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

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.

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.

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.

To "warm up" for high school concert band every day I used to play the main riff of Beck's "Where It's At" on the marimba. Relatively few people ever seemed to notice what I was doing; they either didn't recognize it or didn't care. Which was fine - I wasn't really doing it for them - but then who was I doing it for? Myself, I suppose; I gravitated to Beck. His existence seemed inspiring in ways I couldn't articulate at the time. I loved that he made danceable music for people too embarrassed to dance (a.k.a. White people). Knowing his music made me feel cool by osmosis - which I needed, because I was very, very uncool. In hindsight I can hear now why *Odelay* in particular was so crucial for a teenager trying to figure himself out - it's the sound of a twentysomething artist trying to do the same thing. Beck's picaresque upbringing is the stuff of legend: born to a Warhol superstar and raised half-Jewish, half-Scientologist as the only White kid in the vicinity of MacArthur Park, he busked, breakdanced, performed slam poetry, and made himself a fake ID so he could audit literature classes at LACC. In the process he found himself fascinated by music of literally every genre - punk and New Wave ("Devil's Haircut," "Minus"), jazz ("The New Pollution"), country and folk ("Lord Only Knows," "Jack-Ass," "Sissyneck"), worldbeat ("Derelict"), alternative hip-hop ("Hotwax," "High 5 (Rock the Catskills)"). And on *Odelay* he finds a way to represent all of those parts of his identity without giving any of them short shrift. Frequently he stacks them on top of each other: witness the hair-metal blast in the middle of "The New Pollution," or the punk screams that bookend the otherwise stately "Lord Only Knows." The Dust Brothers, finally having found someone who can keep up with their *Paul's Boutique* production techniques, provide crucial support throughout. Beck's biographical experience was unique and seemingly wouldn't have made sense to very many other people, and yet it was *his* experience and it deserved to be given voice. This album is the sound of someone being understood. That's why I loved it, and love it still; it stands for the proposition that the struggle to be understood need not be the gut-wrenching, psychosexual *strum und drang* of Cobain et al. It might be as simple as getting two turntables and a microphone. Looking back, that knowledge might have saved my life. It definitely saved my soul.

Another perfect ten, from my teenage years

How is it possible for an album to be annoying and charming at the same time? Whatever it is, it works.

I recall being in grade school, my mother driving me and some neighbor friends to school, and her stopping and excitedly shouting that we “needed to hear this.” It was Loser, by Beck. We all thought she was insane, but not for long. That was the kind of shock to the system that Beck was at the time. And while he kind of was already fully formed when we got Mellow Gold out of him, Odelay is the album that really cemented him as a genius for a good decade. Beck is at worst a collage-ist. Weird slacker rap, samples, multi-instrumental flourishes, word salad lyricism (heads are hanging from the garbage man trees/ mouthwash, jukebox, gasoline). There isn't really anything that sounded like Beck from about here to Guero. At this point not even Beck sounds like Beck. It’s got country vibes without being trash. It is always too awkward to feel appropriative in its hip hop. It is always too goofy to not be an antidote to a sometimes too serious grunge scene. And songs like Derelict, Ramshackle, Readymade… this is like the city cousin to Tom Waits in some ways, the shabby undertones feeling a lot like the carnivalesque of Waits’ world (and cmon, “bottles and cans and just clap your hands” could describe Tom's music just fine). But come now, you listen to The New Pollution, full of iconic riffs, retro vibes with modern execution. It's weird that we had so many dull as hell djs get big in the 90s when Beck was making music like this and putting them to shame. I think “Jackass” is probably the forgotten standout on this album, dreamy but tired, Beck weaving a monotone but stunning and sad vocal throughout. But every song feels like a microcosm of the mid 90s rock scene, where labels were so desperate for a new Nirvana that everything was potentially being tossed at the wall. There might not be an album that more succinctly explains the post-Cobain, pre-Korn era. And appropriately, it doesn't -really- explain anything. It just exists as a beautiful cacophonous chaos that feels impossible at any other time I can imagine. It's almost a shame this already came out. I think Beck would capture the minds of a generation raised on lowest common denominator slop. He would be like a bomb dropped if he hadn't already detonated almost exactly 30 years ago. Maybe that was the magic of the 90s for me… it felt like weird was cool and normal, it felt like one big rock and roll tent with a hundred weirdos making their weird rock songs. It's absolutely impossible to reflect on it totally outside of the nostalgia and potential of Youth, but I want to go back to there. It really was kinda where it's at. Anyway, I got deeply excited about this one. It's like a Where's Waldo of weird little glitches and sounds and riffs coming together into catchy singular songs. There's never a bad time for 90s Beck. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ but I'll round it up to 5 for the sake of the generator.

