Odelay (Deluxe Edition)

Beck was always the joker in the grunge pack. Where contemporaries like Nirvana and Soundgarden traded in soul-baring squalls of noise and po-faced metal, Beck never pretended to be anything more than an grinning musical thief, mixing folk pastiches, borrowed blues, junkyard noise and white boy rapping with an irreverence unheard of since the Fugs sung of dirty old men and killing for peace back in the late ’60s. It came as something of a surprise then, when the smug Silverlake hipster behind the infectious “Loser” released an album as sprawling and ambitious as Odelay. Though Beck’s much vaunted sense of humor is still in place, as evidenced by the absurdly incompetent raps of “Rock the Catskills” and the tongue-in-cheek stoner-lament of “Readymade,” the lush arrangements that underlie these snide jokes proved that Beck was, at last, hoping to be taken seriously as a musician. In all honesty, the bonus material here does little to add to the legend of Odelay. Though we're offered a wealth of celebrity remixes, dilapidated b-sides and off-kilter sonic experiments, most of this bonus material jars uncomfortably against the deliberately assembled sonic collages of Odelay proper. That being said, Odelay is still very much the masterpiece that it was touted as upon its release, and longtime fans will be delighted to be reminded of both the polished exuberance and rough squalor of Beck’s topsy-turvy musical creations.