Guero

Fans who hoped Beck’s last album, Sea Change, was just an exploratory phase serving to leach his break-up blues and return his trademark unkool phunk will be truly pleased with the much-hyped latest, Guero. Revisiting Odelay territory (produced by the same L.A. production duo, the Dust Brothers), Beck infuses his trademark geek-rock with a zest of Latino influences in both language and rhythm. Echoing boom-boom bass and smattered with Spanglish, Guero (slang for “white boy”) draws on south of the border (and L.A., Beck’s hometown) influences to the point where you can actually see low-riders bouncing on air shocks. Already targeted hits include the funky-ish “Earthquake Weather,” heavy hitting “E-Pro” and hypnotic “Black Tambourine.” The misleadingly upbeat “Girl” wraps dark lyrics like: “With a noose she can hang from the sun/ And put it out with her cheap sunglasses,” in a nice, Beck-pop package. “Missing”’s paradoxically carefree samba beat channels Antonio Carlos Jobim, while Beck sings of the bummer of broken love. While many of Guero’s mostly upbeat tunes belie their dark complexity, this sweet and sour synergy will help to make for a long shelf life.