Beck

Guero

Beck Hanson probably wouldn’t care to ever earn a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but if one were to compare him to anyone in it, it would be David Bowie. It’s not to say that Beck and Bowie have much to do with each other musically, but both artists have followed the same path of musical reinvention — abandoning easy recipes for success in favor for a more creative product — making upcoming albums refreshing and intriguing.

At least this was the case for Beck until his latest release, Guero.

Beck originally showed up on the radar with Mellow Gold, featuring its unforgettable “Loser” whose Kurt Cobain-esque refrain of “I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?” resonated with the disaffected early-90s youth. He followed up with an equally successful, if not equally sounding, Odelay! — co-produced with the prolific Dust Brothers — that was punctuated with a blender of musical styles that morphed into one all Beck’s own.

For all of his commercial success at that point, Beck rejected the possibility of grinding his wheels in the poppy formula of his first two albums and went on creative departure with his next three albums, each one unique enough in its composition and dissonance to make them important to only Beck’s most devoted fans and not so much to the mainstream culture.

But for whatever reason, Beck reeled in his past musical prescription, as well as the Dust Brothers, for Guero. The result is to be expected: A return to the Odelay!/Mellow Gold sound, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if Guero’s results weren’t so paltry. Aside from the opening “E-Pro” and the closing “Emergency Exit” — whose title sounds like a message of his intentions with the production of this throwback album — there isn’t a whole lot to keep fans from reaching for the skip button. A few gems interspersed here and there, such as angelic strains of “Hell Yes” aren’t enough to satisfy the devoted Beck groupies who’ve come to expect the unexpected, or the causal fan seeking the common denominator of an easy-listening pop-production.

Grade: C