When Guero ends, we don’t know this elusive man-child any better than we once did. But we have a lot more fun than we’ve had in a while trying to figure him out.
This isn't to say that it's a disappointment. Far from it. In fact, it's probably best that the album we've been waiting so long to hear is as safe as Guero is. At this point we just want our Beck, and Guero is as Beck as Beck can be.
Beck has reined in the slick showboating and rediscovered his sense of playfulness and a tender sophistication. And for all the genre-crossing bed hopping on display, Guero is an uncontrived, understated pleasure. To those that pay attention, it will more than suffice.
In many ways, Guero is deliberately designed as a classicist Beck album, a return to the sound and aesthetic of his 1996 masterwork, Odelay.
'Guero' represents a very clever man being clever enough to recognise what he's good at.
Guero's easy, confident flow makes it easy to underrate but, despite his reputation as a slacker, Beck's biggest weakness has always been trying too hard. It's good to hear him so happy in his own clothes.
A mouth-watering feast of beats and grooves ... as welcome as anything he's done.
Whether intentional or not, the cool and collected Guero is an album that understands, and tries to spare us, that kind of humiliation.
It remains a very good album, but you always get that sense that he's always just one chord progression away from greatness this time around.
While it lacks the churn or drama of his earlier work or the dour intensity of Sea Change, it’s an album remarkable in its consistent, pleasant above-averageness, punctuated by bursts of true genius.
On one level, Guero is the quintessential Beck album, incorporating aspects of everything he's done ... Yet in tone these songs all carry with them the heaviness of Sea Change.
I’m not going to fault Guero for it’s sequencing—Beck albums have never been laid out well—but it’s the pure rehashing that is inexcusable.
I actually see Guero as an understated classic in the Beck catalog, and one of my personal favorites of his discography. After the stellar and stunning Sea Change Beck took a step back from writing, largely due to the fact that he lost a collection of mixtapes demos he kept in a suitcase. By the time he returned to the studio it seemed his melancholic state had started to fade, especially now married and with a son. With that new mood, Beck could go back to his experimentation.
Guero is often ... read more
Finally, an outstanding Beck album!
So, I really want to like Beck's music. I've been trying since 2018, but, it just never fully happens. Every single one of the albums I've heard of his have one fundamentally big problem, either they're (in order of release): too weird, too hippie, too 'just ok', or too generic. Going into "Guero", I literally expected nothing, I was just hesitant about going deeper into Beck's discography because in many ways I just felt whatever was next would ... read more
One of Beck's more overlooked albums, especially when talking about their discography as a whole and I see why as it sees the band more towards a more pop oriented soundand many would argue the weaker era of Beck but for me, I love this change of sound from the folk driven Sea Change, with strong emphasis on Trip Hop makes for some catchy, mellow and warm music with strong instrumentations and an overall interesting sound which pulls you in, Guero is an interesting and dynamic shift for ... read more
Guero was my top 1 favorite album in 2020, looking back, it still has bangers, but some songs here are just dull and boring.
Best tracks: E-Pro, Hell Yes
Worst track: Broken Drum
Guero sounds like a return to the sound of albums like Mellow Gold & Odelay and it's great even if it is frontloaded.
Edit (Original Score 83): This album feels a bit lackluster in emotional depth compared to the previous albums even if it's still a fun ride.
1 | E-Pro 3:22 | 94 |
2 | Qué Onda Guero 3:29 | 93 |
3 | Girl 3:29 | 93 |
4 | Missing 4:43 | 88 |
5 | Black Tambourine 2:47 | 83 |
6 | Earthquake Weather 4:26 | 87 |
7 | Hell Yes 3:17 | 85 |
8 | Broken Drum 4:29 | 87 |
9 | Scarecrow 4:15 | 85 |
10 | Go It Alone 4:08 | 85 |
11 | Farewell Ride 4:18 | 86 |
12 | Rental Car 3:06 | 82 |
13 | Emergency Exit 4:01 | 86 |
#7 | / | Rolling Stone |
#11 | / | SPIN |
#35 | / | No Ripcord |