About three years ago, back when I was still a student at Stanford, I was asked to write a review of Beck’s 2002 opus, “Sea Change.” This was my first review and I don’t remember it very well, but I do remember committing the cardinal Beck sin of referring to him as “the ‘Loser’ ” somewhere in the first draft — how cliché! But in that rather messy first effort, I began to better understand Beck’s artistic evolution and eagerly awaited the fruits of his continued maturation.

And here I am. I’ve finished college and am now out in the “real world.” And once again, I’ve been asked to review the new Beck album, this time 2005’s “Guero.” I admit I’ve written the last hundred or so words with the aim of cleverly comparing my maturation with Beck’s, but you know, I realize I can’t really do that because while I like where I’ve gone in three years, I don’t know if I condone Beck’s new direction.

First off, there is no new direction. On “Guero,” Beck has chosen to retread old ideas — a puzzling decision from an artist whose heady genre studies never looked back, calling to mind a veritable Rolodex of ‘70s music icons. On “Mellow Gold” and “Odelay,” Beck slowly morphed from Bob Dylan into George Clinton. On “Mutations,” Beck became bossa-nova star Joao Gilberto. On “Midnite Vultures,” Beck stepped into Prince’s golden codpiece. And for “Sea Change,” he revealed matured vocal and songwriting abilities reminiscent of Nick Drake. And let’s not forget, Beck accomplished his multiple-personality progression with the ease shown by few artists since the original musical chameleon, David Bowie.

For perhaps the first time, Beck manages to integrate his previous genre experiments seamlessly — and I find it difficult not to call “Guero” a success, as there are some really nice moments. Highlights include “E-Pro,” the album’s first single and a natural successor to “Devil’s Haircut,” and “Summer Girl,” an amalgam of 8-bit synths, sunny pop and blues that actually feels (for better or for worse) a bit like “Hey Ya!” “Missing” and “Earthquake Weather” are both lovely ballads in which bossa-nova guitar and electronic beats live peacefully. But to say the album is good based merely on these qualities is a teleological copout: “It’s good because it’s Beck.” Given this, I will try to explain why I give “Guero” a full star less than much of the album deserves.

As with “Guero,” a lot of Beck’s previous albums sounded dated, but only on “Guero” does it really affect the listenability. The difference here is that the quality of the songs is a little too sketchy to qualify “Guero” a quality genre experiment. Beck can get away with white-boy funk all over “Midnite Vultures” because, well, “Sexx Laws” and “Nicotine & Gravy” and “Mixed Bizness” and “Debra” kick ass. But the lo-fi hip-hop that makes up almost half of the album largely falls flat, perhaps because the songs sound too mid-nineties, too cookie-cutter to make an impact today. Perhaps Beck should have learned from the Beastie Boys’ latest release that if he can’t write hits in the genre, perhaps he should leave behind the four-tracks and Casios.

As I remember, in my “Sea Change” review I said I would accept the “grown up” Beck on the condition that I could have the “Midnite Vultures”-era Prince-in-a-sequined-thong Beck for the next album, but now that I have “Guero,” I don’t know what to think. I really shouldn’t complain about the album where Beck has the maturity to revisit, even reinvent, his past personalities, but I suppose I wanted more youthful energy and less filler thrown into the mix. Maybe the ship has sailed on what I want from Beck and I should try to be happy with what really is a wonderful, mature record. After all, Losers do grow up someday — and Prince is now a Jehovah’s Witness.