fresh and unique (Derelict) and sometimes it sounds like he tuned his guitar to the sound of nails on a chalkboard (Novacane). I could excuse these disharmonious pieces if it wasn't for the last two songs. Ramshackle sounds like an Ed Sheeren song and doesn't fit the punk attitude Beck displays on the rest of the album at all, while Computer Rock doesn't even feel like a finished song. It sounds like the alarm of the most obnoxious person you know. Seriously, did the artist just run out of songs to put in this and sent over an unfinished sample?! Best songs are Hotwax and High 5 (Rock The Catskills). 7/10, I have to respect Beck's will to do whatever he wants.

I love Beck. But this is probably my least favorite of the ones on here, and by a wider margin than I remembered. I get why people don't like his music. But the things people criticize him for generally work for me; the sort of "fuck it, throw the kitchen sink in too" approach to music. It's fun, comical, and for the most part, bangs real hard. I just think he does it better in Guero. Also is he a scientologist?? Fave tracks: - Devils Haircut - Hotwax - Lord Only Knows - The New Pollution - Novacane - Jack-Ass - Where It's At - Sissyneck - Readymade - Ramshackle

Not bad. Ive never been a big Beck fan but I can see his influence.

I hear the pre-Cambrian iterations of a lot of recent genres I really like in here. But it’s so all over the place it loses cohesion.

Never liked Beck, especially this album. Why did it win Grammy and not Mellon Collie? People tend to confuse eclectic mix of genres with talent, like “oh, that guy uses elements from this and that, he must be great“. The hell he’s not. No one needs the combination of various genre elements just for the sake of combination of elements. That alone doesn’t make the music “great”. And here’s the good example, a form without substance.

I think beck decided to whack and strum some random instruments and call it an album

A studio artifact cataloguing the Beastie Boys’ idea of cool, buttressed by three or four hits, party music that was a chore when I saw them in a field. Not to worry, I didn’t pay.

No. 62/1001 Devils Haircut 3/5 Hotwax 1/5 Lord Only Knows 3/5 The New Pollution 3/5 Derelict 2/5 Novacane 1/5 Jack-Ass 3/5 Where It's At 2/5 Minus 3/5 Sissyneck 3/5 Readymade 3/5 High 5 1/5 Ramshackle 3/5 Diskobox 1/5 Average: 2,14 I liked his more melodic approach on Sea Change way better. This was just too experimental for me. Also I don't like how he handled the inclusion of different genres. There is nothing coherent that binds the songs together. The genre jumps were just too dramatic for me.

There are parts that I like, then it's just some random noises that pull me out. Novacane is a prime example to me. The album jumps around so much, and when there is a part or song that is somewhat cohesive, it's then turned on it's head by Beck dragging his nails on a chalk board. I can understand why people like this, but none of the songs captured my attention or were catchy enough for me to remember.

I did not enjoy this album at all. It was a bit too electronic for my taste. The hip-hop inspiration felt a bit too messy so I couldn't really find anything to enjoy besides the last song.

is this smooth central or what!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why has no one told me about this artist!!!!!!!!!!! what the fuck this album is so good. but also. why are older albums so long............. I dont have an hour to spend listenign to music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! where are my 1 minute long songs and 20 minute albums? Where they at?

4.5

A classic for me

I vilken genre hamnar denna? Fuck it, fem av fem

Immediate 5/5. Loved this.

