Odelay

Rolling Stone (p.83) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[F]or Odelay, he hooked up with the Dust Brothers to play around with punk, hip-hop, acoustic folk, bossa nova, Latin soul, mainstream R&B and line-dance country -- there's as much Babyface as Bob Dylan on this record..." Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.107) - Ranked #27 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records". Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.63) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (1/23/97, p.44) - Ranked #1 on Rolling Stone's list of the "Ten Best Albums" of 1996. Rolling Stone (6/13/96, pp.77-78) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...[crams] his encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century musical styles into three- and four-minute nuggets of pure pop....while Beck may appear to be flip in his no-holds-barred approach to music, no other contemporary artist...comes close to his ambitious sense of adventure..." Spin (p.97) - 4.5 out of 5 stars -- "This splatter painting of breakbeats, electric blues, garage-style kitsch, and Dada versifying still sounds fresh..." Spin (9/99, p.118) - Ranked #4 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Spin (1/97, p.58) - Ranked #1 on Spin's list of the "20 Best Albums Of '96." Spin (7/96, p.87) - 10 (out of 10) - "...Just as Dylan created an entire universe around his helplessly strange vocal instrument, Beck uses sound and imagery to turn his congested yelp into the voice of a prophet....It's a beautiful thing." Entertainment Weekly (6/21/96, p.65) - "...Beck has enlisted the Dust Brothers, the producers responsible for...the Beastie Boys' seminal PAUL'S BOUTIQUE. The result: a pastiche of twangy country licks, hip-hop beats, surrealistic folk, jive-turkey rap, and samples...that further affirms Beck's rock-chameleon identity..." - Rating: A- Q (10/01, p.63) - Ranked #28 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" Q (12/99, p.90) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q (8/96, p.111) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...A more ambitious individual probably couldn't have made an album as relaxed, funky, stylish and left-of-center as ODELAY....the album...mooches attractively between country, folk and hip-hop..." Uncut (p.104) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "A '90s cultural landmark....Beck's freakfolk freestyle yields some solid gold nuggets among the jive." CMJ (1/6/03, p.16) - Included in CMJ's list of "Top 25 College Radio Albums of All Time" Vibe (9/96, p.223) - "...Beck goes Hollywood....Drums pounce with blunted park-jam finesse. Turntable-scratched hooks pan whimsically throughout....a more sophisticated Beck relays his own introspective emotions..." Option (7-8/96, p.89) - "...a brilliant kaleidoscope....a lazy, cruising groove....a sprawling, confident album....Nothing sounds out of place in Beck's world..." Melody Maker (12/21-28/96, pp.66-67) - Ranked #6 on Melody Maker's list of 1996's "Albums Of The Year." Musician (9/96, p.86) - "...ODELAY is intoxicating, proving Beck to be one of the era's more inventive songwriters. His observations are as catchy as his...songs....ODELAY is largely upbeat, even punk, but occasionally Beck reveals a sad soul under his clown's mask..." Village Voice (2/25/97) - Ranked #1 in the Village Voice's 1996 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. Q (Magazine) (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's a definition of '90s pop....ODELAY is as cannibalistic as a Tarantino movie: a riot of decontextualised pop-cultural detritus." Mojo (Publisher) (p.66) - Ranked #10 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "Even better than ODELAY's crazy-quilt sampling...was the dazzling songwriting." Mojo (Publisher) (p.123) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t was skeetering, excited, a grab bag of ideas." NME (Magazine) (12/21-28/96, pp.66-67) - Ranked #1 in NME's 1996 Critics' Poll. NME (Magazine) (6/22/96, p.54) - 8 (out of 10) - "...[Beck] plunges into the deep foreboding lake of received musical wisdom....All around is madness. Beck takes the thinking man's solution and makes music to make sense of it all.