Guero | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | March 29, 2005 | |||
Recorded | September 2003–August 2004 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 49:55 | |||
Label | Interscope | |||
Producer | ||||
Beck chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Guero | ||||
Guero is the ninth studio album by American musician Beck, released on March 29, 2005, by Interscope Records. It was produced with John King and Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers, who had worked with Beck on his 1996 album Odelay , [1] as well as Tony Hoffer. [2]
The album was promoted with the singles "E-Pro", "Girl", and "Hell Yes", and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. To date, it is Beck's highest-charting album and had sold over 868,000 copies in the United States as of July 2008. [3] It received positive reviews from critics.
Güero (pron. IPA ['wero]) means "blond" in Mexican Spanish, but can also refer to a light-skinned person. [4] MTV described the term as being "Mexican slang for a blond-haired, fair-skinned Caucasian". [5]
Beck was raised in a prominently Chicano area of Los Angeles. [6] In an interview with ABC's Nightline , Beck said the term "guero" was "something that I'd hear growing up. Something I'd hear on the street, walking to school or something, I'd get called a 'Guero'. ... It's just a word that stuck in my head and I wanted to do something with that at some point. ... I ended up, in the end, just kind of doing this almost journalistic kind of look at that whole time." [1]
The title of track 2, "Qué Onda Guero" (or "¿Qué onda, güero?"), is Mexican slang for "what up, whitey?" [5]
The album was recorded over a period of nine months, following a year and a half of touring in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. [1] Several other events contributed to the writing of the songs, including the death of Beck's friend Elliott Smith and Beck's impending child with wife Marissa Ribisi. [1] The song "Broken Drum" is dedicated to Smith. More than 15 songs were considered for the final running order of the album. [2]
"Hell Yes" features spoken contributions from Christina Ricci, who happened to be in the studio at the time of recording. Beck and the Dust Brothers had spent weeks auditioning sushi waitresses around Los Angeles but chose Ricci after she "tried it and just absolutely nailed it". She is credited as "Kurisuti-na" in the album's liner notes. [7]
Jack White of the White Stripes plays bass on "Go It Alone". Money Mark, solo artist and keyboardist for the Beastie Boys, plays the organ on "Earthquake Weather". Petra Haden, formerly of That Dog and the Rentals, provides an intricate backing vocal track for "Rental Car".
Guero was initially intended to be released on October 26, 2004, but was pushed back, due to delays with the artwork, mixing and music videos. [2] An unmixed and un-mastered version of the album was leaked in January 2005, under the title Ubiquitous. The track listing differed slightly from the officially announced track listing of Guero. [5] On February 1, Beck released the Hell Yes EP on iTunes, which included remixes of the title track and "Que Onda Guero" by 8-bit and "E-Pro" and "Girl" by Paza. [8] On March 10, five songs from the forthcoming album were featured in an episode of The O.C. [6] [1]
Guero was released on March 29. [9] The album was released simultaneously in three formats: a standard 13-track CD, PlayStation Portable UMD [ citation needed ] and a deluxe CD/DVD edition. The latter featured seven bonus tracks, a surround sound mix and interactive video art for each song. [10]
Later in 2005, Beck released an album of Guero remixes called Guerolito , featuring remixes by Boards of Canada, Octet, the Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock and the Dust Brothers' John King. [11]
"Black Tambourine" was featured in the David Lynch film Inland Empire , the trailer for the film (500) Days of Summer , and episode 22 of season 4 of The Good Wife , as well as the 2006 video game Lumines II , and the video game Driver: San Francisco . "Farewell Ride" was featured in FX trailers promoting the final season of The Shield .
