ODELAY is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock artist Beck, originally released on June 18, 1996 by Geffen Records. After the mainstream success of "Loser", Odelay featured several hit singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution". The album peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200 chart and eventually sold over 2 million copies in the United States. It was also Beck's first hit album in the United Kingdom, making #17 and it has since gone platinum in the U.K.
The sessions for what would become ODELAY originally began as a subdued, acoustic affair. In 1994, Beck started to record tracks for his follow-up to MELLOW GOLD with Bong Load producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. Hansen had recently experienced a number of personal tragedies (including the death of his grandfather, Al Hansen), and the tone of the songs as well as their production were considerably somber. Only a handful of tracks from these sessions have been released: "Ramshackle", "Feather in Your Cap", and "Brother". All three of these songs are acoustic, sparse, and melancholic, and have a haunting sound very different from the more upbeat, "party" style of ODELAY. Beck would eventually return to this downbeat style with his 1998 album, MUTATIONS.
He would eventually abandon work with Rothrock and Schnapf, opting to work with the Dust Brothers instead. The Dust Brothers' production style was notably more upbeat and hip-hop-focused: their résumé included work with The Beastie Boys and Tone Loc.
Like its creator's freewheeling songwriting process, ODELAY is a monument to wondrously precise pastiche. It's a glowing junkyard of musical styles, absurdist images, distorted samples, postmodern anti-emotions, you name it. Over the course of his three previous albums, Beck tinkered with more traditions and aesthetic approaches than an average cultural-studies professor sees in a career: hip-hop beats, acoustic folk-blues, indie-punk guitar squalls, DIY production, commercial smash! ODELAY accounts for all those things, too, but it also furthers the seamless, rump-shaking sheen of its collage nature, turning process into possible meaning. On one hand, the thematic darkness that hangs over most of these songs exposes Beck for the creative doomsayer he is -- just another sullen young man with a gift of the native tongues. On the other, the life-affirming irreverence with which he drops harebrained couplets, monologues and call-and-response chants based on designer-jeans brands betrays the glowing confidence of someone in love with all the places the creative process can take you. Grooving all the while, Beck seems like the loving creator of a 90's version of the electric Dylan frenzy. And ODELAY seems sorta like his BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME.
ODELAY won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1997, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Where It's At". It was ranked 16 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, and also in the NME's annual critics poll. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted ODELAY the 51st greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 305 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Voters in Channel 4's 2005 "100 Greatest Albums" poll placed it at number 73. The music website Pitchfork Media ranked it at #19 on their top 100 albums of the 1990's.
Personnel: Beck Hansen (vocals, acoustic, slide & electric guitars, harmonica, electric piano, celeste, Clavinet, organ, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion); Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar); David Brown (saxophone); Mike Boito (trumpet, organ); Charlie Haden (acoustic bass); Joey Waronker (drums, percussion); Ross Harris.
Album Description:
ReplyDeleteODELAY is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock artist Beck, originally released on June 18, 1996 by Geffen Records. After the mainstream success of "Loser", Odelay featured several hit singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution". The album peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200 chart and eventually sold over 2 million copies in the United States. It was also Beck's first hit album in the United Kingdom, making #17 and it has since gone platinum in the U.K.
The sessions for what would become ODELAY originally began as a subdued, acoustic affair. In 1994, Beck started to record tracks for his follow-up to MELLOW GOLD with Bong Load producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. Hansen had recently experienced a number of personal tragedies (including the death of his grandfather, Al Hansen), and the tone of the songs as well as their production were considerably somber. Only a handful of tracks from these sessions have been released: "Ramshackle", "Feather in Your Cap", and "Brother". All three of these songs are acoustic, sparse, and melancholic, and have a haunting sound very different from the more upbeat, "party" style of ODELAY. Beck would eventually return to this downbeat style with his 1998 album, MUTATIONS.
He would eventually abandon work with Rothrock and Schnapf, opting to work with the Dust Brothers instead. The Dust Brothers' production style was notably more upbeat and hip-hop-focused: their résumé included work with The Beastie Boys and Tone Loc.
Like its creator's freewheeling songwriting process, ODELAY is a monument to wondrously precise pastiche. It's a glowing junkyard of musical styles, absurdist images, distorted samples, postmodern anti-emotions, you name it. Over the course of his three previous albums, Beck tinkered with more traditions and aesthetic approaches than an average cultural-studies professor sees in a career: hip-hop beats, acoustic folk-blues, indie-punk guitar squalls, DIY production, commercial smash! ODELAY accounts for all those things, too, but it also furthers the seamless, rump-shaking sheen of its collage nature, turning process into possible meaning. On one hand, the thematic darkness that hangs over most of these songs exposes Beck for the creative doomsayer he is -- just another sullen young man with a gift of the native tongues. On the other, the life-affirming irreverence with which he drops harebrained couplets, monologues and call-and-response chants based on designer-jeans brands betrays the glowing confidence of someone in love with all the places the creative process can take you. Grooving all the while, Beck seems like the loving creator of a 90's version of the electric Dylan frenzy. And ODELAY seems sorta like his BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME.
ODELAY won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1997, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Where It's At". It was ranked 16 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, and also in the NME's annual critics poll. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted ODELAY the 51st greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 305 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Voters in Channel 4's 2005 "100 Greatest Albums" poll placed it at number 73. The music website Pitchfork Media ranked it at #19 on their top 100 albums of the 1990's.
ReplyDeletePersonnel: Beck Hansen (vocals, acoustic, slide & electric guitars, harmonica, electric piano, celeste, Clavinet, organ, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion); Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar); David Brown (saxophone); Mike Boito (trumpet, organ); Charlie Haden (acoustic bass); Joey Waronker (drums, percussion); Ross Harris.
Recording information:
Conway Studios (1994-1995)
G-son Studios (1994-1995)
Pcp Labs (1994-1995)
Sunset sound (1994-1995)
The Shop (1994-1995).
Audio Mixers: Beck, The Dust Brothers, Mario Caldato Jr., Rob Schnapf, Tom Rothrock & Brian Paulson.
Producers: Beck Hansen, The Dust Brothers, Mario Caldato Jr., Brian Paulson & Tom Rothrock.
Track Listing:
1. Devils Haircut - 3:13
2. Hotwax - 3:52
3. Lord Only Knows - 4:14
4. The New Pollution - 3:39
5. Derelict - 4:11
6. Novacane - 4:38
7. Jack-Ass - 4:00
8. Where It's At - 5:25
9. Minus - 2:32
10. Sissyneck - 4:02
11. Readymade - 2:43
12. High 5 (Rock the Catskills) - 4:10
13. Ramshackle - 4:49