Beck | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Initially pegged as the voice of a generation when "Loser" turned into a smash crossover success, Beck wound up crystallizing much of the postmodern ruckus inherent in the 90s alternative explosion, but in unexpected ways. Based in the underground anti-folk and noise rock worlds, Beck encompassed all manner of modern music, drawing on hip-hop, blues, trash rock, pop, soul, lounge music -- pretty much any found sound or vinyl dug up from a dusty crate -- blurring boundaries and encapsulating how 90s hipsters looked toward the future by foraging through the past. In another time, Beck might have stayed in the province of the underground, but he surfaced just as alternative rock turned mainstream, with his 1994 debut Mellow Gold launching "Loser," a hit that crossed over with the velocity of a novelty -- a notion Beck quickly punctured with a succession of indie LPs delivered in the wake of Mellow Gold, including the lo-fi folk of One Foot in the Grave, delivered on the K imprint. But the album that truly cemented Becks place in the pantheon was 1996s Odelay, a co-production with the Dust Brothers that touched upon all of his obsessions, providing a cultural keystone for the decade while telegraphing all his future moves, from the soul prankster of Midnite Vultures to the melancholy troubadour of Sea Change. Beck moved between the extremes of satire and sincerity throughout the 21st century, sometimes fusing the two emotions -- as he did on 2008s Modern Guilt -- and slowly becoming a fixture in the music industry, a status underscored by his 2015 album Morning Phase taking home the Grammy for Album of the Year. Fittingly, Beck came from a distinctly artistic background, the son of string arranger/conductor David Campbell and Bibbe Hansen, the latter a regular at Andy Warhols Factory whose father was a pivotal contributor to the Fluxus art movement. Adopting the Hansen surname after his father left, Beck grew up in Los Angeles, dropping out of school in the tenth grade to play as a street busker and attend poetry slams. Bashing out blues and folk, Beck wound up assembling a home tape called The Banjo Story before departing for New York, where he operated on the margins of the anti-folk scene without ever breaking into it. He returned to Los Angeles, where he continued to play clubs, eventually gaining the attention of Bong Load Records, an independent operated by Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. All parties agreed to pair Becks fledgling folk with hip-hop beats assembled by producer Karl Stephenson, whose kitchen provided the studio for their first efforts, including "Loser." These tapes remained unreleased as Beck recorded an albums worth of material with Calvin Johnson for the latters K label, but the first release Beck had was the Flipside single "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" and Sonic Enemys cassette release of Golden Feelings. But what really broke the doors open was Bong Loads 12" single of "Loser," which garnered considerable play in L.A., coinciding with increased underground attention. Soon, Beck signed with Geffen, striking a deal that allowed him to release on independent labels. One of these immediately followed -- Fingerpaint released a 10" record A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight in January 1994 -- before the Geffen debut Mellow Gold appeared in March of that year. Naturally, "Loser" was the lead single from Mellow Gold and it turned into an instant smash, boasting a hook that worked as an ironic underground rallying cry and a novelty crossover. Despite many positive reviews, Beck worked overtime to dispel the notion he was a novelty, quickly releasing two indie albums in succession: the noise-skronk Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot in the Grave. Stereopathetic made few waves, but the stripped-back, folky One Foot in the Grave acted as a counterbalance to the gonzo Mellow Gold, illustrating the depths of his talents. After a furious 1994, Beck laid relatively low in 1995, touring with the fifth Lollapalooza in between working on a new album with the production team the Dust Brothers, who had collaborated with the Beastie Boys on their landmark 1989 Pauls Boutique. The resulting album, Odelay, appeared in June 1996, preceded by the lanky, funky single "Where Its At," which would go on to win the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal. Odelay piled up acclaim and hits -- "Devils Haircut," "Jack-Ass," and "The New Pollution" all charted around the world -- and the record went double platinum, becoming a touchstone of 90s alternative rock. An outtake from the album, "Deadweight," appeared on the soundtrack to Danny Boyles 1997 film A Life Less Ordinary, and then Beck set to work on his next album with producer Nigel Godrich, who had just worked with Radiohead on OK Computer. Their collaboration, originally slated for an indie release but moved to Geffen, thereby setting a precedent that no future Beck LP would be released on an indie (something worked out in the courts the following year), traded futuristic rock -- either the joyous collage of Odelay or the dystopia of OK Computer -- for a quiet, pulsating, psychedelic folk-rock album called Mutations. Riding high on Odelay, the album charted well without turning out any major hits, although it did garner a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance. Beck made another abrupt change in musical direction in 1999 with Midnite Vultures, a garish party record that was part satire and part salute to soul and funk, particularly Prince. Reviews were divided between ecstatic and skeptical, but the album had some real hits with "Sexx Laws" and "Deborah," and in some ways it was the apex of Becks hipster prankster phase, a persona