Artist(s):         Beck
Album:             Odelay (Deluxe Edition)
Label:             Original Recordings Group
Label Info:        ORG 010
Media Info:        4LP-Set - 180g
Mastered by:       Chris Bellman @ Grundman Mastering, Hollwoood
Thanks to:         aksman
Kind:              Vinyl 24-Bit/96kHz
Sound:             Stereo
Genre:             Alternative Rock
Year:              1996
Artwork:           Yes
Media Fileformat:  .flac
Download Size:     3300 Mb



Allmusic.com rating: 5 / 5

Like a mosaic, all the details add up to a picture greater than its parts, so while some of Beck's best songs are here, Odelay is best appreciated as a recorded whole, with each layered sample enhancing the allusion that came before.

Odelay is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock artist Beck, originally released on June 18, 1996 by Geffen Records. After the mainstream success of "Loser", Odelay featured several hit singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution". The album peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200 chart and eventually sold over 2 million copies in the United States. It was also Beck's first hit album in the United Kingdom, making #17; it has since gone platinum in the UK.

Musical style
The sessions for what would become Odelay originally began as a subdued, acoustic affair. In 1994, Beck started to record tracks for his follow-up to Mellow Gold with Bong Load producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. Hansen had recently experienced a number of personal tragedies (including the death of his grandfather, Al Hansen), and the tone of the songs as well as their production were considerably somber. Only a handful of tracks from these sessions have been released: "Ramshackle", "Feather in Your Cap", and "Brother". All three of these songs are acoustic, sparse, and melancholic, and have a haunting sound very different from the more upbeat, "party" style of Odelay. Beck would eventually return to this downbeat style with his 1998 album, Mutations.

He would eventually abandon work with Rothrock and Schnapf, opting to work with the Dust Brothers instead. The Dust Brothers' production style was notably more upbeat and hip-hop-focused; their résumé included work with The Beastie Boys and Tone Loc.

Title and artwork
The title is a phonetic English rendering of the Mexican slang interjection "órale." The phrase "odelay" is repeated in the lyrics during the outro of the song "Lord Only Knows".

The album's unusual cover photo, which has been misinterpreted as a mop head jumping over a hurdle, is actually a real photo of a Komondor, a rare Hungarian breed of dog with thick matted hair. The image was chosen at the last minute after Beck failed to decide on an album cover. The image was presented to him by his girlfriend and was chosen almost out of desperation. The typeface was chosen by a record company worker.

Reception
Odelay won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1997, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Where It's At'. It was ranked 16 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, and also in the NME's annual critics poll. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Odelay the 51st greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 305 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Voters in Channel 4's 2005 "100 Greatest Albums" poll placed it at number 73. The music website Pitchfork Media ranked it at #19 on their top 100 albums of the 1990s.

Track listing
Side A
"Devils Haircut" - 3:15
"Hotwax" - 3:49
"Lord Only Knows" - 4:15
"The New Pollution" - 3:39

Side B
"Derelict" - 4:13
"Novacane" - 4:37
"Jack-Ass" - 4:12
"Where It's At" - 5:30

Side C
"Minus" - 2:32
"Sissyneck" - 3:57
"Readymade" - 2:37
"High 5 (Rock the Catskills)" - 4:11
"Ramshackle" - 4:47

Side D
"Deadweight" - 6:12
"Inferno" (previously unreleased) - 7:03
"Gold Chains" (previously unreleased) - 4:59

Suide E
"Where It's At" (U.N.K.L.E. remix) - 12:26
"Richard's Hairpiece" (remix by Aphex Twin) - 3:19
"American Wasteland" (remix by Mickey P.) - 2:42

Side F
"Clock" - 3:17
"Thunderpeel" - 2:40
Different version than the one on Stereopathetic Soulmanure.
"Electric Music and the Summer People" - 4:38
"Lemonade" - 2:21

Side G
"SA-5" - 1:53
"Feather in Your Cap" - 3:46
"Erase the Sun" - 2:56
Sped up from the originally released length of 3:16.
"000.000" - 5:25
"Brother" - 4:47

Side H
"Devil Got My Woman" - 4:34
"Trouble All My Days" - 2:25
"Strange Invitation" - 4:06
"Burro" - 3:13

Personnel
Beck – organ, acoustic guitar, bass, harmonica, percussion, celeste, drums, electric guitar, keyboards, electric piano, vocals, clavinet, producer, slide guitar, art direction, design, mixing
Mike Boito – organ, trumpet
Mario Caldato, Jr. – producer, mixing
Charlie Haden – bass
Greg Leisz – pedal steel
Bob Ludwig – mastering, photography
Mike Millius – screams
Brian Paulson – producer, mixing
Tom Rothrock – producer, mixing
Rob Schnapf – producer, mixing
Joey Waronker – percussion, drums
Dust Brothers – producer, mixing
Robert Fisher – art direction, design
Nitin Vadukul – photography
Zarim Osborn – artwork, collage
Al Hansen – artwork, collage
Shauna O'Brien – coordination, production coordination
Manuel Ocampo – artwork, paintings, collage
David Brown – saxophone
Ross Harris (The Enchanting Wizard of Rhythm)
David Campbell - arranger

Professional ratings
Pitchfork Media (1996) (9.8/10)
Pitchfork Media (8.5/10) Deluxe Edition
Allmusic 5 / 5 Stars
Slant Magazine 5 / 5 Stars
The Austin Chronicle 4 / 5 Stars
Robert Christgau (A-)
RS Album Guide 5 / 5 Stars
Rolling Stone 5 /5 Stars Deluxe Edition



Technical Log
RCM Hannl 'limited' with "Rotating Brush"
Music Hall MMF 9.1 Turntable
Tonearm: Pro-Ject 9cc evo with Pure Silver Wires
Cartridge: Nagaoka MP-500
Brocksieper Phonomax (Tube Phono PreAmp)
E-MU 0404 external USB 2.0 Audiointerface
Interconnections : Silent Wire NF5
WaveLab 6 recording software
iZotope RX Advanced 1.21 for resampling and dithering

Vacuum cleaning > TT > Brocksieper Phonomax > E-MU 0404 > WaveLab 6 (24/192) > manual click removal > analyze (no clipping, no DC Bias offset) > converted to 24/96 (16/44.1) with iZotope RX Advanced 1.21 > split into individual Tracks > FLAC encoded (Vers. 1.21)

No silence been removed, please burn gapless to match original tracklayout.

Personal Note
With my vinyl transfers, I try to catch the whole beauty of vinyl records; therefore I don't use any post-processing or any sound improvement. What you get is a clear and flat transfer. For getting a clear sound, I'll do an extended washing of each record with my RCM, which can take up to 30 minutes brushing on each side. Resistant ticks and clicks I try to remove as good as possible, but the priority is not to lose any musical information in the process. Surface noises, as long they are not too high, are left in place. Only on bad pressings or on records recorded at extremely low levels do I use a fade in-/-out. As John Peel said, "Life is full of surface noises." In some cases this means that I have to make a compromise.... The result has to pass my personal quality criteria, which is IMO quite high.