Track Listing

1. Devils Haircut
2. Hotwax
3. Lord Only Knows
4. The New Pollution
5. Derelict
6. Novacane
7. Jack-Ass
8. Where It's At
9. Minus - Beck, Beck Hansen, Brian Paulson, Mario Caldato Jr.
10. Sissyneck
11. Readymade
12. High 5 (Rock The Catskills)
13. Ramshackle - Beck, Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf
14. Diskobox - Beck, The Dust Brothers, Jon Spencer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2579 in Music
• Released on: 2002-12-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 55 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
As it turns out, Beck isn't just a funny guy with a good blues-rap hybrid novelty up his sleeve--he's a funny guy with a deep understanding of the history of pop music, an unstoppable universalist impulse, and a whole lot of excellent songs up his sleeve. Produced with hyperactive kitchen-sink technique by the Dust Brothers (of the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique fame), Odelay sounds like 60 years' worth of radio at once, but the foundation beneath the flash owes more to pre-war blues than anything else. Beck can turn a surreal pomo phrase like nobody's business, and he knows a good drum break when he hears one; his greatest strength, though, is having enough respect for tradition to make it sound modern. --Douglas Wolk

CD Description
Like its creator's freewheeling songwriting process, ODELAYis a monument to wondrously precise pastiche. It's a glowing junkyard of musical styles, absurdist images, distorted samples, postmodern anti-emotions, you name it. Over the course of his three previous albums, Beck tinkered with more traditions and aesthetic approaches than an average cultural-studies professor sees in a career: hip-hop beats, acoustic folk-blues, indie-punk guitar squalls, DIY production, commercial smash! ODELAY accounts for all those things, too, but it also furthers the seamless, rump-shaking sheen of its collage nature, turning process into possible meaning.
On one hand, the thematic darkness that hangs over most of these songs exposes Beck for the creative doomsayer he is--just another sullen young man with a gift of the native tongues. On the other, the life-affirming irreverence with which he drops harebrained couplets, monologues and call-and-response chants based on designer-jeans brands betrays the glowing confidence of someone in love with all the places the creative process can take you. Grooving all the while, Beck seems like the loving creator of a '90s version of the electric Dylan frenzy. And ODELAY seems sorta like his BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME.

Customer Reviews

"Throw your two-bit cares down the drain ..."
I 'discovered' Beck through a rather odd route, after he (or rather, his head!) guested in an episode of Futurama which included a rendition of 'Where It's At', complete with washboard break(!)

I picked up 'Odelay' shortly afterwards and its one of the few CDs in my collection that I can listen to without skipping tracks. There's a mind-boggling range of styles on offer here, ranging from blues and folk, through lounge (listen to the intro to 'Where It's At') to hip-hop. Whilst there's a serious risk of the entire album drowning in a mish-mash of sound, it's to Beck's credit that he holds everything together.

Whilst Beck is obviously an extremely talented musician, the thing that makes this album for me is the vocals - most of the time he sounds half asleep, but for some reason it seems to work. Don't ask me why, it just does. The almost narcoleptic delivery adds an extra dimension to the slower songs, although some of the lyrics tend to be a bit obtuse.

There isn't really a bad track on this album, but for me the standouts are "Where It's At", the curiously uplifting "Lord Only Knows" and "Jackass", which is a supremely moving song, despite having a sample of a braying donkey at the end.

Don't let the fact that Beck is often lumped in with 'folk rock' artists put you off, this is an extremely varied album which is well worth a listen.

Top, top album
On the justifiably critically acclaimed 'Odelay' Beck seems to try his hand at virtually every genre under the sun........And seems to succeed at each increasingly ambitious attempt. The album, aside from the obvious brilliance of 'new pollution' and 'where it's at', is a simply stunning exhibition of Beck's clear genius. Highlights would have to be the opening bars of 'Where its at' and the entirety of 'novacane'. Cheers Beck, you've produced one of my top 5 albums!

Seminal
Ah Beck, now here is a talent.
This, his second album, produced by The Dust brothers, was even better than his debut, and established him as a major player.
He almost recklessly mixes lots of influences, from Grunge to Hip Hop, to Blues, he mangles everything up. Sonically he throws everything in including the kitchen sink, Tablas, chains, Harps, carboard boxes, harmoniums, feedback.... This just shouldn't work, but the genius of it is that it does...it makes perfect sense in the way more conventional stuff never could...and there are some great tunes here that will stay with you long after the CD goes back in the box. At the time of Odelay, nobody was mashing stuff up like Beck.

His image of intelligent, wasted life conjures up a beautifully cinematic view of the slacker underdog. Go with him, he will take you places you never dreamed of.