yeah it was me
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link
Have we as a board discussed how Beck would be beyond cancelled if he released Mixed Bizness today?
― dragged across concrète (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:41 (four years ago) link
have we as a board decided we're not going to debate National Review headlines?
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:42 (four years ago) link
Midnite Vultures I mean
― dragged across concrète (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:42 (four years ago) link
it sucked then and it still sucks
― brimstead, Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:46 (four years ago) link
lol I respectfully disagree
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:49 (four years ago) link
The second half (except "Debra") >>> first half
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:50 (four years ago) link
just gonna leave this here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EksGJTUaTuc
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Thursday, 23 May 2019 22:53 (four years ago) link
midnite vultures rules so much, i have no idea how he made some of the ridiculous ideas on it work
― ufo, Thursday, 23 May 2019 23:11 (four years ago) link
huh one foot in the grave is a really good album
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 23 May 2019 23:25 (four years ago) link
yes, it really is, I think "Hollow Log" placed in the recent "Best Songs Under 120 Seconds" poll?
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Thursday, 23 May 2019 23:37 (four years ago) link
thirded
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 May 2019 23:39 (four years ago) link
"forcefield" is prob gonna be high on my ballot but it's early
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 23 May 2019 23:41 (four years ago) link
“Beautiful way” is niceThe backing track of “Hollywood freaks” is niceThe chorus of “milk and honey” is pretty slammin
― brimstead, Friday, 24 May 2019 00:26 (four years ago) link
Re:Midnite Vultures, I think about that sometimes. I was young so I could be wrong, but I feel like I remember a vibe of some corners of white altrock people reading it, approvingly, as a joke/parody. Like "LOL Beck the wacky loser guy doing an R&B album, that guy'll do anything, what a laff!" (Or maybe thats just me remembering the reactions of my dumbass white suburban friends.) Where today obviously the criticism would come from the opposite angle, like "how dare he not treat these musics reverentially".
― One Eye Open, Friday, 24 May 2019 00:41 (four years ago) link
Beautiful Way will be on my ballot for sure
― Simon H., Friday, 24 May 2019 00:44 (four years ago) link
I remember a 30 second snippet of "Beautiful Way" being included as part of Windows 2000, playing it in Windows Media Player and the cover art coming up, and being like "wow i am truly living in the future"
― One Eye Open, Friday, 24 May 2019 00:55 (four years ago) link
"nicotine & gravy" will be in my top 5 for sure
― ufo, Friday, 24 May 2019 00:57 (four years ago) link
I've been listening to Beck in the car the past few days...well, Mellow Gold. A Beck poll is not the best place for misgivings, but:
1) I think half of Mellow Gold is good to great to borderline genius ("Loser").2) I tried Odelay!, too. Two songs I still love ("Devil's Haircut," "Jackass"), another good, lengthy, low-key closer, and past that a whole lot of nothing. Which I think is what I thought at the time. It won Pazz & Jop (I think it did, anyway) on sheer momentum from Mellow Gold.3) I voted for a couple of later songs in Pazz & Jop that I keep on my hard drive, "Chemtrails" and "Don't Let It Go." Listening to them right now, especially next to Mellow Gold's best songs, they seem quite marginal.
He'll make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (next year?), which he should.
― clemenza, Friday, 24 May 2019 01:12 (four years ago) link
yeah that's maybe my favorite Beck deep cut when I DJ out
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Friday, 24 May 2019 01:45 (four years ago) link
i don't think i've ever heard all of mutations before today. production on that album is really something. timelessness is not a quality i care about v much but there's a really beautiful out of time feeling to the whole record
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 02:59 (four years ago) link
Justin Meldal-Johnsen – bass, percussion, background vocalsRoger Manning – synthesizer, organ, keyboards, harpsichord, background vocals, percussion
ah i see this album marks the appearance of my main dudes
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 03:05 (four years ago) link
I'm not sure about the whole 'Momentum from Mellow Gold' thing. Prior to Odelay, a lot of people were ready to write him off as a one-hit wonder even though he had cultivated a bit of a cult following (and accrued more indie cred) thanks to OFITG. Then Odelay and "Where It's At" arrived, and suddenly HE WAS THE GUY. I remember reading some article about another artist (Garbage maybe?) in Spin wherein the writer was talking about the '97 Grammies w/Beck as "The Appointed 'Cool Guest'". To me, this was less about surfing momentum, and more like beating the odds by delivering the goods.
It's kind of forgotten now, but according to Beck, he claimed* that prior to the Dust Bros. sessions, he actually had recorded another album of what he described as guitar rock songs (of which, I think only "Minus" was released), but elected to not release it as he felt that style was passe`. I get the feeling if he had put that record out, we wouldn't be talking about him as much now (or then).
*I say 'claimed' because I just checked wiki and the unreleased album mentioned there doesn't match the stylistic description. Also: Beck is a world-class bullshitter.
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 24 May 2019 03:48 (four years ago) link
a lot of people were ready to write him off as a one-hit wonder
I think there's some truth to that, and I used to find the parallel there to Eminem really interesting: he went from the novelty of "My Name Is" to perennial Pazz & Jop guy a year later. But I also remember critical excitement over "Where's It At" (which for me was a mildly amusing cipher at best) and thinking yes, he was the guy all of sudden, but seemingly because a lot of critics had decided that in advance. Which is not unusual with follow-ups to much-discussed breakthrough albums. Except for the three songs I mentioned above, I just don't hear anything else on the album.
