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 BeckOdelay Release Date: 1996 06 18 Running Time: 51:28 Label: DGC (David Geffen Company) Rating:  |
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. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Tracks:
| Title | Composer | Time | |
| 1 | Devils Haircut | Simpson, King, Beck [1] | 3:13 |
| 2 | Hotwax | Simpson, Beck [1], King | 3:52 |
| 3 | Lord Only Knows | Simpson, Beck [1], King | 4:14 |
| 4 | New Pollution | King, Beck [1], Simpson | 3:39 |
| 5 | Derelict | Simpson, Beck [1], King | 4:11 |
| 6 | Novacane | Simpson, Beck [1], King | 4:38 |
| 7 | Jack-Ass | Beck [1], King, Simpson | 4:00 |
| 8 | Where It's At | King, Simpson, Beck [1] | 5:25 |
| 9 | Minus | Simpson, King, Beck [1] | 2:32 |
| 10 | Sissyneck | Beck [1], King, Simpson | 4:02 |
| 11 | Readymade | King, Beck [1], Simpson | 2:43 |
| 12 | High 5 (Rock the Catskills) | Simpson, Beck [1], King | 4:10 |
| 13 | Ramshackle | Beck [1], Simpson, King | 4:49 |
Other Releases:
| Odelay [Limited Edition] Release Date: 1996 Label: Organica Records |
| Odelay [Deluxe Edition] Release Date: 1996 Label: Geffen |
| Odelay [Circuit City Exclusive] Release Date: 1996 Label: Universal Distribution |
| Odelay [Bonus Track] Release Date: 1996 Label: Universal/Polydor |
| Odelay [Australia Bonus Disc] Release Date: 1996 Label: Geffen |
| Odelay [10th Anniversary Edition] Release Date: 1996 Label: Original Music |
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