Beck: Classic Or Dud

It's kind of what happens when an artist gets truckloads of awards thrown at their more boring albums.

Not to begrudge the dude's success, but I think Beck could have had a more interesting career trajectory if he wasn't showered with praise for his more "safe" records.

I’d love to read a long, contemporary, in-depth interview with him - what is his life like? How does he decide what to release? Are there hard drives full of crazy stuff in his basement none of us will ever hear?

I think Beck could have had a more interesting career trajectory if he hadn't been forced back into the Scient0logy fold (iirc after Midnite Vultures), seemingly somewhat against his will

Another formerly genuinely interesting underground artist lost to the beach ball in the day-glo crowd / Coachella festival scene.

I wasn't a fan of his last album either, butv'Loser' was released over 30 years ago - I wouldn't say he's aged fast, the guy's been around a long, long time. (IMO his last top-shelf album was The Information though it should've been cut down to ten tracks. There's a couple of later albums I've grown to enjoy, but I don't think they really add anything substantial to his legacy.)

He's only two years away from releasing his dealing-with-mortality Time Out of Mind.

Wow that is a nutty thing to contemplate. Beck is old!

Kinda half-agree with jon. Mellow Gold/Stereopathetic/Grave/Odelay are formative albums for me, and the only records Beck has made since then that I've made proper time for have been The Information and Modern Guilt. (I admire Midnite Vultures but find it lacks the unhinged, unpolished quality that made his previous "wild" records pop.)

The best thing he's done is probably giving James Gadson songwriting/publishing credit on Sea Change.

My favourite song of his is the bonus track on Mutations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeohGiH6v9g

It sounds like a cover of a cover of a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows

that song is so sick

If only that vibe was sustained over an entire album! It's the "The Flaming Lips could never" song

All of the extraneous tracks from Mutations are great.

ya, runners dial zero is Quite the Vibe too

Yep.

I saw him in 2014 and thought he was very entertaining, if a little removed from the audience. Pretty much the way I feel about his albums also.

he prob still puts on a good show I would imagine, the one I saw after Sea Change was very good

very much co-sign the extra Mutations tracks, he has many many superb B-sides, comp tracks, and oddities

POX just off the top of my head
"Corvette Bummer"
"Dirty Dirty"
Cornelius remix of "Mixed Bizness"
"Mexico"
"Diamond Bollocks"
"Strange Invitation"
"Deadweight"
"Midnite Vultures"
"Spanking Room"
"Got No Mind"

My favourite song of his is the bonus track on Mutations

It sounds like a cover of a cover of a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows

― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, February 20, 2023 2:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Uh :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcfjChmxoT4

If only that vibe was sustained over an entire album! It's the "The Flaming Lips could never" song

― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 20 February 2023 19:44 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mansun's Six is kind of this btw! Another flawless victory for late-90s Pro Tools abuse. The title track especially makes me think of Diamond Bollocks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEi2cBpoAk

(Draper obvs cancelled as hell now or w/e but this goes)

He's only two years away from releasing his dealing-with-mortality Time Out of Mind.

― Halfway there but for you, Monday, February 20, 2023 12:27 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

You honestly just broke my brain w/this.

didn't he release his TOOM in 2002

Diamond Bollocks is so great. Not sure I really make the Six connection, though.

Beck isn't old because he looks about 37.

The connection presumably has to do with the song structure and edits but Six is obv a taste apocalypse full of adolescent angst whereas Diamond Bollocks takes the 60's dayglo poster paint Flips thing minus drugs plus Morricone or something.

Diamond Bollocks vs Diamond Hoo Ha by Gaz and the lads

Listening to Mutations after (many) many years, I'm struck by its melodic grace: its gentle surrealism and mock psychedelic touches -- Donovan meets Gainsborough and Caetano Veloso -- have a lightness that later acoustic "sincere" work can't match. He made Sea Change when Mutations existed. I remember the mild surprise when this was Odelay's follow-up, but within a few days I accepted it as his Bowie gesture.

such a good summation of why Sea Change and Morning Phase suck!

the hedging at the time of Mutations like, err, this isn't the Odelay followup it's another thing, was really weird. Or was that just down to him trying to release it indie and Geffen not having that in the end?

didn't he release his TOOM in 2002

His BOTT, surely.

I felt Morning Phase restored a lot of the light touch that left with Sea Change.

Morning Phase was the last Beck album that I loved, front to back, but less as a collection of separate songs (as with other albums of his) than a sort of weary ambient album that happens to have elements of folk and rock echoing below the surface.

That's actually my reaction to Morning Phase too and it's also the last one I actually enjoy from end-to-end.

Before that? Probably Mutations. Before that? Possibly Odelay. Then going back in time to the magic of the 1993/1994 era.

