Beck's classic run was always 1994 to 2002 to me.
1994-1999 for me.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 October 2021 15:54 (two years ago) link
I'd like to stand up for Modern Guilt and Morning Phase as better "song" records than Mutations and Sea Change. "Volcano" may be my #1 Beck song.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 28 October 2021 16:05 (two years ago) link
Same for me, Mutations and Midnite Vultures being my absolute favorites. Though the unpolished chaotic surrealism of the Stereopathic/One Foot era is extra special
― J. Sam, Thursday, 28 October 2021 16:38 (two years ago) link
Sea Change is still one of my absolute favorites. It can get lumped in with Dylan's Blood on the Tracks for simply being a "heartbreak" album, but like Dylan's album, I thought it went one step further for letting the act or the mask slip off, presenting himself as a sober, down-to-earth human being. It's probably telling that a skeptic like Jim DeRogatis (who knocked his previous work for being too snide) thought it was the first time a Beck album really connected with him.
The nice thing about Mutations and Sea Change (both gorgeous aural landscapes, especially Sea Change) is that you can track down releases that have none of the excessive compression that left the general CD releases sounding so congested, which was especially the case for Sea Change (released at the peak of the "loudness" wars). With the former, it was the promo CD's (perhaps 'unmastered') and with the latter it was Mobile Fidelity's reissue some years back. Getting those was a completely different listening experience, and they sound absolutely beautiful when you fill the room with them.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 28 October 2021 16:54 (two years ago) link
I prefer masks! Even before COVID!
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 October 2021 17:45 (two years ago) link
I prefer "depressed in my mansion" Beck. I don't need masks or personae from him because he's kind of blank even at his most "revealing".
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 28 October 2021 17:47 (two years ago) link
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E08/1229944.jpg?b64lines=SG93IGFib3V0IGEgbGl0dGxlIGZyb20KIGNvbHVtbiAiYSIgYW5kIGEgbGl0dGxlIGZyb20KIGNvbHVtbiAiYiI_
― birdistheword, Thursday, 28 October 2021 18:50 (two years ago) link
I was just about to make a '94 Beck poll and realized that the album tracks alone constitute about 50 songs and it would just be wrong to omit EPs and b-sides and unreleased songs that were later released so I don't even know what to do right now except to concur that '94 was indeed the best of all Beck years.
― (a picture of a defecating pig) (Old Lunch), Thursday, 28 October 2021 18:55 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWtgaD77ek
Best Beck song imo
― J. Sam, Thursday, 28 October 2021 19:03 (two years ago) link
I didn't realize he put out three different versions of this song.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 28 October 2021 19:06 (two years ago) link
Yeah for a long time I was only aware of the one I posted (with that dog. assist), which I first heard on the Stray Blues Japanese B-sides collection. The other two are lo-fi solo acoustic, pretty cool but not as magical as the final "polished" version
― J. Sam, Thursday, 28 October 2021 19:16 (two years ago) link
1994-1996 for me, it was so weird how he went from like "only for weirdos & burn-outs" to mega-hit star like literally overnight. I saw him in 96 and it was awesome, but nothing after Odelay ever really interested me and I saw the tour with the Flaming Lips and it might have been one of the most miserable concerts I've ever sat through.
Listening to Mellow Gold now for the first time since the Clinton yrs and it is still awesome
― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 28 October 2021 19:22 (two years ago) link
i think odelay is great but for me it suffers from that common problem where its hard to listen now and reconnect with how strange and exciting it sounded back then. mellow gold though for some reason still manages to sound mysterious and fresh every time i go back to it
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 28 October 2021 19:59 (two years ago) link
I don't think I can relate to that argument. Granted I wasn't listening to Odelay in 1996, but next to anything I hear from that time, it still stands out as unusual and forward-thinking. Even now, there's an especially dense, jarring collage-like quality to it that makes it stand out from comparatively simpler and more polished productions that I might hear today. The same goes for Paul's Boutique, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, a lot of Sly & the Family Stone and Sgt. Pepper. They may be old, but they're still as striking as a Jasper Johns painting and familiarity hasn't dulled that, much less the mainstream culture they've helped make more interesting.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 28 October 2021 20:17 (two years ago) link
He really needs an early years compilation/box to gather up the early singles, Western Harvest and Golden Feelings. (Maybe even Stereopathetic, but that one is at least easy enough to find on CD).
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 28 October 2021 20:29 (two years ago) link
his b-sides used to be something i really looked forward to. idk if this is my single favorite beck song, but it ranks very high:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ejs7Bk3R24
("one of these days" from the cold brains ep)
and yes, stray blues rules.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Friday, 29 October 2021 14:35 (two years ago) link
I really wish I would have been more on the ball in grabbing stuff like Cold Brains and Stray Blues. I was hoping for more deluxe editions for Mutations and Midnite Vultures, I loved how the Odelay one pulled a lot of those together.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 29 October 2021 14:41 (two years ago) link
mutations deluxe edition would be rad. i wonder if there's any outtakes for that stuff?
listening to modern guilt for the first time in at least six or seven years right now and it's way better than i remember it. i would have given it a solid 3.5 stars / 7.5 at the time, but right now i kind of feel like that's underrating it. "chemtrails" is such a weirdly gorgeous song. i wonder how much input danger mouse actually had in the album? anyway, good album. kinda forgot about it. maybe today's the day i finally listen to colors.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Friday, 29 October 2021 18:37 (two years ago) link
okay after listening, the second half of modern guilt isn't as good and i'm now more comfortable with my initial assessment. it's not bad, just kind of competent and groovy. overall, it's an album that sounds great while it's playing, but doesn't really stay with me after it's ended, outside of "chemtrails" — which, again, what a fascinating and eerie tune. easily the highlight for me. anyway. yeah.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Friday, 29 October 2021 18:51 (two years ago) link
chemtrails is insanely good, one of his best in that lush widescreen mode. but yeah, aside from that and a few others, lots of the tracks on Modern Guilt sound good when theyre playing, but i'll have completely forgotten them before the next track starts.
inspired by this thread & birdistheword's tracklist I went back to The Information for the first time in idk how long, sliced out the fat, added in a couple stray tracks from that era, and wound up with a tight 45 minute psych rock album that i'm going to be listening to a lot more than the original.
this is one of the additions, one i've always liked a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxLq1Low_II
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, 29 October 2021 19:05 (two years ago) link
hey, never heard that one before! it's really good — kalimba!! hooray!!
