Lunch of Champions

BECK | Odelay Re-Issue

Well hello there!

This is my first article for Lunch of champions, and it feels very good to be a part of this. It’s not every day I get to write reviews and people actually read them. So thanks to Toby and Charles for letting my vent a bit.

I thought for my first review I should do my favorite album of all time, and since Beck is set to re-release Odelay on January 29th, this is a must. It will include another disc with b-sides and rarities from the sessions, which i will get to later.

Okay , so here I go.

Many of you probably remember waiting around in Cheapo to get that Radiohead record at midnight. Or perhaps a stop right after work or school to buy the new Pumpkins record. As we all know buying that physical copy of a album is important. The process that came with spending your money that you put off to the side for it, still allows you speak to your fiends around a few drinks to pose that magical question, “What were you doing the day that ‘Kid A’ came out?” (I went to Brits Pub myself and got into the listing party from let it be records..wow…) So yeah, here’s what I did when Odelay came out. I went to best buy and got it on tape (yeah,tape) and listened to it at midnight. And proceeded to listen to it over-and-over again from side a to b.

So heres the run-down of this album. When you first hit the play button on your Sony Walkman, a fuzzy E note kicks into the most memorable riffs of the 90’s. Then comes the best opening vocal line from any album you will ever hear (sorry jarvis….). The next sound you hear is those drums, those fucking mind blowing drums. We will thank the dust brothers for that sample and for every thing else they did on the album. Hot wax comes in with a country swagger and distorted notes moving up and down and slide guitar that forms into a broken piano to an acoustic riff to outer-space where a girl asks “Who are you?” and a response that you must find out for your self a billion times over.

Lord Only Knows its getting late and then time to go to Houston to do the hot dog dance (and purchase pants) just to sing about a woman with cigarette arms and a charm only to put her in a new pollution filled with organs the best bass line over and over again. Phew!

Then it’s off to the creepy “Derelict” which has inspired my whole musical taste and my way of writing music. When “Novocain”’s bass line comes in, it iss like being in cage and then ready to be released into a episode of “supermarket sweep” - the big sweep right at the end, you know? When you have to run around the whole market and get all those clues and big chunks of meat (for extra points)? Click here if you want try syncing them up. The song and that video…it might be fun. “Jack-ass” Aka “strange invitation” Aka “Burro” Aka “Its all over now, baby blue (the THEM version)” is the last song on side a of that tape i owned. Perhaps the best transition ever and Willie Nelson in that video is priceless. I don’t even have to talk about “Where It’s At” because it is imprinted in the majority of all people that have lived in the past ten years, and i’m sure you think that its the best song ever made because of it….thats fine.

The next track “Minus” talks of vomiting horses and the power of a fork and levels this album out with its rock. “Sissyneck”, my favorite track on this album is a story about a man who is drifting around the world (I would like to think Texas somewhere) looking for acceptance for his “rhinestone life”. My favorite line ever is “match sticks strike when I’m riding my bike to the depot, because every body knows my name at the recreation center”. BRILLIANT!!

Now here comes the “bridge” of this album…”Readymade”. Almost like a intermission to the rest of this album which presents us with “High 5″. One thing I love about Beck is his way to rap. Kick it into random mode.The great thing about this track also is that it samples a song that you already heard. THEN interrupted with a suggestion to get the other record…ah… surgery you the man. Last but not Least, “Ramshackle” a lullaby none the less that makes you want to turn the tape over and give this album another go. …but just when you think its over and the time is now one in the morning, BAM, a loud guitar wakes you up and scares the shit right out your body and then puts on a top hat and says good bye….. all you can think or say is “Cool.” Thnx beck.