pretty goated

This album was all the hype when I started to listen to alt rock radio. Actually I owe it to Beck's Deadweight my transtion from hip hop to alt and indie rock for the late 90s and '00s. This is perfect for this list because it works more as an album experience more than a single song takedown, except for the singles obviously. It encompases every weird thing the 90s tried or did acomplish together with funky riffs, great catchy hooks, old-school hip-hop breakdowns, leftfield samples. For years I was obsessed with Jack-Ass, Where It's At and New Pollution. Devils Haircut is obviously also a top song, Lord Only Knows, Novacane are great too. The first side of the album is perfect, and the second always reminded me of David Bowie's Low kinda vibe. Great representation of the era I grew up in.

Odelay is like if Paul's Boutique had a kid with "The Chronic," then sent that kid to art school. It's got this chaotic energy that just makes me want to dance around my room like an idiot. Which I did. Multiple times. Spins: 2 Playlist Additions - Devils Haircut - Hotwax - Lord Only Knows - The New Pollution - Where It's At - Ramshackle

Another honorary 5/5, not because it is a perfect album but because it consistently surprised me and I feel like every song has some merit or is very good.

Beck is all over the place in the best possible way in this one. Phrygian mode industrial music, hip hop, rock, electronica, funk… you name it, he’s on it. And it’s all good. Beck is known as a very talented multi instrumentalist, but that’s only part of the story. It takes artistry to be able to take all those disparate things and make it into something not only cohesive, but listenable and enjoyable. An incredible talent. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

this is like a 4.5. definitely good, but it would be nice if he had forgone the random samples.

High 5 😁

Fabulous alternative country 👌

Loved it

This is so so good. Beck always produces bangers. It says a lot that electronic band fcukers made ‘Devils Cut’ in 2023 - a restyle of Beck’s ‘Devils Haircut’. He has so many timeless bangers and this album is amazing.

Great album!

I know Beck's a weirdo, but there's still this part of me that thinks this is the coolest music can be and I'll be (white, this is very white music) (free, or at least free to wallow in history's last organic musical landscape before Napster etc.) and (21, or 19 anyway – I feel like 1999 is around when this kind of 90s rock+beats eclecticism got definitively superseded, barring a few latecomers like the Avalanches) forever.

Outstanding album. One of the most talented artists of my generation. If he were a British bloke he'd have 6+ albums on the list. If you exchanged the 3 on the list for Mellow Gold, Mutations and Morning Phase there would be no drop off in quality. I don't listen to Beck a lot, but when I do I really enjoy it. The beats on this are outta sight.

