Beck Guero [import]

4 stars out of 5 - "The rhythmic jolt makes the malaise more compelling and complex, with enough playful musical wit to hint at a next step....On GUERO, he finds a way to revitalize his musical imagination..."
Ranked #11 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2005" - "Los Angeles plays itself: the noise of traffic, boom boxes, curbside Spanglish, mariachi music -- the sound of what it's like to be an outcast even in an outsider's hood."
"[A] return to his most popular trick: digging up cool grooves and noises from far-flung neighborhoods and throwing a party where the whole city can get down and make out." - Grade:B
Ranked #2 in Entertainment Weekly's 'Top Ten Records of the Year' -- "[H]e's learned that kaleidoscopic music that digs deep into blues, bossa nova, and electro keeps everything marvelously grounded too."
"[GUERO] is the first record on which the many moods and sides of Beck co-exist, and it's about time." - Grade: A-
4 stars out of 5 - "Here, again, is where fat dusty beats meet keening bottleneck scrapes....As another installment in the guy's ongoing dialectics, it's as welcome as anything he's done."
5 out of 5 - "'Rental Car' has a dilapidated bass line that's White Stripes-worthy....And let's not overlook 'Hell Yes,' which brings Beck together with Neptunes-ish beats for a broken hip-hop revival. Long live the king of hip."
"Remarkably, the shifts in tone and mood only serve GUERO in the end, proof that stepping back to enjoy the broad picture can be just as rewarding as focusing on one detail at a time."
"[E]ssentially a sequel to his '96 sample-heavy opus."
3 stars out of 5 - "'Missing' with wistful melody, swooping Melody Nelson strings, beautifully minimal bass and bossa nova guitar, is a jewel that takes Beck's sonic kleptomania to a new realm."