Fantastic album 90’s album from one of the best to come out of that era. 4.6

Get the rhyming Becktionary out, it’s Odelay. Beck’s genre-defying masterpiece is one of those albums that makes its way into everyone’s music collection, regardless of their taste. I remember a guy I knew when I was about 16 years old, showing me his Ibanez guitar in his house. He had floor-to-ceiling shelving stacked with tapes and CDs (it was the 90s), all matching his very specific musical preference. Every single album was some form of thrash metal or extremely heavy rock. But, right in the middle of it all sat Odelay. What can I say about one of my favourite albums of all time? A lot. So buckle up. First of all there’s the background story, the lore surrounding it all. Tragically, a lot of Beck’s very close friends and colleagues happened to all pass away during a very short period, including his artist Grandfather, someone who was a big inspiration for him growing up. Beck went into the studio with the same producers he used for “Mellow Gold”, and ended up recording a lot of dark, grim acoustic songs. But then scrapped all of that, to instead shift gears dramatically, and he ended up with one of the most upbeat and positive records you’ll ever hear. And the biggest part of that shift was Beck deciding to switch producers, and work with The Dust Brothers. The last big album that they had produced was The Beastie Boys’ ground-breaking masterpiece of collage sampling, “Paul’s Boutique”. Beck and The Dust Brothers brought that layered sampling approach to indie rock music, the first time most of us heard anything like that, outside of the world of dance and hip-hop. And it worked so damn well. Big beats and funk mixed with hillbilly folk rock and blues. That’s the winning recipe for me. Hearing blues harmonica and acoustic slide guitar blending with huge breakbeats and funky bass lines is such an amazing sound. That blend comes up all over the album, but it’s front-and-center for songs like the brilliant “Hotwax” with its dirty delta blues intro sliding into to a stanky bass line grooving all over the shop. And of course in “Sissyneck” too, with its split personality, hopping between a verse that sounds like Cymande on amphetamines, and a chorus that sounds like something you’d hear in a redneck bar in the deep south of the States. And the other stroke of brilliance is in the frenzied, intentionally messy production with its layering of sound effects, samples, feedback, distortion and lord only knows what else. There’s just so much going on, but it’s never hard to take. I can’t listen to this album without smiling, and most of that joy comes from the hilarious irreverent humour of the lasagna of noises that come at you from all sides. There are surprises at every corner of every moment of every song. Just when you think you know what direction a song is going in, it’ll change course ten more times to discombobulate you completely. “Jackass” begins with the genius move of sampling Them’s cover of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" as a backdrop to a lighter and more straightforward acoustic tune, before taking off at the end with a serious beat... and a braying donkey. Songs start off in the strangest ways, like the intense screaming and feedback at the start of “Lord Only Knows”, the dystopic Lynchian circus nightmare fuel that introduces “The New Pollution”, or the jaunty whistling that signals in the huge shuffle beats of “Sissyneck”. The massive cacophony of sound collage is one thing, but what makes it feel so alive is that rather than relying on samples alone, Beck replays a lot of the origin material himself on live instruments. Some of the best moments of the album benefit from this approach: the fantastic central riff of “Devil’s Haircut”, the harmonica breaks and filthy slide guitar of “Hotwax” and the iconic keyboard intro to “Where It’s At”. I could go on and on, but we’d be here all day because it’s an album that gives more and more every time you relisten. Just when you think you know it inside out, you hear another crazy piece of brilliance hidden in the sonic fusion that makes up the layers of this incredible production. Ultimately, it’s an album that refuses to sit still and be labelled in any way. It’s a pale, skinny blonde kid with a guitar and harmonica, screaming like he’s in a metal band, rapping hardcore and playing stanky funk and electronica all at the same time. Or, I guess you could say he had two turntables and a microphone. There’s a reason why it sits on everyone’s shelf.

I loved Mellow Gold when it came out, and I looked forward to this album. “Where It’s At” more than met my expectations when I heard the single. So I’m looking forward to hearing this again. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to it complete.30 years to be exact. “Devil’s Haircut” begins big and strong. Funky Drummer beat. Fuzz guitar. The blues riff that begins “ Hotwax” becomes a funky groove. So many samples that the Dust Brothers bring, fresh off Paul’s Boutique. “Lord Only Knows” a mock country tearjerker beginning plays into Beck’s taunting skills at mastering while making fun of the genre at the same time. Delay as a sarcastic yodel, “just passing thru”. “The New Pollution” shifts gear again with a song that would fit in on Surrealistic Pillow with a Jorma guitar riff. “Derelict” sounds like the title. It’s hard to imagine that an album with such musical talent can have lyrics of little import, but the music is much more impressive than the lyrics. “Novacane” begins with a fuzz guitar but then has a sudden disco sample. Then back to industrial fuzz guitar then another sample in a completely different mood. It’s another song that shifts and morphs at will. Samples, even something that sounds like it could be part of Metal Machine Music. Now a whimsical “Jack-Ass” which credits Dylan. Not what we expect from the title. Aah yes, perhaps the harmonica during the last minute. Now a shift to “Where It’s At” beginning with a great organ groove, which the band joins and follows. The constant “Two Turntables and a Microphone” while samples fall like rain, including the lyrics. “Minus” sounds like it could be part of early Beastie’s singles until it winds down out of control. “Siisyneck” starts with a whistled intro could be an alternative Andy Griffith. Th en shifts to a slide guitar down and out country shuffle over a funky drummer drum pattern. Laying these different genres/styles over the basic hip-hop beats gives these songs depth, but also urgency of the now. “Readymade” continues this Beck’s road lyrics with the slowed down (is that possible) samba sounds of Jobim and Mendoza just before a direct sample of sample have a strange effect. “High-Five” with rapping in a manipulated voice shifting to Tchaikovsky then back to rapping followed by the ragged voices of the chorus. Even what sounds like a BDP sample with KRS-1 telling them to turn that off. Finally “Ramshackle” with an acoustic guitar, folk sounding tune. Lyrics matching the title, put together, haphazard, ramshackle. Silent tracking for over a minute until we get a techno repetition, designed to tell us the album is officially complete. 40 seconds of the same throat clearing with telephone sounds.

