I readily admit to being a Beck fan, but that’s a statement that needs to be qualified. Beck’s recorded output is so broad and diverse that you have to identify yourself as an Odelay fan (the most common breed), a Mutations enthusiast (my own distinction) or the rare and elusive Midnite Vultures addict. With his last album, Sea Change, Beck convinced a whole gaggle of emo kids that his pain and sorrow was not only real but, more importantly, hip. This has left him in the tricky position of following up his most successful album since Odelay.
Apparently his response was to go back and try to make all those records into one. The end result is Guero, an inoffensive if uninspired record with good production, decent songs and not much new to say. Half the fun of the album is just choosing the record on which these songs actually belong. The heavy guitars and thick beats of “E-Pro” and the latin hip-hop feel of “Que Onda Guero” make both sound like Odelay rejects, while the Brazilian instrumental for “Missing” places it firmly in Mutations territory. “Farewell Ride” could be a better-produced track from One Foot in the Grave, “Broken Drum” could have been on Sea Change and “Hell Yes” is a Midnite Vultures contender.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The sinister “Farewell Ride” is Beck’s best song in years and the shimmering electro-pop of “Girl” is far too much fun to simply write off as an unabashed “Hey Ya” rip-off. Jack White’s slinky bass line and Beck’s laid-back delivery on “Go it Alone” make for a good combination, and “Rental Car” is the best song left off of Odelay, right down to the Asian girls in the chorus and Dust Brothers drum breaks. Still, it makes more sense to just go out and buy a couple of old Beck records than splurge on Guero; there’s nothing here that he hasn’t done better before.
