98/100 — Beck — Odelay! (1996)
Beck is a hugely important artist for me. I now know that he is widely recognized and loved, but by age twelve I had yet to discover him. Then on my thirteenth birthday my big cousin Dan gave me my first mixed tape along with a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — two of the most important and influential gifts I have ever received. On this magical mixed tape (titled Egregious Classics) was a song by Beck called “Nicotine & Gravy.” This song didn’t resonate with me immediately, but it stands out as the first time I knowingly heard a song by Beck. Besides, everything Dan introduced me to at that time was foreign and exciting. Each track on that mixtape (and the ones to come) was a door — and invitation — into a new secret world where every musical idea was welcome. Without Dan’s influence, there’s a good chance I would never have discovered half (or more) of the albums in this top 100 list.
More birthdays — more tapes — more Beck (“Devil Gave Me A Haircut” and “Your Love is Weird”). But Beck never really grabbed me; he had some stiff competition. Then, one summer, Dan went travelling and we stored his belongings for him while he was gone. Fully half of what we stored were boxes of CD’s and records, which he gave me permission to peruse. That’s when I first discovered Beck — through the junkyard art of Mellow Gold and the undeniable slide guitar of “Loser.” But the rest of the album was really overblown, lacking the humour and fun I’d come to expect of Beck from Dan’s tapes. I enjoy it, but it’s kind of a bummer.
Odelay! hit’s the Beck sweet spot for me. It retains some of the sloppy blues-based noise and hilarity of his early work, but adds a coat of major label polish. Featuring production by the Dust Brothers (yup, two in a row), it deconstructs the production style Paul’s Boutique showcased (heavy sampling and great grooves), repaints it with the blues, adds an extra measure of absurdity, and then finishes it off with all of Beck’s strange lyrical style. Delightful non sequiturs and abstract mental images abound throughout this record. Prime example? “Throw your meal ticket out the window/ put your skeletons in jail” from the country-twinged “Lord Only Knows”.
Beck and the Brothers love to fill empty spaces. As a result nearly every musical gap has it’s own memorable sonic flourish. At the end of the first chorus of “Devil’s Haircut” everything except the drums drop out and the bass is replaced with meandering harmonica and guitar solos for a few bars before everything snaps back into place. Later the drums drop out while a new organ riff plays while the bass takes its turn to hold everything together. Rather than disorienting us, these new musical ideas become exhilarating because the groove is never lost.
Dan was never satisfied with repetition or fulfilling expectations. Odelay! isn’t either. Dan is gone now, and I’ll never receive another mixtape from him. He filled the empty spaces of my mind with unexpected, exhilarating flourishes, and opened the doors of what art can be if you’re brave enough to play with the groove.
Favourite Tracks: “Devil’s Haircut,” “The New Pollution,” “Jack-Ass”
Least Favourite Track: “High 5 (Rock the Catskills)”
