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

 

BECK Odelay (1996 German pressed 14-track CD album featuring the singles Where Its At Devils Haircut The New Pollution Sissyneck Jack Ass and the Bonus Recording Diskobox picture sleeve GED24908)