Mellow Gold Belleville IL

Mellow Gold

Beck

DGC Records, 1994

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/19/1997

It has been a tough few days here at "The Daily Vault."On Wednesday, I forgot to build the hyperlink on the home page for that day's review. Yesterday, I slipped and forgot to change the date on the Body Count review.

And now, to top it off, I choose an album that defies a typical review - Beck's Mellow Gold. Whatever was I smoking this week?

Beck Hansen rose to fame with the surprise hit of 1994, the slacker anthem "Loser." Through what sounds like non sequitur ramblings passing for vocals and a hypnotic chorus, Beck captured the attention of the alternative world and set it on its ear. The release of Mellow Gold was one of the most anticipated of the year.

And when I first listened to this album three years ago, I was disillusioned. There was little I heard to demonstrate that "Loser" was not a one-off fluke hit. So, away went the tape into the Pierce Memorial Archives (sorry, no vacancy) and was forgotten.