Beck - Guero

If Beck ever decides to quit the music industry, I think he might have quite a future in international diplomacy. Hammering out peace accords between warring nations should be no problem for a musician able to persuade so many dissimilar musical styles and elements to live together in harmony. On Guero, Beck enables folky guitars, bossa nova beats, rap vocals and video game sounds to co-exist without allowing the music to become sloppy or unfocused. The playful spirit and musical fusion showcased here has and will cause many observers to liken Guero to Beck’s watershed 1996 album, Odelay. That was the last time Beck let his multiple musical personalities play together before breaking them up to make several albums which concentrated on one persona at a time. What makes Guero so unique is the way Beck applies the maturity of his more congruent albums (Sea Change and Mutations, most notably) to the musical meanderings of the Odelay era. Beck’s reunion with the Dust Brothers gives the album a defining groove, present whether the song feels like a Latino block party (“Que Onda Guero”) or a plaintive bossa nova (“Missing”). The spaced-out Western vibe of “Farewell Ride” and the garage rock/hip-hop marriage “Go It Alone” (featuring a few tasty bass licks by Jack White) feature wonderfully drowsy vocal performances that make each song a highlight of the record. When Beck’s career is over, Odelay will likely be used by historians as the ultimate description of his approach to music. While that album may end up serving as his commercial and critical zenith, I hope history will take a second look at Guero. More than any other time in his career, it is here we find Beck operating on all cylinders and allowing everything to flow together. For such a noted musical chameleon, this may be the best chance we’ll get to see a holistic picture of Beck as an artist. [www.beck.com]