Guero [Extra tracks]

It's quite understated (minimalist production, vocals low in the mix), so it takes a few plays to get under your skin - but once the individual songs register, it just keeps getting better. There's a slow burning groove to many of the tracks - it would make a great party album (assuming your party goers are old enough to look beyond the top 10).

The lasting impression is of subtly catchy tracks driven along by a slow-cooked mix of bass riffs, hand claps and finger snaps, overlaid with low key but tuneful vocals.

Some of the tracks rock (E-Pro, Rental Car), some have a old-timer county twang (Farewell Ride, Emergency Exit), others are almost pure rythmn (Black Tambourine), and Broken Drum is just beautiful, but with the possible exception of the final bonus track Chain Reaction they all stand - indeed develop with - repeated plays.

Highly recommended.

PS inspired by reviews of other Beck albums, I've since picked up the highly rated Sea Change album. It's a great if very different album (haunting breakup songs rather than grooves - Broken Drum would slot right in), but it doesn't diminish Guero. Ignore the nay-sayers; there's room for more than one style in an artist's pantheon, and Beck is talented enough to deliver across genres in spades - Guero is ace.

These changes in style continue throughout the album, but they blend so well together because they often maintain a strong rhythm. Missing sees Beck singing more clearly than ever before and the strong bossa nova rhythm is maintained throughout Missing, making the sparse funkiness of Black Tambourine seem a natural follow up. The Spanish sounds continue with Earthquake Weather which also melds hip hop and pop and Money Mark on the Organ.

The terse Hell Yes is funky, but is much simpler than the layered tracks of Midnite Vultures. Christina Ricci's Japanese vocals add charm. The album becomes quite subtle for the next few tracks, but doesn't dip in quality- the epic Broken Drum, the countrified and danceable Scarecrow, the toe tapping Go It Alone and the death march of Farewell Ride. A car engine starts up beginning Rental Car. It starts out quite rocky and then leads to it's amazing, somewhat baroque yeah, yeah, yeah chorus with clavinet. As if it could get no better, you hear Petra Haden's quirky and cheerful vocals. The track stops quite abruptly for the reflective and prayer- like Emergency Exit. The following two bonus tracks, Send A Message to Her and Chain Reaction are pretty different covering 60's pop and folk hop to anthemic bonus noise. Try to get a listen of Clap Hands, the weird hip- hop bonus track for Japan and the Guero DVD.

Guero is an album to enjoy and get a little bit lost in, an album to play to other people or in the car because it's exciting and interesting. The artwork by Marcel Dzama is good too. It might not be a good comparison for Guero, but try to imagine a radio that has overnight been possessed by sharks, Los Angeles, Japan, cowboys, ghosts both sad and happy, game boys, ice lollies and spacemen. Then when you turn it on in the morning you hear a variety that radio stations often promise. It's not like a Beck "best of", but it is very good.

Very highly recommended and, along with Kaiser Chiefs' "Employment", a likely candidate for "Album of the Year"