The albums I’m not listing all had moments that are worth relishing. If I’m honest with myself now “Sexx Laws” (and … maybe “Hollywood Freaks” and “Debra”) is all I need from Midnite Vultures. “New Round” is all I need from The Information, etc.

Every time the man puts out a record I will give it a go! My heart is open! I want to love what he does now and grow with him.

But then, we all do, right?

i remember trying a few times after sea change which was the one that really whiffed it for me. i think because beck was supposed to be this cool guy and his 'sensitive, serious' statement just seemed really basic and mopey to me. i somehow liked guero at the time but no desire to revisit.

i just really don't care about beck at this point and probably won't go back to any of it tbh, doesn't even have sentimental value for me.

xp He's definitely one of those artists that do that for me, where I will listen to everything they put out. An extreme case is Bob Dylan - partly because there's a lot more records but also some of them are so, soooo bad. But because it's Dylan, I will revisit something like Under the Red Sky and play around with the tracklist (the Genuine Bootleg Series versions of "TV Talking Song" and "Handy Dandy" are recommended) just to see if I can hear what Paul Nelson or Clinton Heylin or Robert Christgau allegedly hear in it. I hated Midnite Vultures when I first heard it, but more than a few people really liked that album (it placed at number THREE in that year's Pazz & Job poll), so I kept my copy of it. It's not a great album, but I do find a lot to enjoy in it now, especially the elements that either feel uniquely like Beck or like his tribute to classic Prince music.

jeez gonna check Morning Phase once more!

Raymond, i felt that way til Hyperspace

Maffew12, I will say that I loathed Sea Change.

Hyperspace had … an interlude that I kinda dig. Colors I may have heard once.

I listen to pretty much all the pre-Odelay material pretty much all the time. A lot of it is clearly goofy junk but he was otherwise tapping into something real, real special back then. Some of those songs are still astonishing a hundred spins later. Odelay through Midnite Vultures I revisit somewhat less frequently (although the b-sides of this era are, as noted, some of the best of what he did). Pretty sure I listened to Sea Change once and hopped off the boat.

Birdistheword, the number of artists I’m like that with is constantly dwindling, sadly.

That happened with Trent Reznor because all of the endless soundtracks. And in the last year or three PJ Harvey was another casualty, though I do want to hear whatever proper statement LP she makes next.

I think the main Beck work that I've actually gone back to over the last decade+ is his Phillip Glass interpolating epic, 'NYC 73-78'.

https://www.soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78

Hyperspace really seemed released under the radar, with a complete lack of "Beck and Pharrell made a record together" headlines. Maybe its release around the start of the pandemic made a big difference, or maybe the collaborators felt like they'd whiffed it and didn't play it up.

just wanna say how much I love Midnite Vultures, well most of it, there are some overlooked songs at the end that could almost be on Mutations. "Nicotine & Gravy" is my fave deep cut and works really well in DJ sets if you tweak the weird atonal crescendo part to be less overwhelming

It's infuriating that the guy who made Midnite Vultures recently covered "Old Man" to promote fucking Tom Brady and Sunday Night Football. Even Neil took a shot at him for that, rightly so.

just wanna say how much I love Midnite Vultures, well most of it, there are some overlooked songs at the end that could almost be on Mutations.

I love the second side: "Milkshake and Honey," "Beautiful Thing."

idk i saw some 'beck and pharrell collab!' headlines when hyperspace was announced but the music was so boring no one cared. don't think the pandemic had anything to do with it when the album came out a few months earlier

a shame because it's a pairing that could have produced something really inspired two decades earlier

Re: Midnite Vultures, the first four tracks really grew on me - they kind of feel like they should've been the soundtrack to some great Cartoon Network show. When the Flaming Lips toured with Beck, they performed "Get Real Paid" especially well.

Hyperspace felt like such a non-event, it made the letdown less surprising. I gave it one good listen and never felt like putting it on ever again. I don't think it was horrible, just very unmemorable.

Listening to Mutations after (many) many years, I'm struck by its melodic grace: its gentle surrealism and mock psychedelic touches -- Donovan meets Gainsborough and Caetano Veloso -- have a lightness that later acoustic "sincere" work can't match. He made Sea Change when Mutations existed. I remember the mild surprise when this was Odelay's follow-up, but within a few days I accepted it as his Bowie gesture.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 20, 2023 6:09 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

So true re: Mutations (contra Sea Change). For me the whole Mutations era, b-sides included, has a halo of gold over it. I also love Midnite Vultures, but I don't think surrealist Beck ever really came back after that one.

“Oh Maria” is my favorite on mutations these days, spooky kinks-y perfection

√

lol pun intended?

oh ffs that was an xp re: "halo of gold"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WfjPtVQl_Y