9/10

Un album qui a du chien.

Awesome sample work, Beck at his best

Jamais écouté avant. Une fois de plus, me voilà contraint de faire amende honorable : j'avais clairement une image de Beck, que j'imaginais comme une espèce d'obsédé de l'expérimentation sonore au détriment de tout le reste, le genre d'artiste dont le succès était plus dû à un élitisme intellectualisant qu'au réel plaisir d'écouter sa musique. Et pourtant, je n'avais jamais pris le temps de l'écouter. Et ben voilà, sur Odelay en tout cas, que je vois souvent cité comme son chef-d'œuvre, je dois bien admettre que je m'étais planté dans les grandes largeurs. Oui, c'est expérimental et touffu, ça part dans tous les sens et parfois - rarement ! -, ça tape à côté. Mais derrière les samples omniprésents, les sonorités électroniques tantôt groovy, tantôt abrasives, et le mélange total des genres musicaux, se cache une authentique sensibilité pop et un immense talent de songwriter (sans parler de la production, géniale), et la capacité presque magique à faire un album cohérent malgré sa longue tracklist et son éclectisme enivrant. Reste à voir ce que valent les autres albums de Beck dans la liste pour achever totalement ma rédemption. Top : Jack-Ass Flop : Novacane

A personal classic I had somehow forgotten about. The Dust Brothers do excellent work here. A five all day long.

I’ve heard this before and I own it. This came out the summer I graduated high school and I spent a lot of the summer and the following year of college listening to this. It’s been a long time since I listened to it last but it still sounds fresh and I still remember all the words. My only complaint with the album is the little noise break at the end seems tacked on and should either be an expanded noise freakout like the end of mellow gold and stereopathetic soul manure or be dropped entirely. And that’s been my only complaint since I first heard it.

In the mid 90s , artistically ‘Odelay’ had everything I was looking for in an album and to that end, I can’t really think of a great deal that has changed in 30 years. Beck had already proved himself to me. Like most people “Loser” led me into his world, but then, as well as the accompanying major label, genre-clash album ‘Mellow Gold’, I became aware of all his other independent releases; a whole acoustic album recorded with Calvin Johnson, the sprawling ‘Stereopathetic Soulmanure’ roundup, a 10” mini album and odd 7”s and more besides. That underground grab bag of indie release nonsense was already catnip for me; having bailed on grunge (once it forgot that Mudhoney was fun and went yarl), I’d already embraced the more obvious US lo-if alt underground in Ween, Pavement, Guided by Voices, Sebadoh. Beck seemed to already have the indie credentials under his belt and was capable of bigger things too. For Beck, ‘Odelay’ may have felt like it took forever to happen, and that maybe his time had come and gone, but he had the guts to abandon his original acoustic ‘Mellow Gold’ follow-up plans and hook up with The Dust Brothers. For me at the time though, having spent the interim locating and absorbing all the indie Beck material, lead single “Where It’s At” arrived only a little behind schedule, and the album was right behind it. ‘Odelay’ on the face of it is an upbeat multicoloured party of an album. On the front cover it’s got a barely believable dog practically leaping into our lap and the rest of the artwork is a grab bag of imagery that makes little sense except to set up a broad selection of juxtapositions. It promises fun and craziness and that’s just what we get. And juxtapositions? You’d better believe it. Beck and The Dust Brothers assembled a lot of this music by hanging out playing records and sampling anything that jumped out at them. They could find a riff or a loop or a beat or whatever, and collect them up as a library of “instruments” to be slotted together at a later point. The juxtapositions come from not being afraid to amalgamate samples that don’t seem like a natural fit. Sometimes they do fit of course but sometimes there is a frisson. No doubt during the process, there were a lot of things that simply didn’t work, but the skill is in knowing which do. Sampling has had a bad name over the years as plagiarism, theft, lack of originality etc, but done well it is truly an art. I can understand that taking the main hook from an old song and putting it over a sampled beat from another and rapping over the result could seem problematic. While it’s possible that with some research I may discover that ‘Odelay’ includes some material that is little more than that, to my ears, the majority of what is going on is significantly more sophisticated. Talking of sophisticated, when a track has been assembled and Beck is laying down a vocal on top, true, he sometimes does some of his “Loser” style rapping, but also here he lays down some seriously sophisticated melodies. “Lord Only Knows”, “Derelict”, “Jack-Ass”, “Sissyneck” all show a knack for quality melody writing, even “The New Pollution” is more sophisticated than it appears on the surface. The main strength though is the way Beck includes all of what he had already proved he was capable of and combines them into a cohesive piece. He saves a track from the abandoned acoustic album for the beautifully haunting closer “Ramshackle” and while the album generally presents as slick and shiny, you don’t have to wait long at any moment across the album, for the old-school Beck to stick his nose in with some unexpected random noises attempting, but failing to sabotage the professionalism. It’s a perfect example of how music can be fun but also be taken seriously at the same time. To me this album sounds like those who created it would have been very serious about making a quality piece of art, but they would also have had fun doing it. This combination comes through beautifully in an artistically successful record that was thankfully commercial successful too. Without ‘Odelay’ Beck might have gone down in history to most as “that Loser guy”. With it we instead have an artist with a satisfyingly diverse and quality career and accompanying discography that has very few disappointments and many world class highlights.