Caban Bros got me this album for my 13th birthday and got a lot of play on the electronic watermelon that year. Did not know what the album cover was for some time...thought it was maybe some weird tree branch flung over a hurdle and learned it was a dog from the MI cuzzos. Beck really stretches his mixing mastery and unique song development skills on Odelay. So much delivered on this album with all tracks great. I really can't single one out because they all come with something and have changed preference over the years. A lot of styles and swag. Some may not like the incoherent gibberish of lyrics but I think they show the other level skill Beck has. He is an enigma with the pen and writes like a deranged Dr. Suess. No other artist matches it. Got to love this enchanting wizard of rhythm...4.8 stars.

idk why i'd never listened to beck before really cos this album fucks. from the heavy reverb on the snares mid way thru "devil's haircut" i knew this album was gonna pull some weird bullshit and i was right. and it rules. and yet it's still incredibly, and consistently, listenable? and idk what genre even this is. trip hop? trip folk? who even cares?? once again it's hard to pick a favourite cos it all whips but its probably between like, "high 5 (rock the catskills)", "sissyneck", "devils haircut", and maaaaaybe "derelict". other highlights are the bizarre intro of "the new pollution", the sludged out final fifth of "minus", and the ending of "jack-ass" where someone gets sent to the donkey factory. wild album & im here for it. there's so much to like here its almost overwhelming. easiest 5 we've had in a while. i gotta check out more beck albums,

En inspirert mikstur av sjangere som ikke skal fungere i lag. Men det gjør det, gitt.

Probably Beck’s best overall album. Like the Beastie Boys’ “Paul’s Boutique”, you can really go to town trying to ID all the classic rock, soul, country, and old hip hop samples (if you’re into that sort of thing). 4.5 stars

This gets better every time I hear it. Is Beck the heir to Beefheart?

I've always been a fan of Beck's singles but never listened to a full album. I knew like 5-6 of these songs going in, and the rest were nice also. Great stuff.

Oozing with cool as Eli likes to say. Incredibly eclectic and a great mix of the sample based pop rock and like his kinda cowboy thing he’s got going. Incredible talent and an all time 90s classic

"Oh, delay..." the album that took years & years extra to make. Great joke from Beck off the bat. One of the classic albums of growing up. 4 mega hits and solid rest of the catalog. I always remember Odelay as a barometer for rating albums... you get to 4 mega hits and that's a classic album. I love Beck. Seen him... maybe 4 times now including the Bonnaroo What Stage b2b with Tom Petty. Beck's encore was the a puppet show of exactly dressed mini-versions of the band playing on a tiny stage. One of my favorite days of music ever.

Wow. Amazing. Okay. Alright. Let’s do it. Hurry up. Come on. What’s up?

Heard Before? Too many times. At first I resisted it, then it became my favorite album of the 90s, now I never need to hear it again. Notes: - while Beck is certainly in top form here as a songwriter, vocalist and lyricist, make no mistake - this is a Dust Brothers album, and their finest moment. - from start to finish, a glory box of exciting sounds, quotable nonsense and genre-mashing. - the Deluxe Edition is completely unnecessary, but worth hearing once if only to look behind the curtain. Verdict: "Silver foxes lookin for romance / in the chain smoke Kansas flash dance ass pants" Listen Again? I'll need another long break, but yes.

Ahead of its time!

You have to be in the right mood, but this really is a great album. I’ve owned it since it first came out but find I appreciate it more now.

Where it's at? I got two turntables and a microphone Love “Devil’s Haircut,” "The New Pollution," and “Where It’s At” from the radio, of course. Car radio, mid-90s A very enjoyable genre-hopping mess. Hip-hop played at the wrong speed, noises popping off here and there, sampled bossa nova, all united by Beck's lyrics that veer between some kind of open road Americana and - what. It feels very much of its time, and/but a fun listen. This review is just as disjointed as the record, which is to mean that I'm enjoying it. Am I going to give this crazy record 5 stars. You just watch me, I just might.

Beck at his best. This terrific album shows the diversity of Beck: there's some rock, some blues, some weirdness, some almost hip hop in here. A sensational piece of art that demands relistenings. Top tracks: "Where It's At," "Devil's Haircut," "The New Pollution," "Jack-Ass," "Novacane"

4 or 5 for me personally. Given what it represented at the time, and how it impacted me personally, and that I can still listen to and really enjoy. Can’t say it’s objectively better than other albums I’ve rated lower, but I appreciate the groundbreaking nature, while maintaining a high degree of musicality.