― clemenza, Friday, 24 May 2019 05:01 (four years ago) link
i don't think i've ever heard all of mutations before today
WHAT
Waronker does a great job on that one when he's called upon, also ("Diamond Bollocks" mostly)
― Simon H., Friday, 24 May 2019 05:10 (four years ago) link
Mutations has always been my fave and nothing will budge it
― Simon H., Friday, 24 May 2019 05:14 (four years ago) link
Same -- Lazy Flies is all-time for me, partly because of the vocab (magistrate, debris, mangroves, sulphur, trawlers, opiates, syphilis, matrons, gigolos) but also because of whatever Waronker is doing in the second half.
― orifex, Friday, 24 May 2019 05:52 (four years ago) link
Sunday Sun!
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Friday, 24 May 2019 05:56 (four years ago) link
He did "Debra" on the Odelay tour in the UK, saw it in Brixton. I remarked that he could do that high-singing (not falsetto, don't know what you'd call it) better than Prince. Too well, to be a parody as such.
― Mark G, Friday, 24 May 2019 10:07 (four years ago) link
midnite vultures is still my favorite maximalist r&b kazoo party
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:06 (four years ago) link
the banjo in "sexx laws" alone
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:08 (four years ago) link
i did not know that eye from boredoms designed the album art
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:12 (four years ago) link
xp yeah and all the slide guitar!
i really love those dissonant strings in the middle of "nicotine & gravy" and the arabic-sounding (? what's the name for that scale anyway?) breakdown at the end of it. it's a real kitchen sink sort of album in the best way
― ufo, Friday, 24 May 2019 12:21 (four years ago) link
"get real paid" is an astonishing soundworld and yet also lean and funky, i guess beck can have it both ways!!!!
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:23 (four years ago) link
did not completely understand whiney's "canceled" comment until i remembered what "hollywood freaks" is like
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:24 (four years ago) link
I was one of those listeners put off by the air of one hit wonder to avoid buying Mellow Gold but jumped on board with Mellow Gold -- with reservations. Relistening last night, I admired its commitment to get-fresh flow and the range of samples and, like in 1996-1997, never quite warmed to it. I still like Mutations as a winningly secondhand channeling of folk and tropicalia tropes; he's connecting with sound and skill, not with lyrics. Midnite Vultures impressed a lot of my friends who had never heard an Oran "Juice" Jones record. Like I posted yesterday, the more traditional Beck songs on the second side ("Milk and Honey," "Beautiful Way") boasted a tightness made possible only by the mostly failed electrofunk approximations on the first side. By the time he released Sea Change he so disgusted me with this accommodation to the sincerity market that not even the decent Guero (which people tend to forget saved his ass commercially) was enough to win me back.
I still admire him as a producer, most recently on the Jenny Lewis album.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:28 (four years ago) link
and I should say that Mellow Gold and One Foot in the Grave remain astonishments
"peaches & cream" is like a perfect nexus of at least two strains of beck's career, the groove is extremely mellow gold and he is singing a prince song on top of it
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:32 (four years ago) link
YHF and Sea Change ending as the year's top two albums in P&J's 2002 was the first time I felt adrift as a listener and critic.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:36 (four years ago) link
holy shit "milk & honey," i forgot how good this song is????
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:39 (four years ago) link
Johnny Marr in the outro!
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:40 (four years ago) link
this song is the actual nexus of beck's career
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 12:41 (four years ago) link
it has everything
god the b-side would-be title track is so good, criminal it got left off
― Simon H., Friday, 24 May 2019 12:56 (four years ago) link
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, May 24, 2019 8:24 AM (fifty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I still don't quite get why this song is significantly more objectionable than most of what he was recording around this time. is there something to it beyond cultural appropriation/playing black culture for laffs? which I don't personally put much stock in, I feel like Beck's homage/pastiche is generally fond and not cheap.
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Friday, 24 May 2019 13:28 (four years ago) link
a specifically g-funk pastiche sits weird with me, i'll have to think about it more
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 24 May 2019 13:43 (four years ago) link
It's kind of forgotten now, but according to Beck, he claimed* that prior to the Dust Bros. sessions, he actually had recorded another album of what he described as guitar rock songs (of which, I think only "Minus" was released), but elected to not release it as he felt that style was passe`.
Thats interesting, I read a similar story once but with a different style -- that he initially wanted to follow Mellow Gold with a serious downer singer-songwriter album and recorded "Ramshackle" and eventual b-sides "Feather In Your Cap" and "Brother" in those sessions, before changing his mind and hooking up with the Dust Brothers.
It's easy to imagine him after Mellow Gold, having had this major breakout success and all this youthful energy, being so interested in so many different sounds and styles and being fairly effortless at achieving them, it must have seemed like an impossible task trying to decide where to go musically. I read an interview once where he said that a few label execs told him Odelay was a career-ending mistake and it really shook him, but it was too late to change anything. He must have had some serious anxiety of influence around then.
― One Eye Open, Friday, 24 May 2019 13:49 (four years ago) link
He must have had some serious entitlement feelings after then.
― Mark G, Friday, 24 May 2019 14:09 (four years ago) link
https://www.discogs.com/label/688022-Not-On-Label-Beck-Self-released
Here's a pile of Beck cassettes that are impossible to find/hear/buy.
― Mark G, Friday, 24 May 2019 14:14 (four years ago) link
I have a few of those if anyone wants a YSI, just PM me and leave yr email
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Friday, 24 May 2019 14:15 (four years ago) link