Beck back with 'Guero'

While most everyone has a tale of heartbreak, few have articulated it as Beck did on 2002's Sea Change. Presented in breezy acoustic arrangements and worn-out vocals, Beck's look at his breakup with a longtime girlfriend saw the eternally-choirboy-looking recording artist extremely bummed, bringing about such melancholic triumphs of abandonment and failure as "The Golden Age" and "Lost Cause."\nGuero (translation: "White Boy") finds Beck feeling like his old self once again. The album lacks the inspiration and heartfelt testimonial soul of Sea Change, but his self-styled funk -- funky as three-day-old underpants -- makes up for this thanks to the production of the Dust Brothers, co-producers of one of Beck's most adored albums, 1996's Odelay. \nThe first half of Guero begins on an Odelay-ish note, immediately launching into raucously loud guitars and a Beastie Boys-sampled beat on the single "E-Pro." In "Qué Onda Guero" ("Where You Going, White Boy?"), Beck raps in Spanglish during a catchy loop of car horns and L.A. barrio street banter. I took to it immediately, if for no other reason because of its striking similarity to Control Machete's theme "Si Señor" from the Mexican film "Amores Perros."\nOf course, Beck's knack for gathering and absorbing ideas from those around him has always been his appeal -- each Beck album is a study and homage to a different style. During a time when no one in real life likes country AND hip-hop, he is especially adept at mish-mashing genres, fusing horndog junk-funk, pickup truck twang, Southern blues, rhyming dance party anthems and, this time around, gringo Latin flavor.\nI was surprised to hear Beck play the Guess Who's "American Woman" guitar riff in between the heavy bass-backed, '60s-psychedelia groove and tambourine crunch of "Black Tambourine." Four songs later, a folkified "Billie Jean" beat is the backbone to "Scarecrow," a paranoid stoner's walkabout.\n"Broken Drum" is the only song that comes close at all to being mistaken for a Sea Change B-side. In "Go It Alone," Jack White of the famously bass-less White Stripes shows up on bass. "Girl" is easily a sunny day, windows down hit. \nIn the same way that new R.E.M. albums sound more or less like the older ones, this album is essentially classic Beck with a few highlights. Guero is an album for the true Beck-head.