Beck
Odelay
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

Sealed, Latest Press Of The Reissue. "Unlike Stereopathetic Soul Manure And One Foot In The Grave, The Indie Albums That Followed His Debut Mellow Gold By A Mere Matter Of Months, Odelay Was A Full-Fledged, Full-Bodied Album, Released On A Major Label In The Summer Of 1996 And Bearing An Intricate, Meticulous Production By The Dust Brothers In Their First Gig Since The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. Odelay Shared A Similar Collage Structure To That 1989 Masterpiece, Relying On A Blend Of Found Sounds And Samples, But Instead Of Lending The Album Its Primary Colors, The Dust Brothers Provided The Accents, Highlighting Beck's Ever-Changing Sounds, Tying Together His Stylistic Shifts, Making The Leaps From The Dirge-Blues Of "Jack-Ass" To The Hazy Party Rock Of "Where's It's At" Seem Not So Great. Like Mellow Gold, Odelay Winds Up Touching On A Number Of Disparate Strands -- Folk And Country, Grungy Garage Rock, Stiff-Boned Electro, Louche Exotica, Old-School Rap, Touches Of Noise Rock -- But There's No Break-Neck Snap Between Sensibilities, Everything Flows Smoothly, The Dense Sounds Suggesting That The Songs Are A Bit More Complicated Than They Actually Are. Most Of The Songs Here Betray Beck's Roots As An Anti-Folk Singer -- He Reworks Blues Structures ("Devil's Haircut"), Country ("Lord Only Knows," "Sissyneck"), Soul ("Hotwax"), Folk ("Ramshackle") And Rap ("High 5 [Rock The Catskills]," "Where It's At") -- But Each Track Twists Conventions, Either In Their Construction Or Presentation, Giving This A Vibrant, Electric Pulse, Surprising In Its Form And Attack. Like A Mosaic, All The Details Add Up To A Picture Greater Than Its Parts, So While Some Of Beck's Best Songs Are Here, Odelay Is Best Appreciated As A Recorded Whole, With Each Layered Sample Enhancing The Allusion That Came Before." AMG Review By Stephen Thomas Erlewine.