Beck: Guero [INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

This edition comes in a gatefold jacket on 140g vinyl. Guero debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, Beck's highest-charting album, and sold over 868,000 copies in the US.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• 140g vinyl

About the album

Growing up in a largely Chicano part of Los Angeles, Beck heard the word "güero" (Mexican slang for a fair-haired, light-skinned kid) shouted his way on the walk to school. Years later it became the title of an album that looks back at that neighbourhood, and the record that reunited him with John King and Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers, the team behind Odelay.

They made it over nine months at The Boat in Silver Lake. "E-Pro" kicks in with a crunching riff and a nod to the Beastie Boys, "Qué Onda Guero" is a street-corner snapshot, "Girl" hides a dark lyric inside a chirpy 8-bit pop song, and "Hell Yes" features spoken lines from Christina Ricci, who happened to be in the studio. Jack White plays bass on "Go It Alone," and "Broken Drum," made with Tony Hoffer, is a gentle tribute to Beck's friend Elliott Smith.

More than 15 songs were in the running for the final sequence, and Guero still feels like a party mix with a lot on its mind. The Dust Brothers reportedly auditioned sushi waitresses across Los Angeles for "Hell Yes" before Ricci walked in, which is one way to spend a recording budget.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Interscope (cat# B0025356-01), a reissue of the 2005 album.