Mellow Gold has some of my favorite lyrics ever on it.
Acid casualty with a repossessed carVietnam vet playin air guitar
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 16:40 (one month ago) link
I decided beck started out as an excellent lyricist who just got worse over time. I sing stuff off one foot in the grave all the time. It’s all so simple and honest.
Softly you would singSwinging in your swingIt wasn’t night it wasn’t day
― Comfortably numbnuts (Heez), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 17:19 (one month ago) link
i'm so curious about sea change just bc of the cover and title! i've def heard divisive opinions
― Swen, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 17:33 (one month ago) link
Don’t bother unless you need a soporific
― calstars, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 18:03 (one month ago) link
The covers band I sat in with recently did Nobody's Fault But My Own, and the song kind of grew on me.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 18:06 (one month ago) link
Still haven't really been grabbed by Mutations as a whole though
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 18:07 (one month ago) link
"oh maria" is the keeper from Mutations for me. What a great organ sound, nice drumming too.
― brimstead, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 20:14 (one month ago) link
yeah, Mutations has a lot of good chord progressions and arrangements. also, his lyrics are still cryptic enough to get by on
― Comfortably numbnuts (Heez), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 20:17 (one month ago) link
To this day I don't know what separates Mutations (I like) and Sea Change (I don't) -- humor?
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 20:31 (one month ago) link
that, and an actual pulse
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 20:32 (one month ago) link
Quite enjoyed Sea Change at the time, as it came out right at a time when I was feeling sorry for myself after a breakup. A lot of it is pastiche (Gainsbourg, Dylan, Nick Drake, Hank Williams) but still enjoyable. Completely tuned out after that though
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 20:35 (one month ago) link
Sea Change is really good
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 21:15 (one month ago) link
Oh Alfred I would 100% say mutations is better due to a lack of boring lyrics
― Comfortably numbnuts (Heez), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:38 (one month ago) link
Mutations doesn't have its heart on its sleeve, there's still an element of surrealism and distance kept over from his earlier songs.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:31 (one month ago) link
that's it
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:35 (one month ago) link
Sea Change rules, insanity in this thread
Though the real slept on Beck record (and his last "great" album to date imo) is The Information which nobody ever talks about...
― Davey D, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:41 (one month ago) link
counterpoint: as a Beck fan since the original 1994 trifecta, Sea Change is terrible.
now Guero, that's a better post-2000 record that hasn't been mentioned yet in this revive iirc! also his super cool online experiments, those whole-album covers, etc
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:26 (one month ago) link
"Not unlike Prince, he seems to have a formidable & tantalizing vault – he’s always referencing unreleased genre exercises, collabs, scrapped albums, finished albums that were shelved, etc. "
I know a guy who did some engineering for Beck in the late 00's. He described every session as basically a different genre exercise. Mostly in the styles you would expect from Beck. He would record several ideas in whatever genre they set up for and then the next session they would set up for a completely different style of music. I don't think any of the stuff he worked on was released.
― bbq, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:27 (one month ago) link
tbrr Sea Change is up there in my top ten most-disappointed-by-an-artist-I-was-into moments, surely we have a thread for that somewhere?
(xp kinda)
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:28 (one month ago) link
those early Sea Change-era shows though were amazing. i used to have several bootlegs from those shows - think it was him solo with smokey hormel occasionally.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:29 (one month ago) link
I think I last saw him in 2003? in Portland OR, full band, the show was moved from the big venue to a smaller one b/c of low ticket sales
they opened with "Novocane" and I was ecstatic, there was a downer acoustic Sea Change set but the rest was great
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:39 (one month ago) link
Hopefully they survive. Beck thought a lot of his unreleased stuff was likely destroyed in the Universal fire. His management walked that back with no real details.
YES. That was my first time seeing him and it was amazing. The covers alone were stunning: it varied per show but they included "Sunday Morning" (VU), "Love" (John Lennon), some Hank Williams (senior of course), I think some Big Star ("Kanga Roo" and maybe Chris Bell's "I Am the Cosmos" which he still does), maybe even Nick Drake, definitely some folk covers...all of it weaved seamlessly with the Sea Change material which IIRC didn't have an official title yet.
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:43 (one month ago) link
that sounds amazing. anyone else heard his Philip Glass tribute/cover thing?
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:48 (one month ago) link
xp i just randomly checked one show from that tour and he performed the following covers one night:
prince - raspberry beretdigital underground - the humpty dancerolling stones - no expectationsr. kelly - bump 'n grindnelly - hot in herevelvet underground - sunday morning
37 song set to boot!
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:51 (one month ago) link
damn "No Expectations"!! I gotta look for some of those ROIOs
I <3 Smokey, got to talk to him at the 1996 Odelay show here in town that I have documented elsewhere on ILX, insane sellout blowout madness. My girlfriend lost her shoe, and it was the same weekend as the record show where Mr. Beck almost bought a copy of the Pink Panther OST from me, but it wasn't minty enough for him.
