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Guero

Beck - Guero Audio CD

A fair review of the Beck "Guero" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Beck reviews here, or go back to the Beck tabs.

Band: Beck
Title: Guero
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-03-29
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: E-Pro 2: Qu� Onda Guero 3: Girl 4: Missing 5: Black Tambourine 6: Earthquake Weather 7: Hell Yes 8: Broken Drum 9: Scarecrow 10: Go It Alone 11: Farewell Ride 12: Rental Car 13: Emergency Exit

Beck's got his groove back.
Anyway Im here to talk about Guero which starts out with the very rocking e-pro and goes from there. Guero Great album and much more up-beat than 2002's seachance, which also is a great album but very different for Beck. It seems like Beck bounced back and began to feel better because Guero is a fun ride , Hell yes is a great track and prooves that Beck can still rap with the best of them. Girl has an up-beat tune but very dark lyrics if you listen closely. Farewell ride has to be my favourite track and very dark as well. over-all it's nice to hear that Beck seemed to be out of his depression that was evident with Seachange and overall Guero is a pretty darn good album.

nice and smooth
omg!!! i'm feeling beck and his style of making music with the fly, mellow beats and the way he sings each verse. . i like the variety of this cd. . . i think it's catchy and upbeat and outside of the box in it's own way. . . i recommend to all who have never listened to Beck to try it out. . . you just might like it. . . and this cd shows his great talents.

Somewhere between stale and fresh
Settled down on a more familiar palate, the once total unpredictability inherent with this musical misfit is all but set on its beat-driven, retro-futurism course, but it is still a ride mainly worth taking. Although still more than a competent purveyor for his skewed take on pop-rock-insert genre here, it has become clear over the years that Beck has lost some of his luster when it simply comes to presenting music with urgency.

guero
People compare Guero to Odelay all the time, and I'm not really sure why. I'm a really big fan of Beck, and I find he never fails to create a new feeling for every album he does. The two are very different albums. I will agree with this album beeing the most beck-like album though. It's a good mixture of all his albums from mellow gold to sea change all the while being new.

E-Pro:
Probably one of Beck's most well known songs by now. The song is built around a amazing guitar riff that can be addicting. It switches between the riff and low-key verses, and because of that it creates a real dark atmosphere. I like it. The one I don't like is the chorus. "na,na,na,na,na" certainly is not my favorite of Beck's lyrics.

Que Onda Guero:
This song is kind of boring. It could have been a fine b-side, but it's not a very good second track. He had the right idea for this song though. It's kind of like a slow sleepy "High 5" (from Odelay) if that makes any sense.

Girl:
Acoustic guitars, 8-bit video game intro, haunting backing vocals, and lyrics that could either be about breaking a girl's heart or actually killing a girl. In my opinion, this is the best track on Guero. It's up-beat, but it's dark. Oh, and to this day people are trying to figure out what beck sings in between "my" and "girl. " The lyrics in the booklet put "my. . . Girl. " Oh, that Beck.

Missing:
Kind of tropical. Slow. It's not a very interesting song, in my opinion, but it's not bad. The irony of this is I feel like there's something missing.

Black Tambourine:
Another song that's not very interesting but not bad. I like the guitar in it though.

Earthquake Weather:
This song has been around since Midnite Vultures and it's a real good one. It does capture that earthquake weather pretty well. It's kind of slow but exciting. One of the best songs on this album.

Hell Yes:
A modern rap song with swampy blues harmonica? Hell yes. I like the robot sounding vocals in this too. It's a real smooth song.

Broken Drum:
Another highlight of this album. A sad song, almost sounds like Sea Change, but it's not too much of a downer. The mood of this song is just amazing. The quiet piano with Beck's vocals over it, the slide guitar, and the simple drum beat are all perfect.

Scarecrow:
A blues song with a sing-along chorus. There's cool effects that sound like crows throughout the song too. Beck playing a harmonica is always a good thing.

Go it Alone:
You'd expect that Beck and Jack White would make a more exciting song than this. I don't think Jack had anything to do with the song other than the bass, but still. . . it's not the best song on the album. Another song with a "na-na-na-na" chorus. Jack White does play a good bass though.

Farewell Ride:
Another blues song with slide guitar that pulls you right in. The backing vocals on some parts remind me of "whiskeyclone" off Mellow Gold. It's a great song, but it's real different from the rest of the album so it might throw you off on first listen.

Rental Car:
A heavily distorted guitar riff starts the song off, but the verses have a more poppy sound. Not to say this song is a poppy song, because it's not. The best part of this song is easily when the music stopes and it switches to a woman singing "lalalalala. " In that sense it's like earlier Beck recordings. Kind of Diamond Bollocks - like. But not entirely.

Emergency Exit:
Another blues song, but with electronic sounds. Considering I always feel like skipping this song, it's probably not the best way to end the album, but it's alright. I'm probably beeing too harsh on this album. . . . It's a good song. It has an unexpected happy-sounding part somwhere towards the end.

And thus ends Guero. I was really expecting bonus noise at the end, like Mellow Gold, Odelay, Mutations, and Midnite Vultures, but there was none. Maybe that's the surprise this time. I suggest getting a copy that has "Send a Message To Her" and "Chain Reaction" because those are two solid songs that I'm surprised he didn't want on all the releases. Chain Reaction really does sound like the combination of Odelay and Guero, it's great.

So all in all, the highlights of this album are E-Pro, Girl, Earthquake Weather, Hell Yes, and Broken Drum. The rest are good, not great. Enough of a reason to buy a copy, in my opinion.

classic
It amazes me how something this original and this good didn't get more attention. I was not a huge fan of Midnight Vultures -- I don't seem to ever feel like playing it -- but almost everything else Beck has done has been genius, and this overlooked album is no exception. When I first got it I played it all the time, then I put it away for a few weeks and then had to start playing it all the time again. As the months/years go by, it's earning a place among the albums that will never grow old for me -- Abbey Road, SuperUnknown, Exile on Main Street, The Bends. Classics of all kinds. . . like Guero.

You can see a complete list of all Beck discography, or go back to the Beck tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.