Beck has done it again. First there was "Loser," some two and half years ago, but it verged on novelty. You thought he was just lucky to lay down a slide guitar monster groove. But nooo! Beck Hansen has polished his craft on Odelay coming out punching like a round 15 Sylvester Stallone on "Devil's Haircut"-- a monster groove revisited. This albums presents hip-hop as a fine art, just one listen to "The New Pollution" and you see the dance, the trippy-ness and the cute-ness coalescing into hip pop.

Using the studio as an instrument, Beck (who graciously acknowledges source material such as the sample from Mantronix in "Where It's At") makes a flowing rhythmic tapestry with his off-kilter personality and bemused lyrical style stiching it together. He would be like Dylan, a self-confessed 'song and dance' man, but he dances and sings better (tossing in some Prince - while we are still in Minnesota). But on the other hand, he plays with DJ's and producers like the Dust Brothers and the music is about appropriation and re-deployment of the tried and true genres of Folk, Pop, Funk, Soul and Delta Blues. It's hard to do it all but Beck Hansen is making a run for the roses.

Like his peers the Beastie Boys, Beck has raised the ante in the sampling game, turning bits and pastiches of lost tracks into a research and assemblage process that easily ranks with cut outs, found objects, and dada as a creative use of things. Fact of the matter is, most of that early century found object art didn't retain its appeal with repetition the way these well crafted songs will. Odelay is full of daring yet catchy hooks. Early single "Devil's Haircut" veers dangerously off its verse and chorus to offer a half minute detour into some favorable chaos. This cd will get you up to speed on the nineties music scene. On the country style "Lord Only Knows" Beck admonishes "Put your skeletons in jail," over a carefree pop groove embellished with some suave stylings on the slide guitar.

The cd art proclaims "Je suis un revolutionaire" a statement of a troubador folkie singing "Odelay" over his mellow beats. A legend in the making.