Beck's eyes are preternaturally blue, and until recently, exactly what lay behind them was something of an enigma. Whether clowning in videos, spontaneously breakdancing at awards shows, or just gazing ahead on his album covers, the junkyard boho was always looking beyond, seemingly into a bizarre realm unhindered by genre-- or behavioral-- expectations. But lately, he just looks lost. Wandering down a gimmicky path lined with empty pop-up confections in the "Girl" video, the 35-year-old dad with bad hair found himself relegated to the role of passerby. More than ever, 2005 saw Beck losing his edge. So, on this take two, he embraces the talent and ideas of contemporaries and descendants alike (all of whom, I'm sure, are really, really nice), hoping for a little friendly friction. Much like its inconsistent source material, Guerolito emits a few flashes but lacks the cohesiveness that was once this innovator's hallmark.
Possibly a sign of self-conscious second-guessing, Beck began to commission new mixes for Guero early on. Oddly, the lo-fi blip GameBoy Variations EP, featuring remixes for four of the album's songs, was thrown up online a full two months before Guero's official release. Then, over the course of the year, about a half-dozen more trickled out. Wisely, not all of these previously released alternates-- including lazy efforts from Dizzee Rascal and Röyksopp-- are included here. All in all, nine of Guerolito's 14 tracks are new, which, along with fresh artwork courtesy of surrealist Guero cover illustrator Marcel Dzama, and a track-for-track sequencing, indicates the intention of a true remix album rather than just another careless fourth-quarter hodge-podge ch-ching. While such efforts are duly noted, the bare-bones liners and widely varying quality of these retries make Guerolito better suited for iTunes cherry-picking than full-on Amazon consumption.
Several tracks equal or trump their initial incarnations by emphasizing pluses and playing into their remixers' entrenched strengths. Both Boards of Canada and Air are wonderfully type-cast; the former's take on "Broken Drum" highlights Beck's Sea Change-y lonesome vocals with apropos amble ambience while the latter's "Missing" redux, "Heaven Hammer", boosts sexy-church synths, echoing drums, and everything else you'd expect from France's finest purveyors of cheesy-cool. The new "Scarecrow", courtesy of El-P, is a marked improvement on its predecessor, with the hip-hop producer's succinct drums and keyboard stabs giving the song a newfound strut. Meanwhile, golden boy Diplo reiterates his current crate-king status by slowing down the staccato bass backbone of the English Beat's "Twist and Crawl" to provide his "Go It Alone" redo with a stealth funk.
Alas, many other attempts fall flat due to weak, repetitive arrangements, or an inability to convincingly congeal with their forebears. The worst offender is nerd rap group Subtle, whose lumbering "Farewell Ride" won't entice anybody to grab onto the Anticon trolley anytime soon. (I hope.) Two ex-Unicorn projects are represented, and neither clicks, though for different reasons; Islands' Uni-lite twee instrumentation sounds woefully out of place when meshed with Beck's East L.A. non-sequiturs on "Que Onda Guero" (not to mention the ill-fated, half-assed screwed 'n' chopped bit), while Th' Corn Gangg's electro R2-D2 spin on "Emergency Exit" takes too long to climax with its dense thump and cut-up vox. And just when you thought the Beasties couldn't get more annoying, Adrock comes along with his throwback minimalist-clang take on "Black Tambourine" featuring enough repeating "ugh!" and "what!" drops to make you want to steamroll your copy of Check Your Head.
His fierce glint fading, it's becoming increasingly clear that Beck is no longer able to freely revel in the youthful dalliances that made him famous more than a decade ago. Guerlito's standouts prove that proper taste and a good ear can be just as valuable as songwriting to a multi-tasker like Beck, but even for an artist this venerable, a remix record is still a remix record-- generally uneven, part enlightening, and part skippable.
