Customer Reviews

Mellow Gold

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mellow Gold is a very odd album. It contains very odd music as well as very odd lyrical material. In the hit song, 'Loser' Beck sings, "In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey." This pretty much gives the gist of the entire album. No song sounds the same yet they are all oddly similar.

Though Beck's signature sound comes along with the album, it is vastly different from any of his other material. It contains some very dark songs (Mother....., Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs), some light, happy songs (Pay No Mind, Nitemare Hippy Girl, Sweet Sunshine), and some just plain weird songs (Soul Suckin' Jerk). It's because of the musical diversity on the album that I like it so much.

So if you are a fan of Beck's latter material, namely Odelay, be wary in buying this album because though in my opinion it has some of his best material, the general public might think differently.

I must have played this album at least 50 times in the last 3 years its that good.Back in 1994 Beck was one of the most unusual and original songwriters around.There hasnt been a record written mostly about pure nonsense since Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart.Yep songs like Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs(my favorite song right now),Whiskey Clone Hotel City 1997 and even the radio friendly Loser have some pretty unusual lyrics.The vocals and music itself is also great to back it up.I wont write anymore because my fingers are getting sore so go out and buy this for yourself.

There's a fine line between stupidity and genius. That's what I think when I listen to this album. It's almost indescribable. Lyrically, half of it's absolutely crazy, which is intentional and part of the fun. Musically it's all over the place, somewhere between the "Beastie Boys" and "Neil Young". But all of these things are what make this so incredible. So many things in a blender still make a tasty treat. This is kind of THE essential "Beck" album really. It's kind of the middle ground between "Midnight Vultures" and the excellent "Sea Change", both of which came years later. I guess it's one of those things you just have to hear to believe.

v. v. dark, almost like a modernized chant in some songs with his low voice and scratchy guitar riffs. i love loser, i know so cliche but i have memorized almost every word its probably my fav. song, not only on the album....
buy this cd i am so serious.

this is beck right here. everything he was, is, and will be is on here. when i first heard loser i went out and got this album and my jaw hit the floor. i put this album on and by the time it was over i knew i had found something special. it shows beck doing all kinds of styles of music. and with amazing results. this album when it came out really (IMO) made everything else that was getting mtv airplay at the time look so damn plain. i just couldn't help thinking about why can't others artists do something like this. as the years have passed. i now know why cause most artists can't do something like this and get away with it (heck, most wouldn't even try. lol). an amazing album that while it might not be beck's best album it does show off all of his talents the best. and this alone makes it a classic. you can see right here what the future would hold for beck.
this is the best starting point for anybody interested in this guy.

Hang on loosley people...I know I'm going against the grain here, but hear me out...Simply put, if you are unsure if someone is your Soul mate; Buy them a copy of Mellow Gold...If your meant to be, the future will take care it's course (on the good foot)...This Album is THE Beck album to own! If you want to, go ahead and remove the Radio classic "Loser" altogether from the track listing and you still have a great Album. If your looking for unique songs to add to that perfect mix CD, this album is packed with Nuggets & Doozies such as "Pay No Mind", "Wiskeyclone", "Truck Drivin Neighbors Downstars"...that will blow listeners away and make her/him fall in love with you...Why do you ask? Because, this album is completely original, yet sounds familiar and like a old friend...(snooring...blacked out on your couch). And remember, The DJ is a Con Man

Okay, this is hard to say above, because I love all of Beck's music almost the same. But when I take all of his albums and Cd's and put them together... There is an addictive brilliance that goes into Mellow Gold. This album is all varied talent, encapsulated to perfection. With the exception of maybe 1 song.
In this album, the lyrics & music are so ever addictive. If you could only own one Beck album, get this one. It is sure to be your favorite.
Dirk-David Todd

Beck's first major label album is a mixed bag. It is all over the map, with his oddball experimentations with different styles of music, often within the same song. He also writes peculiar lyrics, which may have some deeper meaning, or then again may not. Not everything here works, at least to my ears. Of course, the album features his breakthrough hit, "Loser". That is the best song here, by far. This album is worth a listen, although Beck has done more consistant work since then.

With the success of Beck's masterpiece Odelay, many people took listen to this album; which shows definite promise for what's to come. But unlike Odelay and latter releases, this one has many flat-out bad songs. This is a very strange album to say the least. You can pretty much tell that just by reading the song titles. If you listen to Odelay before Mellow Gold, you will probably be a little let down with songs like "Soul Suckin Jerk" and "Steal My Body Home"; as they don't quite fit in with Beck's now prominent sound. Nevertheless, I will always cite "Loser" as his best song ever. And hidden gems like "Pay No Mind" and "Beercan" make this CD worthwhile and a must-have for every Beck fanatic out there. Here's an overview of each track:

1. Loser - 5/5 - suspicious lyrics and great guitar work easily make this the best Beck song available. I had not really noticed this song until Odelay came out; but I still found it better than anything on the 1996 album. The lyrics here are hilarious, yet they seem to be smart.

2. Pay No Mind (Snoozer) - 5/5 - this slow, acoustic gem is definitely my second favorite track on Mellow Gold. Again, the lyrics are out-there while still managing to be meaningful. The line 'give the finger to the rock n roll singer / as he's dancing upon your paycheck' is great. Awesome harmonica solo!

3. Fxckin' With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) - 3/5 - here's a song that is now uncharacteristic of Beck. I think he was trying to hard to fit in with that ill-mannered, vulgar crowd by using swear words. It's still pretty good though.

4. Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997 - 2/5 - the scratchy guitar and sedated sound that "Whiskeyclone" offers doesn't let it amount to much. It kind of blends all the aspects the three previous songs had; and therefore it comes out sounding weaker.

