Our series continues with Cooper Levey-Baker, our Sarasota music critic, remiscining about (and analyzing) a watershed album in his life:
Beck, Odelay — It was this album, more than any other, which turned me into an unrelenting pop music geek. I picked it up the day after it was released in June 1996, at one of those terribly overpriced mall CD stores. You know the type: the store that has actually marked down a new release to $16.95. I don’t remember exactly how much my copy of Odelay cost, but I know it was outrageous. I was suckered into paying it by a couple of important factors.
Number one was proximity. I was 16, spending my summer behind the counter in the sneaker section of the J.C. Penny at Sarasota Square Mall, convincing unwitting browsers that I could meticulously assess the pros and cons of buying a pair of running shoes versus cross-trainers. It was my first job. I spent the sweltering afternoons catching the hourly SCAT rides down Beneva to the mall, and killed dinner breaks stalking the mall with my first ever paychecks in pocket.
Number two was anticipation. I had first fallen in love with “Loser†when I picked it up on a five-track CD a year or so prior to Odelay.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2006.
