On "Devil's Haircut," Beck's vocals float above the beats and guitar sample without interacting with them, and that's my problem with most of the thing.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 2, 2011 8:15 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
I don't care that he's singing non sequiturs, but he doesn't make them signify, you know?
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 2, 2011 8:15 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
v. nice summation of why i never dug this. i do think high 5 is kind of a jam.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 00:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Why can't he do this sort of thing anymore?
(This, or "Mellow Gold")?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 09:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Too Easy?
Jack-Ass
― pandemic, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 09:43 (thirteen years ago) link
if we have done this before, can someone provide the unsearchable link?
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 21:33 (thirteen years ago) link
maybe on sandbox?
― generous loller at dollies (sic), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 23:13 (thirteen years ago) link
I never knew any lyrics besides the chorus. But the chorus is awesome. Maybe awesome enough for me to vote that song #1. Whether or not non sequiters signify - who gives a fuck. The lack of scattin' along with the guitar and beats... uhhh maybe that would be cool but scattin' would probably improve interesting breaks in a million songs - it's not something that I think about.
― could've been a baller (CaptainLorax), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 23:24 (thirteen years ago) link
i thought this album was amazing when i was 14 and didn't know shit, now i regard it as kind of embarrassing but still somewhat enjoyable. only song that hasn't lost a lot of allure with age for me is "Novacane" (weird that both Beck and Frank Ocean use that somewhat unusual spelling for their song titles).
― some dude, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 23:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I think couplets like
Hitchin' a ride with the bleeding noses / coming to town with the briefcase blues
or
Silver foxes lookin' for romance / in the chainsmoke Kansas flashdance ass pants
signify just fine.
― B-Boy Bualadh Bos (ecuador_with_a_c), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 23:56 (thirteen years ago) link
i've never heard this album but it's got quite a few big singles. i'm listening to the other songs on youtube right now. definitely an album I wouldn't normally go out the way to listen to
― could've been a baller (CaptainLorax), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 23:58 (thirteen years ago) link
what is sandbox?
― Bee OK, Thursday, 4 August 2011 02:28 (thirteen years ago) link
The lyrics are fine! He doesn't sing them memorably enough to make them stick.
― livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 4 August 2011 02:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Whether or not non sequiters signify - who gives a fuck.
well yeah actually it matters a lot -- that's what singing is supposed to do.
B-side to Devil's Haircut (and best track?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLWpyRAaybU&feature=player_embedded#at=118
― saint dominic's p4k review (Eazy), Thursday, 4 August 2011 03:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Ah fuck, I meant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVQM_3uFKiA
― saint dominic's p4k review (Eazy), Thursday, 4 August 2011 03:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I've always preferred the "Makeout City" version of Where It's At.
Ecspecially this live version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5M3chPv4v0
― MarkoP, Thursday, 4 August 2011 03:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Can't choose. LOVED this at the time. Like, played it 2-3 times a day for what seems like months in my memory (probably more like weeks in reality but still). Kind of can't hear it again but would totally be into spinning it just for this poll. Was talking to somebody about "Sissyneck" just tonight because they were wondering out loud who Dick Hyman was and I was like "oh, you know that one part on Odelay..."
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 4 August 2011 05:51 (thirteen years ago) link
this dude sux sorry
― C:\ (Lamp), Thursday, 4 August 2011 05:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Minus!!
― billstevejim, Thursday, 4 August 2011 06:15 (thirteen years ago) link
voting "The New Pollution"
― Bee OK, Saturday, 6 August 2011 23:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Went for "Strange Invitations"
― Mark G, Saturday, 6 August 2011 23:22 (thirteen years ago) link
top-5 formative album for me - 14-year-old me says thanks to the SPIN 1996 countdown - High 5, despite the ace singles.
― skip, Sunday, 7 August 2011 00:03 (thirteen years ago) link
12-minute UNKLE remix of "Where It's At" is the real shit
― some dude, Sunday, 7 August 2011 00:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Things not on the "deluxe" issue: "Clock", the UK extra track, and the NGallagher remix of "Devils Haircut" (I don't think this ever got issued anywhere apart from the UK cd single. It wasn't very good, and I don't think he ever got to do another remix of anyone ever)
― Mark G, Sunday, 7 August 2011 00:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Worth shelling out for the deluxe version, with the UNKLE remix and 'Burro' my personal faves.
'New Pollution' from the original album.
