Word: becking
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Beck Hansen has just established himself as a master of self-adulation. His new album Guero is in many ways a tribute not to his musical forbears, but to his own work of the past dozen years, with a few curve balls thrown in to prove he’s still an artist, not just an anthologist...
Tracks like the opener “E-Pro,” “Qué Onda Guero,” and “Hell Yes” flash back to good old danceable Beck à la Midnite Vultures or Odelay, while the middle of the album is largely an extension of the pendular, string-heavy sound of Sea Change. Since Beck’s previous work has ranged from very good to brilliant, however, these new renditions of older stylistic motifs are far from unwelcome...
...little new ground is covered in Guero—but since when has “new” categorically meant “better”? As long as there exist listeners who prefer sea glass to plate glass, urban decay to suburban sprawl, and redux to deluxe, Beck will maintain a corps of loyal fans. “My shivering voice is singing through a crack in the window, I’d better go it alone,” Beck murmurs. No need, Beck. We’re still here...
Returning closer to home, “Go It Alone” channels the blues tradition of American music with a head-bobbing beat and unflappable composure. A groove this good could only have come straight from the source: I can picture Beck wandering the back alleys and dirt-caked hamlets of the American South armed only with a good ear and a tape recorder, a latter-day Alan Lomax...
...half-lit world of Guero lies somewhere between the last drink and the first hangover, between the rowdiness of the cantina and the dreaminess of the artist’s studio. In this strange border country, Beck, the “guero,” the white boy, holds court among the ghosts of his previous releases and the dysmorphic specters of cultural miscellany...