Wow Did Beck Go Multi-Color Wheel On Us Or What?

To many music enthusiasts of the '90s, Beck's "Odelay" was the quintessential masterpiece of its day. This wasn't a '90s cookie cutter rock pastiche but the '70s brought back in Looney Tunes styled technicolor. Well folks, here in 2016 this much I can say for sure. Beck's got a thirteenth studio album rolling down the tracks waiting to box your eardrums in October but while you wait we've got "Wow" to give you something tasty to munch on. As was the case with "Odelay" tracks like "Where It's At", "Devil's Haircut and "The New Pollution" "Wow isn't from this planet, a statement I make out of utmost respect for the most well-respected musical Minnesotan not named Prince. "Wow" dips into its paint bucket, smears shadings all over the canvas and then watches the organic luminescence come to full, opulent realization. Is it the New Age flute knockoff that gives "Wow" the tranquility not unlike that of a Californian beach just as the sun is going away for its momentary nap? Yes, there is that. Do the drum fills give Beck the patina of a man not keen on leaving your doorstep until his message has been received loud and clear? I would think so. Those are but a few of the links in the hypnotizing chain that make "Wow" merely another day at the office for one Beck Hansen. He's that rare reminder of what music can be when it lives up to its potential. It can be totally mind-expanding in any and every way that matters. You're not concentrating on chords or sequences or even lyrics when Beck pops his new project into the blender. You are amazed how often he does it without missing a well-placed beat. But, since you don't come to this space to wax philosophical I'll punch out Beck lyrics to mull over. There are telling signs that Beck has returned to his "Odelay" roots where his word choices are concerned. Feast your eyes on "Wanna move into a fool's gold room with my pulse on the animal jewels." Somewhere Gene Simmons and his own family jewels are having a queen sized fit. Not an uncommon strategy for wordsmiths but one Beck employs sans ulterior motive happens to be stressing getting the one life you've been given right. The emphasis falls to the here and now and what you and I opt to use it on. If you're not blown away by the watercolor uninhibited genius of the video then I pity you, you lost soul for your doses of artistic enrichment have been neither steady nor frequent. In my estimation I'm fortunate that I had energy left over from "Wow", the video to comment on "Wow", the single. Said single matches the imagery of a team of hyperactive best buds sitting around the campfire contemplating the big picture, how "Howard The Duck" was ever green lighted and various other sources of attention span reducing amusements. That flute could drain the upset from any agitated stomach whether it was food or a particularly contentious argument that bent it out of shape. Underpinnings of bass allow slight menace to creep onto this beach. I've heard many oddball opening song greetings in my day but "Giddy up giddy up" qualifies as a new Beck icebreaker. The man doesn't rest on anything closely resembling a laurel. He likely wouldn't know what a laurel was if it wrapped itself around his Scientologist throat. That attitude has resulted in a huge winning streak among critics and fans alike. A Beck release means "ordinary" gets ripped out of the dictionary and takes that pesky rule book with it during its enforced free fall. "Wow" boots the wow factor right up to ten and makes us think the wait for Beck October may be too cruel to live down.