Guero is the ninth studio album by American musician Beck, released on March 29, 2005, by Interscope Records. It was produced with John King and Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers, who had worked with Beck on his 1996 album Odelay, as well as Tony Hoffer.
The album was promoted with the singles "E-Pro", "Girl", and "Hell Yes", and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. To date, it is Beck's highest-charting album and had sold over 868,000 copies in the United States as of July 2008. It received positive reviews from critics.
Background
Güero (pron. IPA ['wero]) means "blond" in Mexican Spanish, but can also refer to a light-skinned person. MTV described the term as being "Mexican slang for a blond-haired, fair-skinned Caucasian".
Beck was raised in a prominently Chicano area of Los Angeles. In an interview with ABC's Nightline, Beck said the term "guero" was "something that I'd hear growing up. Something I'd hear on the street, walking to school or something, I'd get called a 'Guero'. ... It's just a word that stuck in my head and I wanted to do something with that at some point. ... I ended up, in the end, just kind of doing this almost journalistic kind of look at that whole time."
Jack White of the White Stripes plays bass on "Go It Alone". Money Mark, solo artist and keyboardist for the Beastie Boys, plays the organ on "Earthquake Weather". Petra Haden, formerly of That Dog and the Rentals, provides an intricate backing vocal track for "Rental Car".
Release
Guero was initially intended to be released on October 26, 2004, but was pushed back, due to delays with the artwork, mixing and music videos. On March 10, five songs from the forthcoming album were featured in an episode of The O.C. The album was released simultaneously in three formats: a standard 13-track CD, PlayStation Portable UMD and a deluxe CD/DVD edition. The latter featured seven bonus tracks, a surround sound mix and interactive video art for each song.
Later in 2005, Beck released an album of Guero remixes called Guerolito, featuring remixes by Boards of Canada, Octet, the Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock and the Dust Brothers' John King.
"Black Tambourine" was featured in the David Lynch film Inland Empire, the trailer for the film (500) Days of Summer, and episode 22 of season 4 of The Good Wife, as well as the 2006 video game Lumines II, and the video game Driver: San Francisco. "Farewell Ride" was featured in FX trailers promoting the final season of The Shield.
Reception
Commercial
Guero debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 2, marking Beck's best chart performance to date, and sold 162,000 copies in its first week. It was certified gold by the RIAA on June 7, 2005.
Critical
Guero received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic it has a score of 78 out of 100, based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Several critics compared the album to Beck's 1996 album Odelay,
Track listing
Sample credits
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="1"| Song
! rowspan="1"| Sample
! rowspan="1"| Artist
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
|-
| "E-Pro"
| align="left"|"So What'cha Want"
| align="left"|Beastie Boys
|-
| "Missing"
| align="left"|"Você e Eu"
| align="left"|Claus Ogerman and His Orchestra
|-
| "Black Tambourine"
| align="left"|"We Know We Gotta Live Together"
| align="left"|Eugene Blacknell & The New Breed
|-
| rowspan="2"|"Earthquake Weather"
| align="left"|"What It Is?"
| align="left"|The Temptations
|-
| align="left"|"Coming Soon", "Just Freak"
| align="left"|Slave
|-
| rowspan="2"|"Hell Yes"
| align="left"|"Far East Mississippi"
| align="left"|The Ohio Players
|-
| align="left"|"Under the Influence of Love"
| align="left"|Love Unlimited
|-
| "Go It Alone"
| align="left"|"Outside Love"
| align="left"|Brethren
|}
Personnel
Musicians
- Beck – vocals (tracks 1–13), guitar (1–3, 5–6, 9–10, 13), bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 7–9, 12–13), additional sounds (2), slide guitar (3, 11, 13), intro programming (3), percussion (4, 11–13), tambourines (5), acoustic guitar (6, 8, 12), electric guitar (6, 12), harmonica (7, 9), vocoder (7), piano (8, 11), celesta (8), drums (8), beats (8, 11), keyboards (10), handclaps (10, 12–13), kalimba (11), 12-string guitar (12, 13), stomp (13)
- The Dust Brothers – beats (1–7, 10, 12), handclaps (10)
- Paolo Díaz – "dude" (2)
- Charlie Capen – additional sounds (2)
- Sean Davis – bass guitar (4)
- Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – Clavinet (6, 12)
- Money Mark – organ (6)
- Justin Meldal-Johnsen – bass (6, 12), guitar sounds (12)
- Joey Waronker – drums (6)
- Smokey Hormel – electric guitar (6)
- Christina Ricci (as Kurisuti-na) – girl (7),
- Jack White – bass guitar (10)
- Petra Haden – vocals (12)
Technical
- Beck – co-producer (1–13), engineer (1–13), mixing (1–13), string arranger (4, 13), art direction, design
- The Dust Brothers – co-producers (1–7, 9–10, 12–13), engineers (1–7, 9–10, 12–13), mixing (1–7, 9–10, 12–13)
- Danny Kalb – engineer (1–7, 9–10, 12–13)
- Mark Branch – assistant engineer (1–7, 9–10, 12–13)
- Mike Laza – assistant engineer (1–7, 9–10, 12–13)
- Brad Breeck – sound designer (1–7, 9–10, 12–13)
- Nigel Godrich – mixing (3)
- Dan Grech-Marguerat – mixing engineer (3)
- Tony Hoffer – co-producer, engineer, mixing (8, 11)
- Jason Mott – assistant engineer (8, 11)
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- David Campbell – string arrangement (4, 13)
- Kevin Reagan – art direction, design
- Marcel Dzama – artwork
- Melanie Pullen – photo
- Adam Levite – additional art, front cover layout
- Elliot Scheiner – surround mix (deluxe edition)
Charts
Weekly charts
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! scope="col"| Chart (2005)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
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! scope="col"| Chart (2005)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 88
|}