Cause when our POLL did meet, Girl you know I was packin' heat! - ILM Artist Poll #97 - BECK (Voting is open until Saturday, June 1, 2019)

Brad intimidated me.

it's time for people to open up a bottle of wine. open up YouTube, Spotify or other and make a ballot of Beck songs.

you have just about a day and a half left...get voting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE8aJwCp2Fc

Do we feel like tracks Beck wrote and produced for other artists qualify?

If so, I'd definitely include at least this track from Charlotte Gainsbourg's 'IRM':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erbb_SNP778

From description and production aesthetic, 'Mutations' seems like it'd be an album I'd love. But at the time it came out, it left me really flat; and maybe even moreso now, it just does nothing for me. Even 'Guerro' and 'The Information,' which I never heard at the time, do more for me on listening for the purposes of this poll.

The fact it seems so beloved here makes me feel like I need to give it more chances...

The thing that pulled me back into Beck and made me realize he's actually still as brilliant as ever but mostly just not via albums was his full-album cover of 'Oar'. James Gadson's drumming throughout is just so great. That he could put together intepretations and production so fully-formed in just a day was/is mind-boggling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJonU9233Do

xp nah I was unmoved on re-listening, which I had to do on Spotify cuz it turns out I didn't even bother to keep a digital rip of a record I used to own on both (now very rare) vinyl and (now dirt cheap) CD.

The title track of IRM is dope as hell!

some of Mutations is really great and i like the eclecticism of it as a whole - i wish more of his albums were like that rather than focusing so strongly on a single sound - but it's pretty inconsistent and there's a lot of tracks i don't care about at all on it

I submitted a weirdo ballot for this. I really wanted to vote for one of the live videos of Clap Hands with the band playing on a dinner table, but I found there wasn't a definitive version, so I just kinda gave up. Don't forget: I) the U.N.K.L.E. remix of Where It's At, which took up a whole side of the UK 12" single at 12 minutes; II) Diskobox, the excellent Jon Spencer produced Odelay bonus track; III) Ship In the Bottle, the surprisingly good Japanese bonus track from Sea Change.

Also I voted for Dead Wild Cat extremely high in my ballot because it was a pivotal track in my youth.

Diskobox is a great track, another one that just Barry missed my ballot- supposedly him & spencer recorded an album’s worth of tracks together... another entry in the apparently massive list of unreleased albums sitting in his vault

*barely missed my ballot that is

i def get how mutations is divisive but the way it grew on me just in the past week was amazing, songs i thought were nonentities suddenly became the center of attention

mutations haters should buy some fuckin ears imho

oh it SOUNDS great, there's just not a whole lot there once you listen past the (admirable) production

finally got my ballot in

Voted. Enjoyed listening to Beck again :)

I'll be getting one in later, before midnight EST!

Midnite Gold > Mellow Vultures
That’s my philosophy, Marty

imago and all other last minute people, the deadline will be extended overnight but i will close this poll when i wake up tomorrow.

it SOUNDS great, there's just not a whole lot there once you listen past the (admirable) production

Ballot sent! (Unranked, but I never would have gotten it submitted otherwise.)

OK now I'm mad I didn't submit an all-Mutations ballot
― Simon H., Saturday, June 1, 2019 3:47 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same y’all sleepin

“bottle of blues” ffs

"Tropicalia"!! "Sing it Again"!!! gah

Sent!

I keep trying with 'Mutations'. It's not hate at all--it's just. . . nothing? I listened to the album yesterday and the day before in full, along with tons of other Beck, and I literally can't remember anything besides "Nobody's Fault," which I like fine but it seems like a lesser version of the "Blackhole" or "Ramshackle" mode. I'll keep trying. . . but no tracks made my ballot.

"cold brains" is one of his very best, at least

I guess what's sort of striking me is it's the one album where his homage to various styles just makes me want to listen to the originals? Like, what is he really adding? "Sing It Again" just makes me want to listen to Willie. "Tropicalia" makes me want to listen to Brazilian musics. "Bottle of Blues" makes me want to listen to Skip Spence or Syd Barrett. "We Live Again" and "Dead Melodies" makes me want to listen to Arthur. "O Maria" makes me want to listen to early Tom Waits or Harry Nillson. "Canceled Check" makes me want to listen to "Rowboat," "Nobody's Fault" makes me want to listen to "Blackhole" or "Ramshackle".

I wish when I was 19 when it came out, it had been a gateway album to more of its source music, which other albums of his had been, but it just didn't click enough to get me searching.

None of it is bad at all, it's all perfectly lovely (though "Static" is a bit of a snoozer to end with--the hidden track is the best thing on the album). The album just seems to lack the energy and unique perspective of most other Beck (including the low-key 'One Foot in the Grave'). Like, "Paper Tigers" is pure homage, obviously, and yet it's so perfectly executed and has tons of verve and swagger and so doesn't make me just want to run to Gainsbourg/Vannier.

Not trying to tussle, just working through thoughts here : )

all confirmations emails have been sent.

btw, rollout is now going to start on Tuesday.

Roll Out ... Safely to the shore...

I met you...at JC POLLney - ILM Artist Poll #97 - BECK - the Results Thread