Were I to take a page from the rhyming Becktionary to try and some up everyone's favorite beatbox-and-acoustic guitar Scientologist, it'd have to go something like this: "Friscillating funk says the soul's on a journey/beat patterns like butterflies, Pitchfork run by R. Lee Ermey."
What can I say, I like Beck. You never really know what exactly you're going to get out of his records, and that can be refreshing. I've dreamed of a spiritual followup to Midnite Vultures, his album-long tribute to the Prince sound/experience, but been perfectly satisfied with his more melancholy, introspective work since then. Guerolito isn't exactly tied to the mode of Midnite Vultures, but it does have a serious objective to make asses shake.
Handing tracks from 2005's Guero over to all sorts of interesting musicians and producers, with hip-hop genius El-P ("Scarecrow") and French symphonic popsters Air (the sublime "Heaven Hammer") mixing it up alongside U.K. beatmasters/M.I.A. producers Diplo ("Wish Coin") and Boards of Canada ("Broken Drum").
There's hip-hop and booty-bass, electro and big beat. About the only thing the average dance fan won't find on Guerolito is a straight-up 4/4 house track, but the quality level is so high that this oversight can be forgiven. My personal favorite, "Rental Car," is alt-crunk genius, a record that takes cues from Belgian New Beat and the Egyptian Lover equally, serving up a slice of nervy sexual unease. Mixed by Dust Brother John King, it's the kind of remix that makes the listener sit up, vibing on its industrial squelch and timeless "yeah, yeah, yeah." Magical.