5. Soul Suckin Jerk - 1.5/5 - Beck tries too hard to make a straight-up hip-hop song here. It's very hard to "get into" this song, as it doesn't really grab hold of you. The hip-hop feel is very ineffectual as it comes off sounding like a rap version of "Loser".

6. Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat) - 2/5 - although the guitar featured in this song might be great, the lyrics are not. They are not well-rounded and don't attach themselves well to the music. It's really a hit-and-miss track.

7. Sweet Sunshine - 2.5/5 - the weird, echo-like lyric usage here is hard to enjoy. As with many of the other songs, the beat it good but the words are not. This may be a little better than tracks four through six, but it's still not great.

8. Beercan - 4/5 - with an approach similar to "Loser" (catchy, fast lyrics mixed with fun beats), "Beercan" becomes a hidden gem on the CD. If it weren't for the fact that "Loser" is so awesome, this song might've become more.

9. Steal My Body Home - 1.5/5 - this bad song (I say that lightly) just appears to be earlier songs slowed down to a crawl. It has no real beat, no guitar, and in turn becomes my least favorite song on the album. I don't know how you can enjoy this one.

10. Nitemare Hippy Girl - 3/5 - a more upbeat tempo make this song a lot more enjoyable than most. It has fun lyrics once again, and the music is tied to them very nicely. If it weren't so similar to the other good songs it might've been more likable, again.

11. Mutherfxker - 2.5/5 - this one is like "Steal My Body Home" and "Sweet Sunshine" put together. The chorus, 'everyone is out to get you, mutherfxker' is fun and actually sounds good (as it's weird). But it's a bit too short to be considered great.

12. Blackhole - 3/5 - this is a somewhat fitting end to the type of CD Mellow Gold is. It's enjoyable with a fun beat and acoustic guitar, but the lyrics here are actually weak compared to many of the other tracks. Still, like the whole album, it shows promise.

Although the video for "Loser" was rather popular on MTV, this entire album was greatly overlooked until the release of Odelay. And I cannot emphasize enough how average Mellow Gold is compared to his latter CDs; and how weak these songs are compared to classics like "Devil's Haircut", "Where It's At", "Beautiful Way", and even "Hotwax". With music crossing folk, hip-hop, rock, and acoustic guitar resonance, Mellow Gold will go down as a great beginning to the career of Beck. But it may be nothing more than just that. The bad songs don't clash well with the good ones. And consequently, Mellow Gold becomes only a must-have for the diehard Beck fanatics who can't get enough of his crazed, acoustic beats.

I enjoy artists like Beck. When he created this CD he clearly didn't care what was popular and what would sell. Instead, he did his own, often quirky, sometimes amusing, and nearly always enjoyable, thing. The range of styles is interesting. On this CD are elements of thrash ("Sweet Sunshine"), blues ("Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997" and "Pay no Mind", where he also sounds a bit like Dylan), progressive ("Blackhole"), and grunge ("Loser"). There are even hints of pop, hillbilly and folk. Beck chooses elements that fit his concept for a particular song and I suspect he cares little whether a particular listener likes or doesn't like a particular song.

I can see how some listeners might not like this CD. The styles are too broad for people with a narrow range of tastes, or for those whose definition of cutting edge music is limited to one genre. Beck has a relatively mellow style on this CD, as the title suggests, that might also put some listeners off. However, while the overall style is mellow, there are enough changeups in pace that this CD held my interest from beginning to end.

The lyrics owe more to blues than to pop or rock. Beck nearly always seems to want to tell a story or make a point. That doesn't mean the lyrics are sung in a blues style, only that Beck likes to have a purpose to his lyrics, which is a characteristic of blues. The only objection I have to the lyrics is personal, in that the CD I have is the explicit lyrics version, and I really didn't need the four-letter words to enjoy the music.

The music itself is wonderfully bizarre. The range and combination of instruments I can barely begin to guess at because Beck combines electronic effects with various combinations of instruments and frequently bizarre vocal effects to create a complex mix of sound that challenges my ability to decipher. Beck combines this mixture with the previously mentioned combination of styles to synthesize quirky, yet interesting sounds. For an example of what I'm talking about, listen to "Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)". The principal instrument in this song is an acoustic guitar, but the vocals range from a falsetto to a bass in a bizarre combination. This last song might have been something that Frank Zappa might have sung, though without the four-letter words.

Perhaps the best-known song on this CD is "Loser", which received a fair amount of video airplay on MTV and VH1. The video was every bit as experimental as the remainder of the CD is musically. With elements of grunge and no real plot or theme, the video is impressionistic, and has more of a theme than a story. However, given the range of music on this CD, do not judge the CD by "Loser", because it is the only song like it on the CD.

"Steal My Body Home" sounds like psychedelic rock. Cool song, very slow, interesting electronic effects. Turn on the black lights! I had to mention this song because I like its combination of retro-psychedelic sound with grunge and other elements. The next song is "Nightmare Hippy Girl", which seems to fit with the psychedelic song just previous, but the styling of "Nightmare Hippy Girl" is more folk-rock than psychedelic rock. Yet, it fits.

My favorite song is "Blackhole". The progressive elements have tinges of The Moody Blues from the time of "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" and "Seventh Sojourn", but of course Beck has made this in a style all his own. At about five and a half minutes into the song, the music stops, and when it restarts it is no longer music, it is a bizarre combination of sound effects a la King Crimson, but sped up and with a greater range. It sounds weird, but interesting.

This CD is so weird that it may be inaccessible to some listeners. However, it is exactly this wonderfully strange and weird music that drew me to progressive music in the first place. Beck is a music artist, experimenting to create the unusual. He certainly does that here. I recommend this CD to those who like music as art, particular for those who like mellow progressive rock.