he shed with his next album, 2002s Sea Change. Recorded in the wake of a romantic breakup, Sea Change was another Godrich production, but it was gentle and mournful, lacking some of the gritty underpinnings of Mutations but retaining the psychedelia -- and that psychedelic edge was brought out in the supporting tour when Beck hired the Flaming Lips as his supporting band. The tour was well-received but there were some tensions, as reported by Lips leader Wayne Coyne later. After an extended break -- the longest he had taken between albums to date -- Beck returned in 2005 with Guero, an album that reunited him with the Dust Brothers and consciously evoked Odelay. Guero launched a few hits, including "E-Pro" and "Hell Yes," and was followed within months by Guerolito, a remixed version of the entire album. Beck continued in this direction the following year with The Information, but its Nigel Godrich production kept the album streamlined and emphasized the darker undercurrents in the songs. Some of that darkness could be heard on his eighth album, Modern Guilt, a 2008 release produced by Danger Mouse, marking his first time in 14 years that he worked with a producer who wasnt the Dust Brothers or Godrich. Modern Guilt performed respectably -- it debuted at eight on the U.S. Billboard charts and received strong reviews -- but he spent the next several years relatively quiet. In 2009, Beck began actively pursuing a career as a producer, collaborating with Charlotte Gainsbourg on her acclaimed IRM album; two years later, he produced Thurston Moores Demolished Thoughts and Mirror Traffic by Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks. He also dipped his toe back into solo recording on the soundtrack to the 2010 Edgar Wright film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Still, between 2009 and 2010 much of his studio energy was devoted to his Record Club, where he and a loose collective of friends covered classic albums in their entirety; the albums covered included The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Songs of Leonard Cohen, and INXS Kick. Beck returned to original material in 2012 via Song Reader, a collection of sheet music featuring 20 new, unrecorded songs; although he didnt record versions of these songs, he did appear at Song Reader concerts featuring other musicians (and a collection of those live performances was eventually released under his name). In 2014, Beck released Morning Phase, his first new album in nearly six years and first album for Capitol. Described by the singer/songwriter as a "companion piece" to 2002s Sea Change, it appeared in February 2014, preceded by the singles "Blue Moon" and "Waking Light." Critical reception was largely positive, and the album won three Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album and Album of the Year. Beck returned the following year with the lively single "Dreams," and the like-minded "Wow" arrived in 2016. During that year, he continued working with producer Greg Kurstin and also made guest appearances on work by Fun.s Nate Ruess, the Chemical Brothers, M83, and Flume. Beck finally released Colors, his collaboration with Kurstin, in October 2017. It peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and topped the modern rock and alternative albums charts. Colors won the 2019 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, along with the trophy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. In 2019, he contributed the song "Tarantula" to the soundtrack album Music Inspired by the Film Roma, which accompanied director Alfonso Cuaróns acclaimed work. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 15 Title: Golden Feelings Released: 1993 Tracks: 17 Duration: 42:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The Fucked Up Blues (02:11) 2 Special People (01:42) 3 Magic Stationwagon (01:36) 4 No Money No Honey (02:35) 5 Trouble All My Days (02:07) 6 Bad Energy (01:39) 7 Schmoozer (02:38) 8 Heartland Feeling (07:11) 9 Super Golden Black Sunchild (02:11) 10 Soul Sucked Dry (01:49) 11 Feelings (01:35) 12 Gettin Home (04:14) 13 Will I Be Ignored by the Lord? (01:59) 14 Bogus Soul (01:15) 15 Totally Confused (02:00) 16 Mutherfuker (02:44) 17 People Gettin Busy (03:08) |
| Golden Feelings : Allmusic album Review : Before Mellow Gold and even before A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, there was Golden Feelings, an extremely limited-edition, cassette-only collection of songs. Re-released in 1999 by Sonic Enemy, this 17-track collection documents Becks first officially released, self-recorded, full-length album of four-track noodlings and documents his genius in embryo. Like Stereopathetic Soul Manure, Golden Feelings features muddy production values, an array of taped TV and music blurbs, and entertaining between-track dialogues and noises. The opening cut "The Fucked Up Blues" is a fine early example of Becks surrealist blues; some songs, such as "Magic Station Wagon," which sounds like two broken guitars being plucked violently over and over for some sort of percussive effect, are more interesting than listenable. The folkish "No Money No Honey" -- which also appeared on Stereopathetic Soul Manure, sung by a homeless man Beck recruited -- appears here in a more developed version and features what must be one of the loudest, most distorted acoustic guitar tracks ever recorded. The primitive Velvet Underground-meets-Jon Spencer Blues Explosion garage rock of "Schmoozer," as well as the humorous folk narrative of "Heartland Feeling," are some of his strongest songs to date. Dark, haunting ballads like "Super Golden Black Sunchild," the country-blues of "Gettin Home," and an early attempt at funk on "People Gettin Busy" round out a very eclectic set. An early, even more distorted version of Mellow Golds "Mutherfukka" is also included. Overall, Golden Feelings is an extremely interesting, entertaining, and humorous document that proves that from the start Beck had his heart set on making experimentation his only gimmick. