15.5.05

Beck - Guero - Interscope 988027

You never know quite what to expect from Beck, except that, in the words of another Real Reviewer, he is hideously talented so it‘s likely to be good. His previous album Sea Change was slow and sad and one or two of the tracks on Guero have the same dreamy, melancholic quality but the rest are upbeat and hideously catchy.

There are all sorts of influences - hip-hop, Latin and dance - all on display in the first few tracks and he shifts effortlessly from one to other. Listen on the move and he’ll put a new bounce in your stride. Listen somewhere quiet and you’ll be sobered by lines like “I prayed heaven today/would bring down its hammer on me/and pound you out of my head/I can’t think with you in it”.

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