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."
The title of track 2, "Qué Onda Guero" (or "¿Qué onda, güero?"), is Mexican slang for "what up, whitey?"
Recording
The album was recorded over a period of nine months, following a year and a half of touring in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Several other events contributed to the writing of the songs, including the suicide of Beck's friend Elliott Smith and Beck's impending child with wife Marissa Ribisi. The song "Broken Drum" is dedicated to Smith. More than 15 songs were considered for the final running order of the album.
"Hell Yes" features spoken contributions from Christina Ricci, who happened to be in the studio at the time of recording. Beck and the Dust Brothers had spent weeks auditioning sushi waitresses around Los Angeles but chose Ricci after she "tried it and just absolutely nailed it". She is credited as "Kurisuti-na" in the album's liner notes.
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. An unmixed and un-mastered version of the album was leaked in January 2005, under the title Ubiquitous. The track listing differed slightly from the officially announced track listing of Guero. On February 1, Beck released the Hell Yes EP on iTunes, which included remixes of the title track and "Que Onda Guero" by 8-bit and "E-Pro" and "Girl" by Paza. On March 10, five songs from the forthcoming album were featured in an episode of The O.C.
Guero was released on March 29. 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, holding a Metascore of 78 on Metacritic. Several critics compared the album to Beck's 1996 album Odelay, while others observed that such comparisons were inevitable but ultimately misguided.