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 15 Title: Stereopathetic Soulmanure Released: 1994-02-22 Tracks: 24 Duration: 48:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Pink Noise (Rock Me Amadeus) (02:57) 2 Rowboat (03:45) 3 Thunder Peel (01:48) 4 Waitin for a Train (01:08) 5 The Spirit Moves Me (02:10) 6 Crystal Clear (Beer) (02:29) 7 No Money No Honey (02:13) 8 8.6.82 (00:37) 9 Total Soul Future (Eat It) (01:48) 10 One Foot in the Grave (02:14) 11 Aphid Manure Heist (01:29) 12 Today Has Been a Fucked Up Day (02:28) 13 "Rollins Power Sauce" (02:06) 14 Puttin It Down (02:23) 15 11.6.45 (00:31) 16 Cut 1/2 Blues (02:36) 17 Jagermeister Pie (01:09) 18 Ozzy (02:05) 19 Dead Wild Cat (00:25) 20 Satan Gave Me a Taco (03:46) 21 8.4.82 (00:26) 22 Tasergun (03:51) 23 Modesto (03:27) 24 [untitled] (00:14) |
| Stereopathetic Soulmanure : Allmusic album Review : Within months of the release of Mellow Gold, Beck released his second album, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, a schizophrenic collection of lo-fi recordings from between 1988 and 1993. Much of the music on the album draws from the noisy, experimental post-punk of Sonic Youth and the dirty, primitive junk rock of Pussy Galore; his absurdist sense of humor surfaces only rarely, and only in the guise of such sophomoric cuts as "Puttin It Down" and "Satan Gave Me a Taco," while his sense of songcraft is inaudible. Essentially, the record was both a palate cleanser, one designed to scare away the "Loser" fans, and a bid for indie credibility, since the music on Stereopathetic is equally as uncompromising and as unlistenable as Sonic Youth or their many imitators at their most extreme. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 15 Title: Mellow Gold Released: 1994-03-01 Tracks: 12 Duration: 47:37 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Loser (03:55) 2 Pay No Mind (Snoozer) (03:14) 3 Fuckin With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) (03:41) 4 Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997 (03:28) 5 Soul Suckin Jerk (03:56) 6 Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat) (02:55) 7 Sweet Sunshine (04:17) 8 Beercan (04:00) 9 Steal My Body Home (05:34) 10 Nitemare Hippy Girl (02:55) 11 Mutherfuker (02:05) 12 Blackhole / [Analog Odyssey] (07:33) |
| Mellow Gold : Allmusic album Review : From its kaleidoscopic array of junk-culture musical styles to its assured, surrealistic wordplay, Becks debut album, Mellow Gold, is a stunner. Throughout the record, Beck plays as if there are no divisions between musical genres, freely blending rock, rap, folk, psychedelia, and country. Although his inspired sense of humor occasionally plays like hes a smirking, irony-addled hipster, his music is never kitschy, and his wordplay is constantly inspired. Since Mellow Gold was pieced together from home-recorded tapes, it lacks a coherent production, functioning more as a stylistic sampler: there are the stoner raps of "Loser" and "Beercan," the urban folk of "Pay No Mind (Snoozer)," the mock-industrial onslaught of "Mutherfuker," the garagey "Fuckin With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock)," the trancy acoustic "Blackhole," and the gently sardonic folk-rock of "Nitemare Hippy Girl." Its a dizzying demonstration of musical skills, yet its all tied together by a simple yet clever sense of songcraft and a truly original lyrical viewpoint, one thats basic yet as colorful as free verse. By blending boundaries so thoroughly and intoxicatingly, Mellow Gold established a new vein of alternative rock, one that was fueled by ideas instead of attitude. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 15 Title: One Foot in the Grave Released: 1994-06-27 Tracks: 19 Duration: 43:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Hes a Mighty Good Leader (02:41) 2 Sleeping Bag (02:15) 3 I Get Lonesome (02:49) 4 Burnt Orange Peel (01:38) 5 Cyanide Breath Mint (01:37) 6 See Water (02:22) 7 Ziplock Bag (01:44) 8 Hollow Log (01:54) 9 Forcefield (03:30) 10 Fourteen Rivers, Fourteen Floods (02:54) 11 Asshole (02:32) 12 Ive Seen the Land Beyond (01:41) 13 Outcome (02:10) 14 Girl Dreams (02:04) 15 Painted Eyelids (03:05) 16 Atmospheric Conditions (02:07) 17 Its All in Your Mind (02:54) 18 Feather in Your Cap (01:14) 19 Whiskey Can Can (02:14) |
| One Foot in the Grave : Allmusic album Review : Recorded prior to Mellow Gold but released several months after that album turned Beck into an overnight sensation, One Foot in the Grave bolsters his neo-folkie credibility the way the nearly simultaneously released Stereopathetic Soul Manure accentuated his underground noise prankster credentials. One Foot is neatly perched between authentic folk-blues -- it opens with "Hes a Mighty Good Leader," a traditional number sometimes credited to Skip James, and he rewrites Rev. Gary Davis "You Gotta Move" as "Fourteen Rivers Fourteen Floods" -- and the shambolic, indie anti-folk coming out of the Northwest in the early 90s, a connection underscored by the records initial release on Calvin Johnsons Olympia, WA-based K Records, and its production by Johnson, who also sings on a couple of cuts. Parts of One Foot in the Grave may be reminiscent of other K acts, particularly the ragged parts, but its also distinctively Beck in how it blurs lines between the past and present, the traditional and the modern, the sincere and the sarcastic. Certainly, of his three 1994 albums, One Foot errs in favor of the sincere, partially due to those folk-blues covers, but also in its overall hushed feel, its muted acoustic guitars and murmured vocals suggesting an intimacy that the words dont always convey. Much of the album is about mood as much as song, a situation not uncommon to Beck, which is hardly a problem because the ramshackle sound is charming and the songwriting is often excellent, channeling Becks skewed sensibilities into a traditional setting, particularly on the excellent "Asshole," which is hardly as smirking as its title. Its that delicate, almost accidental, balance of exposed nerves and cutting with that sets One Foot in the Grave apart from Becks other albums; hed revisit this sound and sensibility, but never again was he so beguilingly ragged. