Mellow Gold

great item

Absolutely the best Beck album I know of, in my opinion. If you're new to Beck and want to experience a broad spectrum of his versatility then this album is for you. There are some haunting toe tappers on this one. If you like Beck AND have a twisted sense of humor, this album might speak to you on a much deeper level than some of his other albums have/will. Don't get me wrong, I like Beck's other albums too but this one is really dark and heartfelt from a sicko genius standpoint. I would label this album "Brilliant!" and "A must own" for any Beck fan.

I love Beck's music - Odelay and Guero being among my top ten all-time albums - but I did not realize when I purchased Mellow Gold that it contained the wonderful grunge, hip, pop music that I loved from the early 90s. "I'm a Loser, Baby, so why don't you kill me," and "Quit my job blowing leaves..." had never lost their place in my memory treasures and now I know where these wonderful songs came from!

the dugital i recieved was good however when i recieved the CD, it eas damaged by the music distributor. for that i can only give a 4 star rating.

I'm not a big fan of artists that rely on sampling to create their music, but Beck isn't relying on it for lack of creativity. He truly evolves the art of sampling and transforms it into something new. It is particularly impressive how he blends numerous styles that would at first seem conflicting, but he combines them in such a way as to be undeniably successful.

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 love this disc since the First time I heard it, in 1994; my review is not unbiased!

Classic album from the early 90s and great example of the Alternative rock phenomenon of the day. Beck was on the top of his game with this album.