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Originally Posted by noisereductions
I think you guys know I'm a huge Beck fan. Have been since I was like 13 yrs old. But guess what? I never thought Odelay was great. When it came out I was like "yeah. It's ok. But it's no Mellow Gold. Or One Foot In The Grave. Or Stereopathetic Soulmanure." And guess what? I still feel the same way. "Everyone" seems to consider this his best. To me... I don't know. It's a Dust Bros album w/ Beck singing. My favorite songs are the ones that could fit on another album. Like "Jackass" or "Minus" or "Ramshackle." Don't get me wrong. There's plenty here I like. Just not enough I love. Like "Novacane" is pretty great... but then there's this extra shit at the end that just could've been cut off. "Where It's At" goes on forever on the album. And "Derelict" is fucking unlistenable. And that's the second song. Okay, now that I've said all that - I do love Beck. So I'm maybe a harsher critic than I should be. And I'd probably rank this really high if he didn't put out 3 albums in a row before (and one right after) that all blow this out of the water. Even much of the b-sides from this era tended to be ones I preferred over most of the album tracks. |
Dude-yo, the second song is "Hotwax" and it's fucking rad. "Derelict" is not unlistenable weirdo! It's got a such a funky but sloooow hip-hop-Donovan chorus. Even when I was in ninth grade, it was able to recognize the catchiness of "Derelict." It's not one of the album's best songs, but it's not unlistenable. It sounds like a Beatles track actually, with a little bit of electro thrown in.
Also, three albums? Are you forgetting
Golden Feelings and
A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight?
Anyway, to be a Beck fan and to not like
Odelay (much) is very strange indeed. It's like being a Lips fan and not being into
The Soft Bulletin, or perhaps more analogously, to be an
Ok Computer-apathetic Radiohead fan. I share your love for Beck's early work, for sure, but
Odelay is where he really blossomed. It's the rare instance of an artist actually improving musically as his fame increases. In all honesty, I don't think anything else in Beck's discography — not even the strong
Mutations or
Midnite Vultures can compare to this album.
Odelay has stood the test of time for me like very few '90s albums have. I can still put it on and be totally enthralled from start to finish. The first three are tracks so good it's stupid. "Devil's Haircut" somehow still rocks, "Hotwax" is convincing nerd rap, and "Lord Only Knows" is just an all around great song. Then later there's the Minor Threat-worshiping "Minus," and the weird-as-fuck "High 5."
"Where it's At" is better than "Loser." Yeah, it goes off the rails a bit, but to me it fits in perfectly with the kind of stuff Sonic Youth was doing on EJST&NS. It's admirable for such a weird ass song to get so much airplay. I love it. "Loser" was almost a one-hit-wonder situation for Beck. "Where it's At" took the approach and sent it through a blender and it weirded people out but "two turntables and a microphone" became a meme 20 years before "memes" were even a thing!
"Sissyneck" is super underrated. "Jack-Ass" sounds like hillbilly Christmas. "Novocane" is like "High 5" only pulling from SY and a bit from Black Flag instead of Minor Threat.
There's something unspeakably weird about the fact that you don't love this album. Not trying to be a dick, just throwing it out there... this is the best Beck ever was or ever will be, and just about all of his work, especially that of the '00s and 2010s, is just a pale imitation of this seminal record.
I'm starting to wonder if there's anything at all you and I agree about with respect to waxing nostalgic over '90s alternative music.