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 15 Title: Odelay Released: 1996-06-17 Tracks: 33 Duration: 2:15:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Devils Haircut (03:14) 2 Hotwax (03:49) 3 Lord Only Knows (04:14) 4 The New Pollution (03:39) 5 Derelict (04:12) 6 Novacane (04:37) 7 Jack‐Ass (04:11) 8 Where It’s At (05:30) 9 Minus (02:32) 10 Sissyneck (03:52) 11 Readymade (02:37) 12 High 5 (Rock the Catskills) (04:10) 13 Ramshackle (04:47) 14 Computer Rock (00:43) 15 Deadweight (06:12) 16 Inferno (07:03) 17 Gold Chains (04:59) 1 Where It’s At (U.N.K.L.E. remix) (12:26) 2 Richard’s Hairpiece (Aphex Twin remix of “Devil’s Haircut”) (03:19) 3 American Wasteland (Mickey P. remix of “Devil’s Haircut”) (02:42) 4 Clock (03:17) 5 Thunder Peel (02:40) 6 Electric Music and the Summer People (04:38) 7 Lemonade (02:21) 8 SA‐5 (01:53) 9 Feather in Your Cap (03:45) 10 Erase the Sun (02:56) 11 .000.000 (05:25) 12 Brother (04:47) 13 Devil Got My Woman (04:34) 14 Trouble All My Days (02:25) 15 Strange Invitation (04:06) 16 Burro (03:13) |
| Odelay : Allmusic album Review : Unlike Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot in the Grave, the indie albums that followed his debut Mellow Gold by a mere matter of months, Odelay was a full-fledged, full-bodied album, released on a major label in the summer of 1996 and bearing an intricate, meticulous production by the Dust Brothers in their first gig since the Beastie Boys Pauls Boutique. Odelay shared a similar collage structure to that 1989 masterpiece, relying on a blend of found sounds and samples, but instead of lending the album its primary colors, the Dust Brothers provided the accents, highlighting Becks ever-changing sounds, tying together his stylistic shifts, making the leaps from the dirge-blues of "Jack-Ass" to the hazy party rock of "Wheres Its At" seem not so great. Like Mellow Gold, Odelay winds up touching on a number of disparate strands -- folk and country, grungy garage rock, stiff-boned electro, louche exotica, old-school rap, touches of noise rock -- but theres no break-neck snap between sensibilities, everything flows smoothly, the dense sounds suggesting that the songs are a bit more complicated than they actually are. Most of the songs here betray Becks roots as an anti-folk singer -- he reworks blues structures ("Devils Haircut"), country ("Lord Only Knows," "Sissyneck"), soul ("Hotwax"), folk ("Ramshackle") and rap ("High 5 [Rock the Catskills]," "Where Its At") -- but each track twists conventions, either in their construction or presentation, giving this a vibrant, electric pulse, surprising in its form and attack. Like a mosaic, all the details add up to a picture greater than its parts, so while some of Becks best songs are here, Odelay is best appreciated as a recorded whole, with each layered sample enhancing the allusion that came before. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 15 Title: Mutations Released: 1998-11-02 Tracks: 11 Duration: 49:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cold Brains (03:41) 2 Nobody’s Fault but My Own (05:02) 3 Lazy Flies (03:43) 4 Canceled Check (03:14) 5 We Live Again (03:04) 6 Tropicalia (03:20) 7 Dead Melodies (02:35) 8 Bottle of Blues (04:55) 9 O Maria (04:00) 10 Sing It Again (04:19) 11 Static / [Diamond Bollocks] (11:19) |
| Mutations : Allmusic album Review : According to party line, neither Beck nor Geffen ever intended Mutations to be considered as the official follow-up to Odelay, his Grammy-winning breakthrough. It was more like One Foot in the Grave, designed to be an off-kilter, subdued collection of acoustic-based songs pitched halfway between psychedelic country blues and lo-fi folk. The presence of producer Nigel Godrich, the man who helmed Radioheads acclaimed OK Computer, makes such claims dubious. Godrich is not a slick producer, but hes no Calvin Johnson, either, and Mutations has an appropriately clean, trippy feel. Theres little question that with the blues, country, psych, bossa nova, and folk that comprise it, Mutations was never meant to be a commercial endeavor -- theres no floor-shaker like "Where Its At," and it doesnt trade in the junk culture that brought Odelay to life. Recording with his touring band -- marking the first time he has entered the studio with a live band -- does result in a different sound, but its not so much a departure as it is a side road that is going in the same direction. None of the songs explore new territory, but theyre rich, lyrically and musically. Theres an off-the-cuff wit to the songwriting, especially on "Canceled Check" and "Bottle of Blues," and the performances are natural, relaxed, and laid-back, without ever sounding complacent. In fact, one of the nifty tricks of Mutations is how it sounds simple upon the first listen, then reveals more psychedelic layers upon each play. Beck is not only a startling songwriter -- his best songs are simultaneously modern and timeless -- he is a sharp record-maker, crafting albums that sound distinct and original, no matter how much they may borrow. In its own quiet, organic way, Mutations confirms this as much as either Mellow Gold or Odelay. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 15 Title: Midnite Vultures Released: 1999-11-20 Tracks: 12 Duration: 55:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Sexx Laws (03:39) 2 Nicotine & Gravy (05:12) 3 Mixed Bizness (04:10) 4 Get Real Paid (04:20) 5 Hollywood Freaks (03:59) 6 Peaches & Cream (04:54) 7 Broken Train (04:11) 8 Milk & Honey (05:19) 9 Beautiful Way (05:43) 10 Pressure Zone (03:06) 11 Debra (05:38) 12 Arabian Nights (05:36) |