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 00:52 (one month ago) link
It's getting hot in hereAphids ate up all my clothes
― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 03:12 (one month ago) link
I listened to Guero for the first time a couple of months ago and it's actually a pretty fun and efficient record. There was a sweet BoC remix of Broken Drum at the time too.The last great stuff he did was the run of singles he released on in the early 2010s - sad spacey synthetic jams. Internet tells me it was supposed to be part of an album called Roccoco, which he ultimately scrapped.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 09:09 (one month ago) link
diff btw Mutations and Sea Change is too much Nigel Godrich all over the latter
― fetter, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 09:36 (one month ago) link
Having immersed myself in early Beck as a teen-obsessive, owning Loser and Beercan CD singles, the effect of listening to Mutations at the moment of its release was a unique exercise. I recall feeling a strain to enjoy what I was listening to, a series of mid-tempo great-sounding songs that triggered no delight, no mystification. "Tropicalia" was the outlier on the album-- its tempo exceeded 100 bpm unlike the rest-- but even then it felt too pastel pastiche, no difficulty, no risk. It was only the bonus track ("Diamond Bollocks") that hinted at a possible exciting future, and I found myself looking forward to Midnite Vultures for that reason alone
Then Midnite Vultures came out and I was non-plussed. It's interesting to hear tracks from it pop up in playlists in present day, because it always sounds fun and great to my ears now, but at the time, idk. I'd heard Miss Kitten "Frank Sinatra" that year and was on the cusp of full-tilt electroclash enthusiasm. Midnite Vultures was so tidy-sounding in comparison, maybe that was it. It felt too safe, or something.
I think I bought Sea Change when it came out, but it seemed to me to be more of a "David Campbell showcase" than anything else. David's arrangements on it are career-high inventiveness, he went full Jean-Claude Vannier and hit all the targets. I don't think it's fair to saddle Nigel Godrich with the responsibility for how well those albums turned out. I said upthread that these three albums have "normal qualities" instead of "abnormal qualities" and that's kind of what they are. They're "good albums", they just don't touch the same synapses that earlier Beck albums touched
― braaam.flac (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 14:54 (one month ago) link
Modern Guilt might actually be my favourite Beck record: it's a compact ten songs, and sits directly in the middle of his depressive-acoustic to whimsical-rhythmic spectrum.― Halfway there but for you
― Halfway there but for you
i actually love modern guilt a lot myself, i was big into my indie landfill phase in '08-'09 listening to shit like rubik, i still love that stuff but it's a million miles away from where i am now
he does have a shit-ton of weird shit, most of the albums focus on, like, songs and stuff, but he'll do these weird one-offs, like he had that record club project where he's doing a full cover of yanni's "life at the acropolis" with some sonic youth folks... i've never heard the original, i should probably listen to it sometimes. because beck's cover is this weird prog-noise thing. or, like... he made a 10 minute tribute to harry partch in response to an obscure twitter beef fiery furnaces had with radiohead. or "nyc 73-78", this 20 minute philip glass remix that's fucking excellent. or whatever the fuck "gimme (extended version)" is.
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 16:33 (one month ago) link
Yeah the harry partch thing is the one off that I like the most
― calstars, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 16:45 (one month ago) link
YESS I was trying to remember if I imagined that Harry Partch thing, it was so good
― braaam.flac (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 18:55 (one month ago) link
I owned five guayaberas because of Beck.
― braaam.flac (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, March 11, 2024 12:14 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink
How come there isn't a thread where ilxors disclose the most embarrassing shit their fandom of an artist or band has compelled them to purchase?
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 14 March 2024 19:31 (one month ago) link
i purchased one foot in the grave (a great album!) on vinyl
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 14 March 2024 20:13 (one month ago) link
Don’t go carvin’ no happy face on my tombstone
― calstars, Thursday, 14 March 2024 20:24 (one month ago) link
I looked good in those guayaberas. I lived in a small town it was the 90s all my friends were wearing Gap
― braaam.flac (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 15 March 2024 00:20 (one month ago) link
because they loved the Swing Kings?
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 15 March 2024 17:00 (one month ago) link
owning guayaberas because of Beck = not particularly embarrassing, of course. rather i was thinking i have done 100x worse
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 15 March 2024 17:02 (one month ago) link
I mean, those swing commercials delighted us all at the time, khakis for every teen
― braaam.flac (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 15 March 2024 17:02 (one month ago) link
nothing wrong with a guayaberas IMO
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 15 March 2024 23:18 (one month ago) link
please mentally remove the plural that was a copypaste mistake
re: beck, I also liked his cover of Skip Spence's Oar.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 15 March 2024 23:20 (one month ago) link