Beck Albums Poll

I I remember very clearly the joy of finding “stereopathic” at the local loser record shop a few months after hearing MG while getting juiced up beyond belief

I'm listening to the MV b-sides and some of them should definitely replace some of the album tracks.

mutations

I'll be that lone anachronistic K Records-minded weirdo who votes for One Foot In The Grave, an album that felt snug as the perfect glove the first time I heard it in 1994 and somehow still does. If that album didn't exist, I'd have voted for Odelay (perfect alt-pop (Beck) or Stereopathic Soulmanure (wonky early crust/kitchen sink Beck) or Morning Phase (ambient Beck that should've been on my top ten list the year it came out).

― The Harsh Tutelage of Michael McDonald (Raymond Cummings)

Here, here!

I never cared much for his earlier "noise-pop-hop"-oriented material (although it certainly grew on me sine) , ...Grave is like he was getting his Bob Dylan/Self Portrait shtick outta the way right up front. I enjoy how genuinely collaborative it feels and the un-snarkiness of its delivery.

A true slacker masterpiece.

i love K Records and i like "One Foot" but prefer the more anarchic "Stereopathetic" (which is just as much fake folk as it is noise). the little spoken word snapshots bring to mind Van Dyke Parks or anthropological Folkways-style recordings. the sound of Beck running down the stairs in a stairway in the middle of the acapella breakdown in "Today Has Been a Fucked Up Day" to unpause the tape recorder. i love it so much, it's so tactile. imo "One Foot" is less playful, more serious faced, more in line with "Sea Change"/"Morning Phase" and the boring 70s singer songwriter stuff he wins Grammy's for.

I think the avalanches are the worthy and proper successors to beck

they supported him in 1997* and obv blew him off stage

* when Beck's band had a DJ and the Avs didn't

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the sound of Beck running down the stairs in a stairway in the middle of the acapella breakdown in "Today Has Been a Fucked Up Day" to unpause the tape recorder. i love it so much, it's so tactile.

Yes, I love that a lot, too. I was just listening to that song the other day and it occurred to me for the first time that the 'woo-hoo' call and response at the end could've been some totally unplanned thing where someone on the street overheard him and 'woo-hoo'-ed back at him. Beck sounds like he's laughing and wasn't expecting it. However it played out, it's all great.

^^^^

Also, you will hear nothing resembling these songs on Sea Change or Morning Phase, FYI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq1o7EWu2K0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMO0DfPwWuo

The songs that don't sound like those songs are under-produced, weedy, full of weird mad-libs lyrics, not performed in the sincerely bummed attitude of the above named albums. I hate arguing on ILX, but this is a deeply weird comparison to me.

(I'll concede that "One Foot" lacks the whizz-bang weirdness of the other mid-1990s Beck releases.)

(I'm probably being a bit of a jerk here - I guess I just hear One Foot as vividly separate from those other records.)

Midnite Vultures (1999)

Finally decided, voting
Odelay.

Definitely One Foot in the Grave.

Favorite thing is still the non-album "Mexico." Not into much of him after that era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubHZid-n6eQ

Odelay > OFITG > Midnite Vultures > Mellow Gold > Mutations > the rest. Another day this ordering would change.

Going with Odelay, which is how I discovered his music in the first place. I absolutely hated Midnite Vultures when it came out because it exudes sheer fun.

Pixelated doctors
Realistic tears

Could have voted MG, went with Odelay, but those two records plus One Foot, were definitely baked into my life circa 94-96, I still probably know all the words to Odelay. MV I could never get into though I haven't attempted to listen to it in 20 yrs. Everything else feels so joyless and I dunno...I saw him on the Odelay tour and it was bonkers and so much fun and I saw him on the tour he did with the Flaming Lips and it was soul crushing.

lol i saw some videos of them playing Beck songs, soul crushing indeed. Lips are a punk/noise act with one decent musician, Beck's music requires pro players.