| Midnite Vultures : Allmusic album Review : By calling the muted psychedelic folk-rock, blues, and Tropicalia of Mutations a stopgap, Beck set expectations for Midnite Vultures unreasonably high. Ironically, Midnite Vultures doesnt feel like a sequel to Odelay -- its a genre exercise, like Mutations. This time, Beck delves into soul, funk, and hip-hop, touching on everything from Stax/Volt to No Limit but using Prince as his home base. Hes eschewed samples, more or less, but not the aesthetic. Even when a song is reminiscent of a particular style, its assembled in strange, exciting ways. As it kicks off with "Sexx Laws," its hard not to get caught up in the rush, and "Nicotine & Gravy" carries on the vibe expertly, as does the party jam "Mixed Bizness" and the full-on electro workout "Get Real Paid," an intoxicating number that sounds like a Black Album reject. So far, so good -- the songs are tight, catchy, and memorable, the production dense. Then comes "Hollywood Freaks." The self-conscious gangsta goof is singularly irritating, not least because of Becks affected voice. Its the first on Midnite Vultures to feel like a parody, and its such an awkward, misguided shift in tone that it colors the rest of the album. Tributes now sound like send-ups, allusions that once seemed affectionate feel snide, and the whole thing comes off as a little jive. Musically, Midnite Vultures is filled with wonderful little quirks, but these are undercut by the sneaking suspicion that for all the ingenuity, its just a hipster joke. Humor has always been a big part of Becks music, but it was gloriously absurd, never elitist. Here, its delivered with a smug smirk, undercutting whatever joy the music generates. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 15 Title: Stray Blues: A Collection of B-Sides Released: 2000-06-01 Tracks: 8 Duration: 29:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Totally Confused (03:30) 2 Halo of Gold (04:29) 3 Burro (03:13) 4 Brother (04:47) 5 Lemonade (02:21) 6 Electric Music and the Summer People (03:35) 7 Clock (03:17) 8 Feather in Your Cap (03:45) |
 | Album: 9 of 15 Title: Sea Change Released: 2002-09-21 Tracks: 13 Duration: 56:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Golden Age (04:36) 2 Paper Tiger (04:35) 3 Guess I’m Doing Fine (04:49) 4 Lonesome Tears (05:37) 5 Lost Cause (03:47) 6 End of the Day (05:03) 7 It’s All in Your Mind (03:06) 8 Round the Bend (05:15) 9 Already Dead (03:19) 10 Sunday Sun (04:44) 11 Little One (04:26) 12 Side of the Road (03:23) 13 Ship in the Bottle (03:23) |
| Sea Change : Allmusic album Review : Beck has always been known for his ever-changing moods -- particularly since they often arrived one after another on one album, sometimes within one song -- yet the shift between the neon glitz of Midnite Vultures and the lush, somber Sea Change is startling, and not just because it finds him in full-on singer/songwriter mode, abandoning all of the postmodern pranksterism of its predecessor. Whats startling about Sea Change is how it brings everything thats run beneath the surface of Becks music to the forefront, as if hes unafraid to not just reveal emotions, but to elliptically examine them in this wonderfully melancholy song cycle. If, on most albums prior to this, Becks music was a sonic kaleidoscope -- each song shifting familiar and forgotten sounds into colorful, unpredictable combinations -- this discards genre-hopping in favor of focus, and the concentration pays off gloriously, resulting in not just his best album, but one of the greatest late-night, brokenhearted albums in pop. This, as many reviews and promotional interviews have noted, is indeed a breakup album, but its not a bitter listen; it has a wearily beautiful sound, a comforting, consoling sadness. His words are often evocative, but not nearly as evocative as the music itself, which is rooted equally in country-rock (not alt-country), early-70s singer/songwriterism, and baroque British psychedelia. With producer Nigel Godrich, Beck has created a warm, enveloping sound, with his acoustic guitar supported by grand string arrangements straight out of Paul Buckmaster, eerie harmonies, and gentle keyboards among other subtler touches that give this record a richness that unveils more with each listen. Surely, some may bemoan the absence of the careening, free-form experimentalism of Odelay, but Becks gifts as a songwriter, singer, and musician have never been as brilliant as they are here. As Sea Change is playing, it feels as if Beck singing to you alone, revealing painful, intimate secrets that mirror your own. Its a genuine masterpiece in an era with too damn few of them. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 15 Title: Guero Released: 2005-03-16 Tracks: 13 Duration: 49:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 E‐Pro (03:22) 2 Qué onda güero (03:29) 3 Girl (03:29) 4 Missing (04:43) 5 Black Tambourine (02:47) 6 Earthquake Weather (04:26) 1 Hell Yes (03:17) 2 Broken Drum (04:29) 3 Scarecrow (04:15) 4 Go It Alone (04:08) 5 Farewell Ride (04:18) 6 Rental Car (03:06) 7 Emergency Exit (04:03) |
