4 keepers
keeper avg .333
Beck's follow-up to the multi-platinum "Odelay" (1996) eschewed hip-hop rhythms and production for more traditional and world music styles. "Lazy Flies", "Canceled Check", and "Cold Brains" are all folk-y, tinged with Latin, country-western, and spacey orchestration respectively. The best in this vein is the appropriately folk-blues "Bottle of Blues"****, with blasts of electronic noise at least encouraged by long-time Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, the album's producer.
The festive single "Tropicalia"**** obviously references the music of Brazil, while the desolate "Nobody's Fault but My Own"**** has a haunted eastern drone. Sixties influence is evident throughout, especially the flower-power-era Beatles waltz "Dead Melodies" and the Kinks / Randy Newman piano ditty "O Maria." After "Bottle of Blues" a bleary stupor takes over the end of the album until the explosive, chaotically careening hidden track "Diamond Bollocks"****, reminding me of Flaming Lips from around that time at their most raucous. Though a stylistic departure at the time, the album added a variety of influences to Beck's repertoire, and indeed it's hard to imagine the acclaimed "Sea Change" (2002) without this intriguing predecessor.
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