Midnight Vultures turned me off initially (i remember feeling embarrassed for him during my first listen of "Hollywood Freaks") but i quickly came around to it. hearing the incredible b-sides helped (<3 "This is My Crew") but hearing "Get Real Paid" on a loud soundsystem while at a party a few years later sealed the deal that yes MV is something special.

see also "Nicotine And Gravy" - my favorite "deep cut" of his

the only MV b-side I recall really digging is "Salt In The Wound"

the would-be title track is really nice

"Dirty Dirty" is pretty sick too. like if Cornelius made a record with Prince

Arabian Nights also

oh man i love the ending of that, when it stops and the acoustic comes in and then you hear a rooster crow and the organ comes in. really captures the morning suddenly breaking after a crazy night.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Correct top two, though I'd reverse the order.

i don't need no wheels i don't need no gasoline
cos the wind that is blowing is blowing like a smoke machine

I will never understand the excessive praise this board has for Midnite Vultures.

^^otm

same for Mutations

http://i68.tinypic.com/2dskdpe.jpg

gonna vote Odelay, Dust Bros had one trick that worked well twice and never again but it was a really good trick.

Whoa, I thought MG had this for sure.

Only serious qualm is that OFITG is easily top four.

gonna vote Odelay, Dust Bros had one trick that worked well twice and never again but it was a really good trick

absolute nonsense,they had plenty of good records after Know How and Once Upon A Drive By

gonna vote Odelay, Dust Bros had one trick that worked well twice and never again but it was a really good trick.

― omar little, Monday, March 26, 2018 5:21 PM (two hours ago)

Wild Thing & Bust A Move?

read one post above you

(neither of those were produced by the Dust Brothers.)

My favorite albums. Funny how Beck became a rockist fall guy after his Grammy win but began as a prankster (with Tom Petty covering him quickly but whatever).

Ya good ranking, good list. I had Beck on my wall at one point! I tried to dress like him! I got off the bus with Mutations, and rank Stereopathetic Soul Manure as high as the other classic three. The strings on Sea Change are beautiful and Modern Guilt is overall terrific.

Bruh, u makin' me feel crazy, discussing OFITG songs I've never heard of and lo, I discover that there's a whole double-length deluxe version whose existence has eluded me. I know what I'm digging into this weekend.

Totally feel you on the Sea Change-induced sea change. I was so all-in up to that point, but what I've heard since hasn't promoted much effort to hear more.

No love for Stereopathetic? I mean, I know it's basically his comedy album, but still.

(neither of those were produced by the Dust Brothers.)

― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Tuesday, March 27, 2018 12:18 AM (seven months ago)

sorry for the delayed response but you don't know what you're talking about amigo!

agree almost exactly with the Soto ranking: One Foot a clear first, Mellow Gold and Odelay almost equal, but Midnite Vultures (the belated Ill Communication to Odelay's Check Your) ahead of Mutations, which is 163% borified by Godrich. Had time for all the pre-Mellow material - Western Harvest, Golden Feelings, Stereopathetic, Mexico - but nothing from this millennium has stuck, even if it sounded perfectly fine at the time. Which Sea Change never did.

sorry for the delayed response but you don't know what you're talking about amigo!

both of those (and nearly all of both debut albums) were produced by Matt Dike and Michael Ross

Then there's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LK_7VwuK6E

one foot in the grave is my favorite, too. i love "i've seen the land beyond"

I'll never get the antipathy to Mutations, it's always been my fave

I'm with you.

I would rank:
Mellow>Midnite>”the wanderer” on the air album>stereopathetic

I tend to rate Midnite much higher and Mutations much lower than most. Have listened to both recently and the degree of my esteem remains unchanged (the former is fun and funny and still feels like an on-the-nose surreal repurposing of its era, the latter is still fine but kind of a snooze with only a small handful of very good songs). Odelay is great but it doesn't quite resonate for me the way his earlier stuff does (although the expanded deluxe version bumps it up the list). I think Mellow is my favorite but in actuality my answer would probably be '1994'.

for the record the line on “beercan” is “I quit my job blowin leaves,” probably my favorite moment in the song

I've heard a couple of the most recent singles on the radio and darned if they don't sound more or less like Cut Copy.

Tomorrow's MSG show with Phoenix is substantially undersold - secondary market seats as cheap as $30 (including all fees!) on TM and Stubhub. I wonder if they'll slash the unsold seats tomorrow by half or simply close the top section and move everyone down?