‧三座葛莱美奖得主 音乐拼贴美学大师再现天马行空创意最新杰作
‧横扫全球经典专辑『O-de-lay』製作人Dust Brothers操刀 乐评集体盛赞「宛如精选辑一般精采」
‧加重吉他表现的首发单曲"E-Pro"前进Billboard现代摇滚榜TOP 2
告别了2002年心碎伤感的『Sea Change/沧海桑田』,「音乐拼贴美学大师」Beck/贝克带着乐迷期待已久的最新作品【Guero/迦耶罗】重返乐坛、再掀旋风,天马行空的展现他结合电子、民谣、灵魂、摇滚、蓝调、乡村、雷鬼、爵士、hip-hop、rap、funk…等丰富音乐元素的招牌搞怪创意。
’93年,Beck以风靡洛杉矶另类摇滚电台的单曲“Loser”引发各大主流唱片公司抢人大战,投效Geffen唱片后推出首张大碟『Mellow Gold/纯金』,入选滚石、Spin、Q等英美权威音乐杂志’94年度最佳专辑之列。’96年横扫全球乐坛专辑『O-de-lay/欧迪雷』赢得各方媒体如潮佳评,抱回葛莱美奖「最佳另类音乐演出」与「最佳摇滚男歌手」、全英音乐奖「最佳国际艺人」、MTV音乐录影带奖「最佳男艺人」等多项大奖。
’98年『Mutations/音乐新品种』再获葛莱美奖「最佳另类音乐演出」加冕。’99年『Midnite Vultures/午夜秃鹰』精采实验把玩草根与新潮的高反差音乐元素,滚石杂志继续奉上4颗星优评!2002年,纪录与女友分手心情的『Sea Change』,获滚石杂志五颗星盛讚为「Beck最棒的一张作品!」
最新大碟【Guero】(西班牙文原意为金髮的白人男孩),Beck与’96年大获全胜的『O-de-lay』专辑製作人Dust Brothers再度合作,处处可听见Beck新鲜怪诞的创意,乐评誉为宛如精选辑一般精采!专辑发行前夕,Beck还破天荒的选择五首新作,搭配美国福斯电视台当红影集「The O.C.」曝光,让乐迷抢先聆听。加重吉他表现的首支单曲“E-Pro”取样了Beastie Boys’的“So What’cha Want”鼓击节拍,突破视觉效果的MV绝对让人拍桉叫绝;有着写实东洛杉矶近郊街头噪音的“Que Onda Guero”注入墨西哥街头乐队的声响;特殊电玩音效带出轻快流畅、有着饱满和声的“Girl”。
融入森巴风味的“Missing”扬弃达达主义的虚无隐喻,直接唱出Beck最原始的感受;摇滚组合The White Stripes灵魂人物Jack White的贝斯演奏,为“Go It Alone”增添迷人风情;再加上尾声渗入trip-hop律动、让人耳目一新的“Emergency Exit”,【Guero】再一次证明了Beck是当代最具突破性创意的音乐玩家!
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Ever since his thrilling 1994 debut with Mellow Gold, each new Beck album was a genuine pop cultural event, since it was never clear which direction he would follow. Kicking off his career as equal parts noise-prankster, indie folkster, alt-rocker, and ironic rapper, he's gone to extremes, veering between garishly ironic party music to brooding heartbroken Baroque pop, and this unpredictability is a large part of his charm, since each album was distinct from the one before. That remains true with Guero, his eighth album (sixth if you don't count 1994's Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot in the Grave, which some don't), but the surprising thing here is that it sounds for all the world like a good, straight-ahead, garden-variety Beck album, which is something he'd never delivered prior to this 2005 release. In many ways, Guero is deliberately designed as a classicist Beck album, a return to the sound and aesthetic of his 1996 masterwork, Odelay. After all, he's reteamed with the producing team of the Dust Brothers, who are widely credited for the dense, sample-collage sound of Odelay, and the light, bright Guero stands in stark contrast to the lush melancholy of 2002's Sea Change while simultaneously bearing a knowing kinship to the sound that brought him his greatest critical and commercial success in the mid-'90s. This has all the trappings of being a cold, calculating maneuver, but the album never plays as crass. Instead, it sounds as if Beck, now a husband and father in his mid-thirties, is revisiting his older aesthetic and sensibility from a new perspective. The sound has remained essentially the same -- it's still a kaleidoscopic jumble of pop, hip-hop, and indie rock, with some Brazilian and electro touches thrown in -- but Beck is a hell of a lot calmer, never indulging in the lyrical or musical flights of fancy or the absurdism that made Mellow Gold and Odelay such giddy listens. He now operates with the skill and precision of a craftsman, never dumping too many ideas into one song, paring his words down to their essentials, mixing the record for a wider audience than just his friends. Consequently, Guero never is as surprising or enthralling as Odelay, but Beck is also not trying to be as wild and funny as he was a decade ago. He's shifted away from exaggerated wackiness -- which is good, since it wouldn't wear as well on a 34 year old as it would on a man a decade younger -- and concentrated on the record-making, winding up with a thoroughly enjoyable LP that sounds warm and familiar upon the first play and gets stronger with each spin. No, it's not a knockout, the way his first few records were, but it's a successful mature variation on Odelay, one that proves that Beck's sensibility will continue to reap rewards for him as he enters his second decade of recording.