POLL: Beck, Sea Change

Still find this record quite dull. The musical references are very on the nose. The core songs are okay, I guess, but they sound trapped in the production, like a late REM album. … Since then I feel like he's become a very Sunday magazine supplement, "what do you exist for, exactly?" kind of artist.

Too much of Nigel Godrich in general

xxp That was the show I attended. (Remember the girl who asked him to sing happy birthday? I didn't know her at the time, but we later became classmates.)

And yes, I have the MFSL CD, and it sounds amazing when you crank it up. Enormous difference, they really compressed the shit out of the standard CD. But I used to listen to the standard CD on crappy airline-quality headphones and a flimsy, cheap ass Discman that broke after a few years, and I still loved it.

Full disclosure - my favourite experience of this record was listening to the MFSL absolutely flat out, in the dark, during a huge electrical storm on a new year's eve about 10 years ago. I sat with my family (including my mid-60s parents) and we were just swept away by the drama of the whole thing. Got through pretty much the entire album without anyone saying a word. So lots of Godrich, yeah, but I'm not sure why that's a problem.

Yeah me neither. I'm sure he doesn't bat 1.000 but what he's done for Beck, Radiohead and even Pavement (albeit their weakest batch of songs) and Paul McCartney has been consistently excellent IMHO.

hard disagree, I dislike all those examples pretty intensely, but yeah this is ultimately subjective

^ all sheen, no soul

“Satan Gave Me a Taco”>>>>>>>>>>>>Sea Change

Looks like Niel Young is not happy with Beck.

https://www.stereogum.com/2200834/neil-young-takes-a-shot-at-becks-old-man-cover-appearing-in-an-nfl-commercial/news/

Hah, no surprise.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the NFL, especially after the last 20 years (the jingoistic military recruiting, the slimy way they handled CTE risks, BLM protests and even Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction) so I can't say I'm thrilled about anyone doing promos for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_X2_eN_hao

rare lonesome tears acoustic from a few weeks ago. stunning!

Despite some good songs I find Beck's voice, in earnest sad sack mode, hard to swallow over the course of an entire album.

Most boring album of all time?

yes

good songs? Like what?