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 78/100 [12] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [13] |
Blender | [14] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [15] |
The Guardian | [16] |
The Independent | [17] |
NME | 8/10 [18] |
Pitchfork | 6.6/10 [19] |
Q | [20] |
Rolling Stone | [21] |
Spin | B [22] |
Guero debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 2, marking Beck's best chart performance to date, and sold 162,000 copies in its first week. [23] It was certified gold by the RIAA on June 7, 2005. [24]
Guero received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic it has a score of 78 out of 100, based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [12] Several critics compared the album to Beck's 1996 album Odelay , [19] [17] [16] while others observed that such comparisons were inevitable but ultimately misguided. [21] [15]
Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called the album "the first record since Odelay where Beck mixes up the medicine the way he did in his Nineties prime". Contrasting the album with the "wiseass charisma" of his early albums, Sheffield noted that Beck now sounded "like an extremely bummed-out dude who made it to the future and discovered he hates it there." [21] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly called Guero "alive and frisky" when compared to its predecessor, Sea Change (2002), and called it Beck's "most inviting, least off-putting work in years", praising its "slightly broader emotional range". Browne stated that the album felt "simultaneously familiar and new" and was "the first record on which the many moods and sides of Beck coexist". [15] Andy Gill of The Independent observed that "Beck darts around the musical map like an animated flea," and praised the album's "judicious blends of beats, riffs, songs and raps spiralling off in a variety of directions". Gill highlighted the song "Missing" and its "reflections on the essential patchwork incompleteness of life", comparing it to Beck's work on the whole, "which typically makes unorthodox wholes from diverse fragments." [17]
Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork gave the album a mixed review and compared the album extensively to Odelay, stating, "one wonders whether Mr. Hansen's heart is in the proceedings, as many of the songs appear to be little more than weak echoes of their similar predecessors". Mitchum concluded that "the final result feels rote and calculated." [19]
The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [25]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "E-Pro" | Beck Hansen, Dust Brothers, Beastie Boys | 3:22 |
2. | "Qué Onda Guero" | Hansen, Dust Brothers | 3:29 |
3. | "Girl" | Hansen, Dust Brothers | 3:30 |
4. | "Missing" | Hansen, Dust Brothers, Vinicius de Moraes, Carlos Lyra | 4:44 |
5. | "Black Tambourine" | Hansen, Dust Brothers, Eugene Blacknell | 2:46 |
6. | "Earthquake Weather" | Hansen, Dust Brothers, Slave | 4:26 |
7. | "Hell Yes" | Hansen, Dust Brothers | 3:18 |
8. | "Broken Drum" | Hansen | 4:30 |
9. | "Scarecrow" | Hansen, Dust Brothers | 4:16 |
10. | "Go It Alone" | Hansen, Dust Brothers, Jack White | 4:09 |
11. | "Farewell Ride" | Hansen | 4:19 |
12. | "Rental Car" | Hansen, Dust Brothers | 3:05 |
13. | "Emergency Exit" | Hansen, Dust Brothers | 4:01 |
Total length: | 49:55 |
No. | Title | Notes | Length |
---|---|---|---|
14. | "Send a Message to Her" | Also on UK, Australian, Russian releases and Japanese tour edition | 4:31 |
15. | "Chain Reaction" | Also on UK release and Japanese tour edition | 3:30 |
16. | "Clap Hands" | Also on Japanese tour edition | 3:18 |
17. | "Girl" (Remix) | Remixed by Octet | 3:54 |
18. | "Broken Drum" (Remix) | Remixed by Boards of Canada | 5:39 |
19. | "Still Missing" | "Missing" remix by Röyksopp | 4:58 |
20. | "Fax Machine Anthem" | "Hell Yes" remix by Dizzee Rascal | 3:07 |
Sample credits
Song | Sample | Artist |
---|---|---|
"E-Pro" | "So What'cha Want" | Beastie Boys |
"Missing" | "Você e Eu" | Claus Ogerman and His Orchestra |
"Black Tambourine" | "We Know We Gotta Live Together" | Eugene Blacknell & The New Breed |
"Earthquake Weather" | "What It Is?" | The Temptations |
"Coming Soon", "Just Freak" | Slave | |
"Hell Yes" | "Far East Mississippi" | The Ohio Players |
"Under the Influence of Love" | Love Unlimited | |
"Go It Alone" | "Outside Love" | Brethren |
Musicians
Technical
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [44] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Japan (RIAJ) [45] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [46] | Silver | 60,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [47] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Beck David Hansen, known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide-ranging genres. He has musically encompassed folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronica, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 14 studio albums, as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.
Odelay is the fifth studio album by American musician Beck, released on June 18, 1996, by DGC Records. The album featured several successful singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard 200. As of July 2008, the album had sold 2.3 million copies in the United States, making Odelay Beck's most successful album to date. Since its release, the album has appeared in numerous publications' lists of the greatest of the 1990s and of all time.
Midnite Vultures is the seventh studio album by American musician Beck, released on November 16, 1999, by DGC Records. While similar to most of Beck's previous albums in its exploration of widely varying styles, it did not achieve the same blockbuster success as his breakthrough album Odelay, but was still critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
Mutations is the sixth studio album by the American songwriter Beck, released on November 3, 1998, by DGC Records. Though less commercially successful than the preceding Odelay, it won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Sea Change is the eighth studio album by American musician Beck, released on September 24, 2002, by Geffen Records. Recorded over a two-month period in Los Angeles with producer Nigel Godrich, the album features themes of heartbreak and desolation, solitude, and loneliness. For the album, much of Beck's trademark cryptic and ironic lyrics were replaced by simpler, more sincere lyrics. He also eschewed the heavy sampling of his previous albums for live instrumentation. Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album.