― Bob Six, Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:26 (thirteen years ago) link
somehow in my head when i'm singing 'immigrant song' to myself it turns into this
'come from the land of the ice and snow with the jigsaw jazz and the get fresh flow"
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:28 (thirteen years ago) link
lol
― Autism Alamac (some dude), Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:36 (thirteen years ago) link
pullin' out jives and jamboree handouts from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow
― Autism Alamac (some dude), Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:37 (thirteen years ago) link
semi trucks, haulin their asses
― notes on camping (Pillbox), Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:37 (thirteen years ago) link
bottles and cans and just clap your hands uhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:45 (thirteen years ago) link
let's make it our baby
― golf n stuff (Pillbox), Sunday, 7 August 2011 23:46 (thirteen years ago) link
listened to this album three times today, and w/ honorable mentions going to Hotwax, Novacane & Jack-Ass, there is simply no way around Where It's At. It was the jam then & it is still the jam.
― golf n stuff (Pillbox), Monday, 8 August 2011 00:01 (thirteen years ago) link
also still totally digging the drum breaks & distorto-scream coda in Devil's Haircut
― golf n stuff (Pillbox), Monday, 8 August 2011 00:04 (thirteen years ago) link
karaoke weekend at the suicide shack. community service, and I'm still the mack.
― golf n stuff (Pillbox), Monday, 8 August 2011 00:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Mellow Gold>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Odelay
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Monday, 8 August 2011 01:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Gotta agree with Pillbox that Where It's At is where it's at, but since no one's mentioned it Lord Only Knows also ranks high with me. Actually there isn't a bad song on this album, even the weaker tracks have strong hooks and take interesting turns.
― agnosy, Monday, 8 August 2011 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 8 August 2011 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
really? Fine!
― Mark G, Monday, 8 August 2011 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Such a great sample
― Number None, Monday, 8 August 2011 23:11 (thirteen years ago) link
If I voted, then I voted Jackass, which is still one of my favorite songs ever.
Decently happy w/ the results, but "Sissyneck" wz robbed imo.
― standards r. poor (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 8 August 2011 23:47 (thirteen years ago) link
hard to believe that four tracks got no votes and surprised two songs got more votes than "Where It's At."
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:18 (thirteen years ago) link
feel bad that "Ramshackle" got no votes. i don't much like One Foot In The Grave, and i really don't care for his later acoustic stuff, but the acoustic closers on Odelay and Mellow Gold have a really cool unique sound imo.
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Really doe? "Jackass"?
― Melle Mel and the Coconuts (thewufs), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:37 (thirteen years ago) link
that's the song i've probably swung hardest from loving to being all rmde at over the years
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Speaking of formative, this album kind of taught me how to listen to music. I was 13 when I bought it. First time through I thought it sounded like a bunch of noise. After prolonged exposure it became my favorite album evah for quite a few years. It's kind of impossible for me to rate it objectively - Alfred's criticisms make a lot of sense, but tbh it's never actually mattered to me that much that Beck never bridges the disconnect between vocals/lyrics and music. I always thought of it as some kind of bleak American travelogue, with "Readymade" and to a lesser extent "Devils Haircut" keying us in to the overriding concept. Disconnection is the point.
― Melle Mel and the Coconuts (thewufs), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 01:50 (thirteen years ago) link
The seemingly nonsensical lyrics, as well as the collage of samples and styles, were a big part of why this album resonated with me so much at age 17. The idea that lyrics didn't have to be "about" anything, that you could just luxuriate in cool and evocative sounds, that you weren't beholden to a genre or a theme: all that just felt so freeing and exciting.
Not that it was the first album to convey that to me -- Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom had laid the groundwork -- but it was so successful at it, and fun to boot. It also totally informed the kind of music and poetry I was writing at the time.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Ruby Vroom >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Odelay
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:13 (thirteen years ago) link
It's close, but I'd go for Odelay.
Haha, I just put on "Sissyneck," and my gf said, "Wait, who is this? Cake?"
― jaymc, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:15 (thirteen years ago) link
ooh burn
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:17 (thirteen years ago) link
I could see that.. Like if Cake got interesting.
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:32 (thirteen years ago) link
"Jack-ass" rules.
"Minus" did not deserve to be one of those 0-vote songs so I think I placed my vote correctly.
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:34 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm not sure if i like any song from Odelay as much as "The Distance" at this point
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 02:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Didn't get around to voting, it's all so great. Man, I can never get over what a great time it was to be listening to rock radio, like 95-98 or so - like, The New Pollution was in regular rotation! You'd just hear one kind of weird, offbeat thing after another, never really anything I'd later come to recognize as "indie" but so much more variety than you find right now, just sonically I mean.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 03:51 (thirteen years ago) link
^^this.
