Mellow Gold is one of those albums that is only known for its hit single. Certainly it didn't get bad reviews on its release, but it doesn't have the critical standing that Odelay has. As with Radiohead's Pablo Honey, I pretty much just listened to the hit single and skipped around the album and quickly went back to the other, better albums. I've never had a good handle on Mellow Gold. I don't listen to it anymore and it's been awhile since I've heard it, so my enduring impression has always been that it's an inferior version of what he would do with Odelay. But listening to Mellow Gold now, 7 or so years after I first heard it, and knowing where Beck's career has gone, it's suddenly all cleared up in my head: it's his transitional album.It bears repeating that Beck released three albums in 1994, although most of us only knew about Mellow Gold at that point. Whereas Stereopathetic Soulmanure probably predated the other two albums, Mellow Gold and One Foot in the Grave were recorded during the same span of time, though not at the same time. While Stereopathetic was a pretty awful, messy album that tried a lot of things and only had a few good songs, One Foot and Mellow Gold succeed, to different degrees, because the former tries a unifying style throughout while the latter is--well--a messy album that tries a lot of things...except that, unlike Stereopathetic, it has more good songs than bad.
In fact, a lot of the songs on Mellow Gold could easily fit unto Stereopathetic Soulmanure. The main difference between the two albums (other than the higher recording fidelity and songwriting quality) is that Mellow Gold has a healthy tinge of hip hop. Sometimes the difference between a sort-of-catchy song and a generational touchstone is a fantastic-but-obscure sample and a drum loop, as 'Loser' prove to us all. But elsewhere on Mellow Gold the best tracks are the ones that play similarly free with style and genre. 'F***in With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock)' mixes a bluesy, harmonica-led twang with a grooving drum beat and Beck's free flowing lyric surrealism. 'Beercan', the album's secret masterpiece, points the hardest to his future, with a deliriously fun, sample laden style and an insanely fun chorus with Beck's soon-to-be-standard vocal asides and silliness. Meanwhile, 'Steal My Body Home' and album closer 'Blackhole' hint toward the mellow, darker side of Beck as seen on albums like Sea Change, not to mention the Eastern tinge of songs like 'Derelict.'
The weakness of Mellow Gold comes in the more standard, singer/songwritery stuff or the experimental dreck that weighed down Stereopathetic Soulmanure. 'Pay No Mind (Snoozer)' is, like the better songs off of Stereopathetic such as 'Satan Gave Me a Taco', funny and fun for the first few listens but quickly becomes tiresome. 'Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997' is a plodding attempt at gravity that feels twice as long as it is and completely sucks the momentum out of the album. Then there's the crap like 'Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)' and 'Sweet Sunshine', which harken back to--again--Stereopathetic Soulmanure but for all the wrong reasons. Lest I forget 'Mutherf****er', a two minute patience test of painful noise rock and profanity that is not even good enough to be on Stereopathetic let alone Mellow Gold. I am far from adverse to painful noise rock and/or profanity, but I think even Beck would agree that this song is a piece of crap and a waste of time and space.
While I do like Mellow Gold more than I used to, I'm still not in love with it. Ultimately it is a step up from Stereopathetic Soulmanure, but it's still on the same floor of the stairwell, as it were. Mellow Gold is a good listen, but it's not as completely great as his other albums; other than an awesome hit single, a couple great songs that point the way to something great, and a bunch of mediocre-to-awful other tracks, Mellow Gold is nothing more or less than a transitional album which fans will appreciate but one that will leave newbies wanting.
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