Up to the release of Odelay, it's safe to assume that the only Beck song most people knew was 1994's "Loser," which is a fantastic and weird song that kind of summed up the '90s. With Odelay, Beck showed that he wasn't a one-trick pony, and this album kind of foreshadowed that Beck was Gen X's version of David Bowie -- an ever-changing rock and roll chameleon who could wouldn't be bound by the strictures of any one genre.
Most of the album is co-produced by Beck and The Dust Brothers, and it is Beck at his best: weird, innovative, musically interesting, and catchy, all at the same time. The songs range from rock to folk to pop to electronic to to noise rock hip hop to garage rock, among others. Plus, he played nearly all the instruments on the album. You've probably heard "Where It's At," "New Pollution," Jack-Ass," or "Devil's Haircut," and you know how awesome those songs are. The rest of the album is just as good.
Favorite song from Side 1: "Novacane"
Choosing my favorite song from Side 1 was tough, as I really like "Devil's Haircut," "Hotwax," "Lord Only Knows," "The New Pollution," and "Novacane." I decided to go with "Novacane" because it's a cool, hip-hip influenced fuzz rock song that has some superweird computer-y and electronic-y parts. I guess that's the best way I could describe it.
Favorite song from Side 2: "Minus"
When I used to actually run outside on purpose, this song was on my running mix pretty much as soon as I started making running mixes -- like when I still had a walkman for running and made running mixes on cassette tapes. It's a frantic punkish song that still makes me want to run. I've never actually looked up the lyrics because it's one of those songs where I just want to believe the lyrics are what I hear -- like I'm pretty sure he says "Radiation / Fuel the force / Karaoke / Of the vomiting horse." And if that's not what he says, I don't want to know, because the image of a drunk horse singing karaoke and then puking makes me smile.
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