― Mucho! Macho! Honcho!: Turn Off The Dark (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 04:35 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, ^^that.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 08:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Never thought of it that way... of course, 95-98 was also the time of Matchbox 20 and Tonic. Not that there's anything wrong with "If You Could Only See"
― skip, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:11 (thirteen years ago) link
There is so much wrong with "If You Could Only See."
― Melle Mel and the Coconuts (thewufs), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:14 (thirteen years ago) link
First time through I thought it sounded like a bunch of noise. After prolonged exposure it became my favorite album evah for quite a few years.
My experience too. I was really disappointed when I first heard it as all the songs sounded like tuneless noise. It took me a while to trust this album and just listen and enjoy it.
The deluxe version revitalised this album for me, and it's probably my favourite for occasions long urban walks.
― Bob Six, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 19:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Thread should have been called "Two turntables and a microPOLL"
― B-Boy Bualadh Bos (ecuador_with_a_c), Wednesday, 10 August 2011 14:22 (thirteen years ago) link
As much as I preach about lyrics being so much less important than sound/feeling in music, I think Beck is a perfect example of when lyrics matter. I did mention that I don't care if the lyrics to Devil's Haircut "signify". However, it's the coolness of the chorus that really makes this song. And coolness is (among other things) an emotion that is hard to put to sound. That's where Beck's lyrics really help
― stop listening to the lyrics so much. you're ruining music (CaptainLorax), Friday, 12 August 2011 13:56 (thirteen years ago) link
no votes for sissyneck? wow.
― jumpskins, Saturday, 13 August 2011 12:45 (thirteen years ago) link
http://devonrecordclub.com/2014/06/02/beck-odelay-round-67-eds-choice/
― i reject your shiny expensive consumerist stereo system (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 27 June 2014 10:51 (ten years ago) link
just got the deluxe edition, and damn, the second disc is good
― the late great, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 04:33 (nine years ago) link
how have i never heard this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0b3iHZ8A90
― the late great, Thursday, 23 April 2015 07:17 (nine years ago) link
Mike Simpson (Dust Bros) on "High 5 (Rock The Catskills)":
“This track was just a classic example of what happens when three crazy people get together in one room [Laughs]. Those are the kinds of song that are my favorites. There’s no real commercial potential there. But for me who’s just a fan of music… I like those the best.“A lot of songs you hear now, you hear the first ten seconds of the song and you don’t need to listen to any more because it’s just the same thing over and over again for about three and a half minutes. High 5 (Rock the Catskills) is one of those songs where it was the ultimate goal to end up with something that’s designed for someone with Attention Deficit Disorder. It just keeps you on your toes and really engages you as a listener.It’s one of those songs you can hear over and over again and find different things every time you listen. To me that’s just one of the best songs on the record.”
“A lot of songs you hear now, you hear the first ten seconds of the song and you don’t need to listen to any more because it’s just the same thing over and over again for about three and a half minutes. High 5 (Rock the Catskills) is one of those songs where it was the ultimate goal to end up with something that’s designed for someone with Attention Deficit Disorder. It just keeps you on your toes and really engages you as a listener.
It’s one of those songs you can hear over and over again and find different things every time you listen. To me that’s just one of the best songs on the record.”
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 23 March 2018 03:07 (six years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/Zk6Iyhd.jpg
― mookieproof, Saturday, 4 April 2020 02:48 (four years ago) link
I love this album a lot. I’ve never heard Paul’s Boutique though
― brimstead, Saturday, 4 April 2020 04:40 (four years ago) link
how was this not titled "The New POLLution"?
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, 4 April 2020 05:44 (four years ago) link
Mmm looking at the tracklist I realize I don’t think I’ve heard this album... matter of fact I don’t think I’ve heard a full Beck album in my life. I know most of his singles and some songs here and there but looking at the tracklists for this one and his other 90’s and 00’s output it turns out the album I know the most is Guero and even there there’s at least halfof it I don’t recall ever hearing in my life.
I might use one of these quarantine days to actually listen to one or two full albums of him. I guess “Odelay” is the big one that I need to listen to and then it’s either Mutations or Mellow Gold.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 4 April 2020 06:55 (four years ago) link
I’ve never heard Paul’s Boutique though
― bam! Free bees! (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 4 April 2020 07:09 (four years ago) link