Review Summary: The origins.
In order to survive the turbulence of the music industry these days, a musician has to be very innovative. With unlimited access to internet and a variety of tools at the fingertips, musicians have to consistently change with the times and stay relevant. If your sound is getting old, change it. If the fans are losing interest in you, change yourself. Nowadays artists market themselves like cheap Asian hookers, trying their best to survive the chaotic business they chose to enter. Out of anyone, Beck Hanson knows best what it means to be innovative in the music world. Each of Becks albums in his decently sized catalogue brings something new to the table, each little tweak or twist is done to keep interest. No one wants to hear the same boring *** forced out album after album, which unfortunately is a common trend in music today. This is not to suggest that each album Beck has put out has been a classic work of art, in fact some come off as just being drab and contrived (See
The Information, released in 2006), but none of his album have been total snore-fests either.
Many would say that Beck's 1996 album titled
Odelay! is Hanson in his prime. The album was a magnificent blend of alternative, rap, and acoustics equaling out to the thirteen track masterpiece that it is. Although
Odelay! is an amazing and masterful piece of music that is nothing short of brilliant, it's not were the story began. Two years prior in 1994 Beck released his first major label debut with
Mellow Gold, an album that meshed the white trash and redneck sounds that Beck felt so influenced by and his classic rap/alternative combo. Essentially, the groundwork for everything Beck would released later on.
Regardless of if you are a Beck fan or not, it is almost guaranteed that you have heard the opening track and first single of
Mellow Gold. The song "Loser" was the first thing Beck had ever put out that made it to the radio, the song was a massive success with its organic guitar noises and dark lyrics. The hook filled chorus of "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me," instantly became a 90's classic, and to me could be considered an anthem of the time period. If still surprises me on how successful that song in particular was because it is really not the best of the album. There are plenty of other potential hits scattered all throughout the album, but none got the airplay that "Loser" did. In particular one of these "potential hits" would be the not-so classy jam titled "Truck Drivin' Neighbors Downstairs." The song opens with the sounds people shouting at each other which in actuality was a recording Beck did of his real neighbors, this recording perfectly sets the tone for the slow but melodic acoustic strumming and Beck singing in his deepest voice possible. How this song did not make it as a single, I will never know, but it still stands as one of the best that
Mellow Gold has to offer.
Another great yet-forgotten piece on this album would be "Sweet Sunshine," an angry and very rough cut featuring primarily just a looped beat and heavily distorted vocals. The song is very experimental but is actually a very fun listen for those days where you just don't give a ***. Beck reaches his peak with this album towards the end with "Nitemare Hippy Girl," the most clean cut song we've heard from Beck so far, being primarily just vocals and acoustic guitars the song is a nice and humorous break from the angry or depressed tracks surrounding it. In actuality,
Mellow Gold covers a nice range of emotions. We've got the lazy days ("Pay No Mind" "Blackhole"), the angry days ("Mutherfuker" "Sweet Sunshine"), the sad days ("Steal My Body Home"), and the happy drunken times ("Soul Suckin' Jerk" "Beercan"). If anyone ever tries to tell you that
Odelay! is 'where it's at' with Beck's catalogue of music, put on
Mellow Gold and convert those bitches.
