Beck is famous for genre-hopping and Guero features some good examples of why the reputation is well-deserved; Girl is like a mashup of Outkast's Hey Ya and some indeterminate era of California Sunshine Pop. Pleasant, but dispensable.
Missing immediately conjures Atonio Carlos Jobim's Stone Flower, proving that Beck is indeed prone to bossa nova excursions. It would be a pretty good track but let's face it - Beck's voice is no match for Jobim himself or or any of the other tropicalia originals.
Guero features some fairly uninspired tracks that might have been safely edited from the album. Black Tambourine and Earthquake Weather are among them, although the latter admittedly features a pretty beautiful chorus melody. If only it didn't suffer from some wickedly outdated beats and scratches.
The album has some strengths too including Hell Yes which features a double hit of pleasure - an infectious vocoder chorus and the always sexy voice of Christina Ricci, how can you go wrong with a combination like that?
The album winds its way through some slide guitar/Bon Jovi rock n roll outlaw moments (didn't Beck work that earnest folk-blues schtick out of his system when he did that album on K?) and lots more extremely stale "funky" beats that would breakup most any dancefloor.
I guess if you love Beck you should check this out, myself I'm mildly puzzled; although, as I previously pointed out, I've never really been a Beck fan or even listener, I expected something grander – I guess it's just that the things I have heard about Beck's career have always caused me to have a certain respect for his chameleonic ways.
