Beck
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Beck
When Beck mangles folk, hip-hop, country, blues, and lo-fi rock into a unique sonic species, he pays homage to his influences in a way that is utterly entertaining. Indeed, the alt-rock vagabond is responsible for some of the 1990s’ most indispensable music. In his lesser moments, however, Beck’s attempts at emulating his preceptors fall flat, creating only B-grade versions of the genuine articles. Midnite Vultures splits down the middle between the great Beck and the not-so-great Beck. About half the album gorges on retro pulp fiction, a…
Beck
Now that Beck has effectively exorcised his personal demons with 2002’s hyperconfessional Sea Change, he can get back to the business of being a total fruit loop. We all know what that involves: videogame sound effects, random shouting in Spanish, and rhymes about popsicles and vegetable vans. And that’s just the second track. Guero is like every Beck album condensed into one, a no-holds-barred collision of two-turntables and a microphone with the added bonus of guitars, bossa-nova beats, Jack White, lyrics about spaceships, and dumptrucks full of…
Beck
Beck is bummed. Really bummed. And if song titles such as “Lost Cause,” “Lonesome Tears,” “Already Dead,” and “Nothing I Haven’t Seen” don’t make the point, his achingly sad lyrics and Sea Change’s unerringly downcast sound do. While 1998’s Mutations—arguably the singer-songwriter’s masterwork and Sea Change’s spiritual cousin—was filled with unflinching self-examination, moments of levity were found in songs like “Tropicalia.” Not so on Sea Change. Beck’s woozy, almost narcoleptic delivery seems to amplify the set’s sense of…
