The New Pollution

The New Pollution was the third single from Odelay, released on 28 February 1997. Its signature saxophone riff comes from Joe Thomas's Venus, which Pitchfork described as lovingly pilfered from a forgotten tenor player. Sample notes in the US CD credits name Venus, written by Brad Baker and performed by Joe Thomas, as the sample source. An Aphex Twin remix, Richard's Hairpiece, appears on the Odelay deluxe edition.

The Guardian ranked it second among Beck's songs. It called it a love song only Beck could have written, noted the line about a carburettor tied to the moon, and heard a 1960s groove with organ, sax and flute flourishes that comes close to Austin Powers but is too strange for pastiche. Setlist.fm logs it 630 times.