Beck - Odelay

DGC

Odelay is the fifth studio album from alt-rock legend Beck. Beck teams up with legendary hip-hop production duo The Dust Brothers to offer a sample-heavy take on the alternative rock scene. It pulls back on the wackiness of Mellow Gold and delivers a more song-centric, and in some ways, down to earth release.

There's something for everyone on Odelay. It stitches different music cultures together seamlessly. Mainly the worlds of hip-hop and rock but it seems to be over-arched with a country etiquette. It's as if Johnny Cash dipped his toes into the hip-hop game and produced music through rock parameters. There's a definite cowboy kind of feel to Odelay. Beck must have worn a cowboy hat to the studio sessions or something along those lines. It's intrinsically laced within the music. The image of Beck in cowboy attire and rocking spurs must have slipped into the studio subconscious somewhere along the way.

The spirit of the desert resides within the walls of the material. Fifth track 'Derelict' finds itself spread between Eastern and Western sounds. Traversing towards Oasis' and hopes of finding water in between hallucinogenic states of mind. Beck's dead-pan delivery of slacker soliloquy’s guiding your sand dune desires. Odelay exists on an outlawed plane of existence.

It's a difficult undertaking to pull from a plethora of regions and breathe them to life in the same world. Luckily the Dust Brothers are the go-to team for such projects. They had made their names at this stage with releases such as The Beastie Boys 'Pauls Boutique' in which they had made major contributions to. Play the 'name that sample' game and time and time again you will unearth another buried relic of space and time. Pauls Boutique will go down as one of the most creative and forward thinking pieces of sonic manipulation ever recorded reel to reel..... and Odelay isn't too far behind in all honesty.

The melding of ethos and mindset is the bare requirement to collaborate in this kind of way. To paint and portray the perfect environment for an artist to thrive in isn't the easiest task to work towards. A somewhat telepathic ability is necessary. Lots of possible loose ends and dead ends come with it but the partnership between Beck and The Dust Brothers worked well enough to steer clear of said loose and dead ends.

June 18th, 1996.