The Globe Sessions is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, released on September 21, 1998, in the United Kingdom and September 29, 1998, in the United States, then re-released in 1999. It was nominated for Album of the Year, Best Rock Album and Best Engineered Non-Classical Album at the 1999 Grammys, winning the latter two awards. The Globe Sessions reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, while peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart, achieving US sales of two million as of January 2008. The album was recorded at and named for the sessions recorded at Globe Recording Studio in New York owned by Robert FitzSimons and Tracey Loggia.
Devils & Dust is the thirteenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and his third acoustic album. It was released on April 25, 2005, in Europe and the following day in the United States, where it debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 album chart.
Never Gone is the fifth studio album released by American vocal group Backstreet Boys as the follow-up to their fourth studio album Black & Blue (2000), after a short hiatus. Never Gone was originally due for release in 2004, but the release date for the album was pushed to June 14, 2005, for unknown reasons.
Lost and Found is the fourth studio album by American actor and rapper Will Smith, and his latest one to date. It was released on March 29, 2005, by Interscope Records. The album reached number 6 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, making this Smith's third overall top ten album following Willennium in 1999 and his second gold-selling album following Born to Reign in 2002. The album also reached the top 20 on the UK Albums Chart. "Switch" and "Party Starter" were released as singles.
Bridges to Babylon is the twenty-first studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released by Virgin Records on 29 September 1997. Released as a double album on vinyl and as a single CD, it was supported by the year-long worldwide Bridges to Babylon Tour that was met with much success.
Blaze of Glory is the debut solo studio album by Jon Bon Jovi, the frontman of Bon Jovi. The album was released on August 7, 1990, through Mercury Records. It includes songs from and inspired by the movie Young Guns II. Emilio Estevez originally approached Bon Jovi to ask him for permission to include the song "Wanted Dead or Alive" on the soundtrack.
Born to Reign is the third studio album released by American actor and rapper Will Smith. The album was released on Columbia Records in the United States on June 25, 2002 and was considered a drop from his previous level of success, having only reached Gold status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), whereas Big Willie Style and Willennium both reached multi-platinum status. This album includes "Black Suits Comin'", which was also the lead single from the original motion picture soundtrack of Men in Black II. The album also spawned the European hit single "1000 Kisses", which features vocals from Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
The Information is the tenth studio album by American musician Beck, released on October 3, 2006 by Interscope Records. It was produced and mixed by Nigel Godrich, with whom Beck recorded Mutations (1998) and Sea Change (2002). Recording took place from 2003 to 2006, with Beck concurrently working on 2005's Guero with the Dust Brothers. The album received positive reviews from critics and made several publications' year-end lists.
The discography of Beck, an American rock musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist, consists of 14 studio albums, one compilation album, one remix album, four extended plays (EPs) and 52 singles. With a pop art collage of musical styles, oblique and ironic lyrics, and postmodern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being amongst the most creative and idiosyncratic musicians of 1990s and 2000s alternative rock.
Frantic is the eleventh studio album by English singer Bryan Ferry, released on 15 April 2002 by Virgin Records. The majority of tracks were produced by the team of Rhett Davies, Colin Good, and Ferry; David A. Stewart and Robin Trower also co-produced several tracks.
Modern Guilt is the eleventh studio album by American musician Beck, released in 2008 by both DGC Records and XL Recordings. The album was produced by Beck and Danger Mouse and features two contributions by Cat Power.
Dust Bowl is the ninth studio album by blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa. It was released worldwide on March 22, 2011. The cover art is based on a famous 1936 photograph by Arthur Rothstein.
Morning Phase is the twelfth studio album by American singer Beck. The album was released in February 2014 by his new label, Capitol Records. According to a press release, Morning Phase is a "companion piece" to Beck's 2002 album Sea Change. Almost every credited musician who recorded parts for Sea Change returned to record for Morning Phase, with the sole exception being Sea Change producer Nigel Godrich.
Origins Vol. 1 is the fifth studio album by American guitarist Ace Frehley, released on April 13, 2016 in Japan and April 15 in the United States. It is a covers album which features guest appearances from Slash, Lita Ford, John 5, Mike McCready, and Frehley's former Kiss bandmate Paul Stanley. The album was announced on February 11, 2016.
Roll with the Punches is the 37th studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on 22 September 2017 by Caroline Records. It features Jeff Beck on guitar, and charted in the Top 10 in five countries, and the Top 40 in a further six, including the US.