The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 23, 2002, Page 11, Image 11
THE YEAR IN MUSIC: 1996
Album fuses genres with genius
Beck blends musical styles into a remarkable record
r
“ODELAY”
Beck
BY JUSTIN BAJAN
THE OAMECOCK
Uninformed music fans might
have thought of Beck as a one-hit
wonder with his funny but self
deprecating debut single,
“Loser,” off his 1994 album,
“Mellow Gold.” But the
California native released two
additional albums, “One Foot in
the Grave” and “Stereopathic
Soul Manure,” in the same year,
proving his work ethic and un
limited creativity.
Later, in 1996, Beck released
“Odelay,” a rampant but care
fully crafted collection of influ
ences, genres and witty compo
sitions. The album cements
Beck’s range and musical multi
ple-personality syndrome. The
album sounds as if Hank
Williams, the Beastie Boys and
Bob Dylan all collaborated —
with Beck assuming the role of
a Quincy Jones-like producer ex
traordinaire. And only Beck
could fuse punk, country, hip
hop, trip-hop, acid jazz, acid
rock, garage rock, folk and the
blues to create a perfectly coher
ent album.
Something that’s also re
markable about “Odelay” is
Beck’s cryptic and convoluted
lyrics, which could be figurative
or just babble. He says such
seemingly symbolic lines as
“Heads are hanging from the
garbage man trees” on “Devil’s
Haircut” and “I remembered the
way that you smiled, when the
gravity shackles were wild” on
“Jack-Ass.” But Beck’s lyrical
mysticism doesn’t take anything
away from his undeniable talent
and only further adds to his ge
nius.
“Odelay” is a musical pil
grimage that takes the listener
from the rustic “Hotwax” and
“Lord Only Knows” to rougher
works such as “Derelict” and
“Minus.” Beck continued on his
creative surge and has released
three more albums to date, but
none are as magnificently spo
radic as “Odelay.”
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
Rap group kept soul in hip-hop
The Roots took hip-hop beyond sampling and loops
“ILLADELPH HALFLIFE”
The Roots
BY CHARLES TOMLINSON
THE GAMECOCK
The Roots were a band that
took hip-hop in a new direction,
with live musicians who used in
struments to create a form of or
ganic hip-hop that strayed from
drum machines and samples.
While he played like a true
jazz drummer on previous al
bums, on “Illadelph Halflife,”
Questlove gave a more focused
performance and tightened his
timekeeping so much that he of
ten sounds like a loop. But he
played like a loop with soul, and
elements of a human touch re
mained in his playing, which
locked in perfectly with bassist
Hub’s low-end grooves.
Black Thought emceed inno
vatively, placing emphasis on
syllables not normally stressed,
such as the “al” at the end of
“universal.” The album is full
of clever turns of phrase, such
as when Malik B says, “Hip-hop
extravaganza/Tell your man I’ll
slump him with a stanza/Now
who’s the boss? Not Tony
Danza.”
The Roots commonly used
their songs to address social is
sues and violence in urban ar
eas, such as on “Episodes” and
“It Just Don’t Stop.”
The album closes with “The
Adventures in Wonderland,” a
disturbing, explicit spoken
word commentary b^ Ursula
Rucker about the plight of some
urban black females.
The'group isn’t all drama,
though. Scratch made an ap
pearance on one song and pro
vided light-hearted and occa
sionally hilarious vocal
turntable sounds. And “One
. Shine,” complete with a saxo
phone soloist, showed that the
Roots hadn’t abandoned jazz.
After “Dladelph Halflife,” the
Roots released another studio
album and have another re
lease coming out next year. The
group also released a live al
bum that showcases the band’s
ability to improvise and stretch
out its songs.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmaiLcom
Song
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
people think of such events, they
usually think about a coffeehouse
with soft music.
“I don’t like playing there. I
like rock ‘n’ roll like Bruce
Springsteen, Tom Petty—people
that don’t play coffeehouses,”
Davis said. “I like to see these mu
sicians strip down and not be
bored out of their mind. People get
a bad connotation when they hear
singer/songwriter night: that’s
not what we’re all about.”
This concert will be “more in
timate, ” he said. The crowd “gets
to be right there in front of you. ”
Hunt added: “It’s more of an in
timate approach to get in the minds
of the artists who are writing.”
Comments on this story?E-mail
gammxkmvceditor@hotmail.com
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
back to talking on IM all day, tak
ing beginning-level courses and
not having to worry about actual
ly getting a job in a little more
than a year. And I miss the love
ly convenience of the meal plan I
denounced this time last month.
But the bottom line is this: We
can’t let this place kill our joy.
Except for you Instant Messenger
people who like to delineate your
masochistic schedules; if you like
that kind of thing, go for it. But,
for the rest of you, if studying gets
i- " . ' -
too hard, and you can’t concen
trate, listen to a CD or go see a
movie, Don’t tell yourself, “I’ll
wait until Friday night, and then
it will be OK to have some fun.”
Even though it seems that your
responsibilities will pounce upon
you and eat you alive if you stop
even for a moment, everything will
be fine, and you’ll be saner in the
long run if you leave the books for a
little while, even during midterms.
Tomlinson is a third-year print
journalism student. His column
will run Wednesdays in The Mix.
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