Beck Hansen spun quite a few heads with his major-label debut in 1994. Creating a style equal parts rap, folk, soul, metal and existentialist-trash-heap lyricism, Mellow Gold provided music fans and critics with a new, post-Cobain definition of "alternative".

Like so few artists this decade, Beck created something that had never been heard before, lacing acoustic guitar licks with strange synthetic noises, eclectic samples, distorted echoes and looped drums. The sound is timeless, as it puts diverse elements of historical music in a postmodern context; Mellow Gold's aesthetic brings to mind the strange image of a backwoods folk musician or busker with an unmatched grasp of pop culture.

By insanely pasting together familiar bits of '90s culture with surreal dream-language, Beck creates an alien musical world. The fact that the demonic garage rock of "Mutherfuker" is even on the same album as acoustic trailer-park ballad "Nitemare Hippy Girl" - much less right next to each other - is a testament to Beck's astounding range and uncanny ability to pull together disparate elements and make them feel at home.

His subject matter is just as diverse, from the Subterranean Junkyard Ranting of "Loser" to the garish white-trash imagery of "Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)." Completely surreal yet evocative imagery like "The sales climb high through the garbage pail sky / like a giant dildo crushing the sun" ("Pay No Mind") and "She's a rainbow chokin' the breeze../ she's a melted avocado on a shelf" (the aforementioned trailer-park ballad) establishes Beck as one of the most original poets of the information age.

Mix it all up and you've got one huge, jumbled, soulful musical taco, which radio listeners, rock critics and fledgling musicians gobbled up with gusto. Spiced with music of the past, Mellow Gold gave '90s rock the essential nutrients it needed to evolve into new states of existence.