| Guero : Allmusic album Review : Ever since his thrilling 1994 debut with Mellow Gold, each new Beck album was a genuine pop cultural event, since it was never clear which direction he would follow. Kicking off his career as equal parts noise-prankster, indie folkster, alt-rocker, and ironic rapper, hes gone to extremes, veering between garishly ironic party music to brooding heartbroken Baroque pop, and this unpredictability is a large part of his charm, since each album was distinct from the one before. That remains true with Guero, his eighth album (sixth if you dont count 1994s Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot in the Grave, which some dont), but the surprising thing here is that it sounds for all the world like a good, straight-ahead, garden-variety Beck album, which is something hed never delivered prior to this 2005 release. In many ways, Guero is deliberately designed as a classicist Beck album, a return to the sound and aesthetic of his 1996 masterwork, Odelay. After all, hes reteamed with the producing team of the Dust Brothers, who are widely credited for the dense, sample-collage sound of Odelay, and the light, bright Guero stands in stark contrast to the lush melancholy of 2002s Sea Change while simultaneously bearing a knowing kinship to the sound that brought him his greatest critical and commercial success in the mid-90s. This has all the trappings of being a cold, calculating maneuver, but the album never plays as crass. Instead, it sounds as if Beck, now a husband and father in his mid-thirties, is revisiting his older aesthetic and sensibility from a new perspective. The sound has remained essentially the same -- its still a kaleidoscopic jumble of pop, hip-hop, and indie rock, with some Brazilian and electro touches thrown in -- but Beck is a hell of a lot calmer, never indulging in the lyrical or musical flights of fancy or the absurdism that made Mellow Gold and Odelay such giddy listens. He now operates with the skill and precision of a craftsman, never dumping too many ideas into one song, paring his words down to their essentials, mixing the record for a wider audience than just his friends. Consequently, Guero never is as surprising or enthralling as Odelay, but Beck is also not trying to be as wild and funny as he was a decade ago. Hes shifted away from exaggerated wackiness -- which is good, since it wouldnt wear as well on a 34 year old as it would on a man a decade younger -- and concentrated on the record-making, winding up with a thoroughly enjoyable LP that sounds warm and familiar upon the first play and gets stronger with each spin. No, its not a knockout, the way his first few records were, but its a successful mature variation on Odelay, one that proves that Becks sensibility will continue to reap rewards for him as he enters his second decade of recording. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 15 Title: The Information Released: 2006-10-02 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:01:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Elevator Music (03:38) 2 Think I’m in Love (03:19) 3 Cellphone’s Dead (04:45) 4 Strange Apparition (03:48) 5 Soldier Jane (03:58) 6 Nausea (02:55) 7 New Round (03:25) 8 Dark Star (03:45) 9 We Dance Alone (03:56) 10 No Complaints (03:00) 11 1000BPM (02:29) 12 Motorcade (04:15) 13 The Information (03:45) 14 Movie Theme (03:53) 15 The Horrible Fanfare / Landslide / Exoskeleton (10:36) |
| The Information : Allmusic album Review : Beck began work on 2006s The Information after Sea Change but before he reunited with the Dust Brothers for 2005s Guero, eventually finishing the album after Guero was generally acclaimed as a return to Odelay form. So, it shouldnt come as a great surprise that The Information falls somewhere between those two records, at least on sonic terms. Musically, its certainly a kindred spirit to Guero, meaning that it hearkens back to the collage of loose-limbed, quirky white-boy funk-rock and rap that brought Beck fame at the peak of the alt-rock revolution, with hints of the psychedelia of Mutations and the folk-rock that was the basis for Sea Change. Since this is a Nigel Godrich production, its meticulous and precise even when it wants to give the illusion of spontaneity, which isnt necessarily a bad thing, since it also pulls the album into focus, something that the generally fine Guero could have used. Guero had many strengths, but its biggest weakness was the general sense that it was unfinished, a suspicion fostered by its endless issues in deluxe editions and remixes. Beck embraced these changes, most extravagantly on the cover of Wired, where he was hailing the future of the album, which would now no longer be seen as finished: it would be a project that covered a certain amount of time, the artist would package it one way, then listeners would offer their own spin. That is precisely what Guero turned out to be, so it would have made sense that The Information would run further down that field, particularly because it has a design-your-own-art for its cover and is supplemented by a DVD filled with quick-n-dirty videos for each of its songs. But Beck isnt so easily pigeonholed: as it turns out, The Information is far more of a proper album than Guero, coming fully equipped with recurring themes and motifs, feeling every bit the concept album Sea Change was. Credit might go partially to his collaboration with Godrich -- who is nothing if not a taskmaster, helping to sharpen and focus erratic talents like Paul McCartney and Stephen Malkmus (for good in the former, not as good in the latter) -- but this also feels like the work of a refocused Beck, who shook off the cobwebs by reuniting with the Dust Brothers, thereby getting his "return to Odelay form" notices out of the way, and then getting down to the real work here on The Information, as he tackles the hyper-saturated info-world of the new millennium here. If it initially seems like surprises are in short supply on The Information -- even when the tracks take a left turn, it doesnt feel like Beck and Godrich are wandering off the map -- the craft is strong and assured, and closer listens