Great songs on a weird mix of a record

I love the spirit of just going out into the music collections of the world and picking up whatever odd cheap things you can find and falling for them, and I also happen to love a lot of the tones of stuff Beck found here while doing that, so unsurprisingly it’s a bit enjoyment for me. Alternative Rock feels like the easiest umbrella, but darned if he didn’t slap a lot of stuff in here just for the fun of it, bouncing about like a journey into the hyperactive mind before we all knew how they felt. Also I can easily be into the tone and delivery of vocals more than the actual lyrics, so can’t complain on that either.

An amazing collection of songs that remain weird and interesting, with both pathos and whimsy in abundance. Always feels about 2 songs too long, but they're all undroppable.

This is nothing short of a breakthrough album. Perhaps more than any other contemporary artist, Beck seamlessly blends styles and instrumentation to create something fresh and beautiful. Even things like how claves are used - not only as rhythmic accents but rapid trills that add flavor. Lyrics are creative and intelligent. Vocal performance is versatile and committed. This is an easy five star effort.

alright, more beck!! i briefly mentioned this album when talking a bit about guero, and this album was that blueprint that beck pulled from later down the line. his most popular album, this is more of that delightfully weird sleazy alt stuff, lazy beats, sample-flips, and beck's quirky way of throwing stuff together, all of it's in this album. beck was nervous about the development of this album; if he blew this chance, he probably wouldn't attempt making a big album ever again. well, a lot of the things i brought up with the last album, i'm probably going to bring up in this one. if we wanna talk about artists with trademark sounds, beck absolutely has one of his own. i love how downright lazy these beats sound, a lot of these songs sound like waking up after a disgustingly long catnap on the couch, you're smacking your lips, wiping drool off your mouth and stretching your arms out like a zombie, trying your hardest to stand back up. what a cool sound, it's delightfully strange, varied and contagious. you've essentially heard albums about the american dream, and ones about the american struggle, and this album feels like the american "what the hell, i don't know anymore, i just got here". so much is packed in this cd. don't let it pass you by!

Sounds like a singles collection

Yet another artist where I've only been familiar with bigger hits as opposed to full albums, but I'm pretty disappointed in myself for waiting so long to check out more Beck. This is the kind of offbeat music that is right up my alley. A unique artist and album for the period they debuted that still holds up well to this day with weird sounds forming together Voltron style into some incredible songs. Those opening 3 tracks really got me invested and my attention was never lost. Especially the guitars on Lord Only Knows which are just so attention grabbing especially that riff in the middle of the song. New Pollution had some beautiful piano, punchy drums, and saxophone of all things that form this just groovy sound, one of my favorites on the record. Great sampling and looping throughout, Beck is amazing at taking these loops and building something greater than the summer of its parts. Where It's At is a perfect example of this. I really love the experimentation here, its different yet it still sounds great. Experimental music will sometimes lean too far into trying to sound different and lowkey sound unlistenable at times, but Beck can create something odd and still have it be extremely catchy.

Really, really good!

Really great

I LOVED this when I was in high school so I was kind of surprised that I groaned when it came up today. Had my tastes really changed so dramatically? No. Turns out it’s still great. I just forgot. Hooray. Dude seriously I think I’m a closet Beck superfan but never think about him for whatever reason. Love the instrumentals on basically all these songs.

I enjoy shit like this so much. Mosaics of samples, fusions of genres, and the oddity of Beck have always clicked for me. I feel that it resonates because it mirrors some of the ways that my brain works: flashes of creativity, the flipping around of anxiety, and a sense of humor. If you dislike this album, you basically hate my brain chemistry!

This was really cool given the time. 90s alternative was a great genre because of albums like this. Obviously this gave Beck a couple of his bigger hits, but where some reviewers heard "noise" and "disconnect" in the music, I heard experimentation and opportunity. I enjoyed this album.

I like when Beck brings in a noise that sounds like a broken power tool. No notes

Classic alternative music from the 90’s