reveal the depth of the detail within the album, whether its in the construction of the production or how those productions illuminate Becks themes. Ever the obscurist, Becks meanings arent always crystal clear, which is no doubt deliberate, but his overall intent is easier to ascertain, especially when "Cellphones Dead" juts up against "Nausea." Theres a greater sense of craft here, and while craft isnt necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Beck, its what happens when an eccentric sticks around for over a decade: he turns pro. Hes done his exploring and now hes learning how to apply what hes discovered. While this may have the inevitable side effect of making his music a little less bracing and exciting, at least on first listen -- and thats especially true when hes in his pop chameleon mode as he is here, since it often seemed like his collages were quickly thrown together instead of immaculately assembled as they are here -- it nevertheless makes for a well-constructed, intriguing, and satisfying album, which The Information assuredly is. Upon first listen, it might seem to slide by a little bit on texture and sound instead of song, but that doesnt necessarily mean it feels even as groove-oriented and hip-hop-driven as Guero (let alone Midnite Vultures), despite the fact that many of the best tracks are built on muscular, intricate rhythms, like the dense, paranoid "Nausea" or the opening fanfare of "Elevator Music." But those further listens -- something that a neo-concept album like this demands anyway -- reveal the complexity within the productions, and how Beck is bridging the two sides of his personality, finding a common ground between his folk roots and art rock sides. All those little details give each cut a dramatic flow, and as the cuts pile up, they all add up to something. Like a picture where you have to stare intently to find the hidden item buried in a seas of colored dots, it can be far too easy on The Information to look at the individual dots and not see the big picture -- but at least here the dots are interesting in and of themselves. And if you give it time, The Information eventually reveals itself as Becks tightest, most purposeful album yet. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 15 Title: Modern Guilt Released: 2008-07-05 Tracks: 10 Duration: 33:42 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Orphans (03:15) 2 Gamma Ray (02:56) 3 Chemtrails (04:40) 4 Modern Guilt (03:14) 5 Youthless (02:59) 6 Walls (02:22) 7 Replica (03:25) 8 Soul of a Man (02:36) 9 Profanity Prayers (03:43) 10 Volcano (04:28) |
| Modern Guilt : Allmusic album Review : At first glance, it seems like the teaming of Beck and Danger Mouse is a perfect pairing of postmodern pranksters, as neither musician has shaken the first impression hes made: for most, Beck is still seen as that ironic Loser, trawling through pop cultures junk heap, while Danger Mouse is the maverick of The Grey Album, the mash-up of the Beatles and Jay-Z that reads like a joke but doesnt play like one. Close listening to either mans body of work easily dispels these notions, as Beck has spent as much time mining the murky melancholia of Mutations as he has crafting neon freakouts like Midnite Vultures. Hes made a career bouncing from one extreme to the other, occasionally revisiting the cut n paste collage that would have seemed like a natural fit for the sample-centric Danger Mouse, but when he partnered with Danger Mouse in 2008, Becks pendulum was swinging away from the Odelay aesthetic, as he spent two records on the lighter side, thereby dictating a turn toward the dark. As it happens, this is Danger Mouses true forte, as his productions have almost uniformly been dark, impressionistic pop-noir, whether hes working with Damon Albarn on the Gorillaz or the Good, the Bad & the Queen, or collaborating with Cee-Lo as Gnarls Barkley (whose fluke hit "Crazy" had nasty rumbling undercurrents) or even blues-rockers the Black Keys. So, he turns out to be a perfect fit for Beck, just perhaps not in the way that many might expect, although the title of their album Modern Guilt should be a big tip-off that these ten tracks are hardly all sunshine and roses. Compared to the waves of grief on Sea Change, Modern Guilt trips easily, as this is a deft tapestry of drum loops, tape splices, and chugging guitars pitched halfway between new wave and Sonic Youth. This may not brood but its impossible to deny its heaviness, either in its tone or its lyrics. Beck peppers Modern Guilt with allusions to jets, warheads, suicide, all manners of modern maladies, and if the words dont form coherent pictures, the lines that catch the ear create a vivid portrait of unease, a vibe that Danger Mouse mirrors with his densely wound yet spare production. As on his work with Albarn and the Black Keys, Danger Mouse doesnt impose his own aesthetic as much as he finds a way to make it fit with Becks, so everything here feels familiar, whether its the swinging 60s spy riff on "Gamma Ray," the rangy blues on "Soul of Man," the stiff shuffle of the title track, or the thick and gauzy "Chemtrails," which harks back to the sluggish, narcotic psychedelia of Mutations. Danger Mouse assists not only with execution but with focus, pulling in Modern Guilt at just over half an hour, which is frankly a relief after the unending sprawl of The Information and Guero. Its leanness is one of the greatest attributes of Modern Guilt, as every song stays as long as it needs to, then lingers behind in memory, leaving behind a collection of echoes and impressions. If anything, Modern Guilt may be just a little bit too transient, as it doesnt dig quite as deep as its subjects might suggest, but thats also par for the course for both Beck and Danger Mouse: they tend to prefer feel to form. Here, they deliver enough substance and style to make Modern Guilt an effective dosage of 21st century paranoia. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 15 Title: Morning Phase Released: 2014-02-21 Tracks: 13 Duration: 47:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cycle (00:39) 2 Morning (05:19) 3 Heart Is a Drum (04:31) 4 Say Goodbye (03:29) 5 Blue Moon (04:02) 6 Unforgiven (04:34) 7 Wave (03:40) 8 Don’t Let It Go (03:09) 9 Blackbird Chain (04:26) 10 Phase (01:07) 11 Turn Away (03:05) 12 Country Down (04:00) 13 Waking Light (05:00) |
| Morning Phase : Allmusic album Review : Often pigeonholed as being prolific to a fault, Beck took an extended break from recording after the 2008 release of Modern Guilt. He kept himself busy, producing acclaimed albums for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thurston Moore, and Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, blowing off steam via his mischievous Record Club (an online series where he and his friends covered classic albums), and then easing back to original songwriting through the ambitious Song Reader project, a folio containing sheet music for 20 unrecorded songs. He also suffered a spinal injury in 2008, a fact not publicized until he was ready to release Morning Phase, his first album in six years, early in 2014. As Morning Phase is a slow, shimmering album deliberately in the vein of classic singer/songwriter LPs, its easy to think of it as a pained, confessional sequel to Sea Change, the 2002 record written and recorded in the wake of a painful romantic breakup. Beck didnt shy away from these comparisons, calling it a "companion piece" to his acclaimed 2002 LP, and as "Morning" glimmers into view, sounding for all the world like "Golden Age," it almost seems as if Beck covered himself as part of the Record Club. Morning Phase soon develops its own distinct gait, one thats a little more relaxed than its cousin. Crucially, Beck has swapped sorrow for mere melancholy, a shift in attitude that makes this 2014 album sweeter than its predecessor, a distinction sometimes distinguished by moments where words, traditionally the sadness signifiers for sensitive troubadours, are washed away by cascading waves of candy-colored sound. Underneath this warm, enveloping aural blanket lie some sturdily constructed compositions -- the haunting "Heart Is a Drum," bringing to mind memories of Nick Drake; the loping country-rock "Say Goodbye" and its sister "Country Down"; "Blue Moon," where the skies part like the breaking dawn -- but the abiding impression left from this album is one of comfort, not despair, which makes Morning Phase distinctly different than its companion Sea Change. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 15 Title: Song Reader: Twenty Songs by Beck Released: 2014-07-29 Tracks: 20 Duration: 1:05:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Title of This Song (04:55) 2 Please Leave a Light On When You Go (02:42) 3 The Wolf Is on the Hill (02:22) 4 Just Noise (02:00) 5 Last Night You Were a Dream (03:23) 6 Saint Dude (04:06) 7 I’m Down (03:04) 8 Heaven’s Ladder (03:18) 9 Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard (03:27) 10 Sorry (02:04) 11 Eyes That Say “I Love You” (03:18) 12 Rough on Rats (02:48) 13 Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings (05:11) 14 The Last Polka (04:33) 15 Old Shanghai (02:55) 16 Why Did You Make Me Care? (04:40) 17 America, Here’s My Boy (03:05) 18 We All Wear Cloaks (02:30) 19 Do We? We Do (02:52) 20 Mutilation Rag (02:08) |
 | Album: 15 of 15 Title: Colors Released: 2017-10-13 Tracks: 10 Duration: 39:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Colors (04:21) 2 Seventh Heaven (05:00) 3 I’m So Free (04:07) 4 Dear Life (03:44) 5 No Distraction (04:32) 6 Dreams (Colors mix) (04:56) 7 Wow (03:42) 8 Up All Night (03:10) 9 Square One (02:55) 10 Fix Me (03:13) |
| Colors : Allmusic album Review : Time was ripe in 2017 for Beck to deliver a "fun" album, the kind of elastic, eclectic pop that was his calling card back in the 90s. The last time Beck truly cut loose was maybe 2006s The Information, which was lighter than either the coiled 2008 LP Modern Guilt or the slow, sepia-toned Morning Phase, which took home the Album of the Year Grammy in 2015. For all of its bustling beats and hooks, The Information carried a paranoiac undertone suiting the age of Total Information Awareness, a subtle political commentary thats utterly absent on the bright, shiny Colors. Recorded in conjunction with Greg Kurstin -- a producer best known for his work with Adele but he is also a member of the stylish retro-pop outfit the Bird and the Bee and has previously toured with Beck -- Colors celebrates its surface, eschewing the very notion that there can be something more to a good time than a party. Given the albums unusually long gestation period -- the recording began in 2013, with the first single "Dreams" arriving in 2015 and the album coming two years later -- perhaps its a surprise that Colors isnt especially deep but, if thats so, its also a surprise that the album doesnt seem particularly labored either. Certainly, Colors is busy, bustling with shifting textures and rhythms -- elements that are pushed to the forefront, with Becks voice being another piece in the tapestry. This isnt to say Colors doesnt serve up hooks or melodies: in fact, thats all that it does, circling through exuberant dance-rock, new wave ballads, mock hip-hop, and candied pop. Unlike earlier Beck albums, Colors doesnt feel like a Whitmans Sampler, as he and Kurstin worked overtime to make sure this all sounds sleek and unified. While that might mean Colors doesnt offer the depth and intrigue of most Beck albums, it does mean its a fun confection. Its a record thats designed to be nothing but a good time, and that indeed is all that it is. | ||