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Friday, 29 October 2021 19:47 (two years ago) link
Ah nice! Was "Sorrow" an actual outtake? I looked it up but the only info I got was that it was a download-only track from 2005 that's never been issued on a record. It sounds like it could have been recorded with Godrich.
― birdistheword, Friday, 29 October 2021 19:52 (two years ago) link
yeah there was a small batch of tracks that were posted on his site in 2005 that i always really dug, other ones i liked are called "day for night" and "untitled song 2". i'm not sure if/how theyre related to the Information, ive never found any info on the credits for them at all. they definitely sound closer to the kind of stuff he does with godrich than anything else. at any rate they sound good mixed in with the more low-key Information tracks.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, 29 October 2021 20:02 (two years ago) link
bummer that theyve never been made available in higher quality
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, 29 October 2021 20:03 (two years ago) link
How come I'd never heard "One of These Days"? It's wonderful.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 October 2021 20:08 (two years ago) link
You just know dude has whole hard drives of unheard/underheard material. Gotta wonder what it would take to legitimize a formal box set release or something
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 29 October 2021 20:12 (two years ago) link
The upside of signing to a big label and becoming famous is having access to talented producers/collaborators and ideal recording situations
The downside is that (probably) you and your bosses are skittish about what to put out
Id bet that if Beck were a free agent we’d have heard much more from him. Somewhere there’s a Beck ska record (some of these things maybe never need to see the light of day)
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 29 October 2021 20:24 (two years ago) link
yeah ive lost track of the # of artists & producers that beck has said he recorded most or all of an album with and then just filed it away. i would pay a lot of money for a Neil Young Archives type site from him, one of the few artists i can think of who has the vault to justify it
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, 29 October 2021 20:37 (two years ago) link
He did an interview where he said someone (his management or someone at Universal) told him that a lot of his unreleased work was destroyed in the infamous 2008 fire. This was retracted later on, but given how Universal was doing everything they can to spin that story in order to minimize the fallout, who knows.
― birdistheword, Friday, 29 October 2021 21:12 (two years ago) link
Since you guys seem to be way more knowledgeable than me on his career, do you know where those 2013 standalone singles came from? I thought he was teasing a new sound but then he released Morning Phase which went into a completely different direction.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Saturday, 30 October 2021 08:16 (two years ago) link
iirc he was working on a full album of that sound but shelved it and decided to only put out those tracks from it, something like that
― ufo, Saturday, 30 October 2021 08:23 (two years ago) link
Man that new single sucks - this guy sure aged fast.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 20 February 2023 15:22 (one year ago) link
It's kind of what happens when an artist gets truckloads of awards thrown at their more boring albums.
Not to begrudge the dude's success, but I think Beck could have had a more interesting career trajectory if he wasn't showered with praise for his more "safe" records.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 20 February 2023 16:30 (one year ago) link
I’d love to read a long, contemporary, in-depth interview with him - what is his life like? How does he decide what to release? Are there hard drives full of crazy stuff in his basement none of us will ever hear?
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 20 February 2023 16:42 (one year ago) link
I think Beck could have had a more interesting career trajectory if he hadn't been forced back into the Scient0logy fold (iirc after Midnite Vultures), seemingly somewhat against his will
― obsidian crocogolem (sleeve), Monday, 20 February 2023 16:44 (one year ago) link
Another formerly genuinely interesting underground artist lost to the beach ball in the day-glo crowd / Coachella festival scene.
― omar little, Monday, 20 February 2023 18:00 (one year ago) link
I wasn't a fan of his last album either, butv'Loser' was released over 30 years ago - I wouldn't say he's aged fast, the guy's been around a long, long time. (IMO his last top-shelf album was The Information though it should've been cut down to ten tracks. There's a couple of later albums I've grown to enjoy, but I don't think they really add anything substantial to his legacy.)
― birdistheword, Monday, 20 February 2023 18:18 (one year ago) link
He's only two years away from releasing his dealing-with-mortality Time Out of Mind.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 20 February 2023 18:27 (one year ago) link
Wow that is a nutty thing to contemplate. Beck is old!
Kinda half-agree with jon. Mellow Gold/Stereopathetic/Grave/Odelay are formative albums for me, and the only records Beck has made since then that I've made proper time for have been The Information and Modern Guilt. (I admire Midnite Vultures but find it lacks the unhinged, unpolished quality that made his previous "wild" records pop.)
― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 20 February 2023 19:34 (one year ago) link
The best thing he's done is probably giving James Gadson songwriting/publishing credit on Sea Change.
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 20 February 2023 19:36 (one year ago) link
My favourite song of his is the bonus track on Mutations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeohGiH6v9g
It sounds like a cover of a cover of a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows
― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 20 February 2023 19:40 (one year ago) link
that song is so sick
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2023 19:42 (one year ago) link
If only that vibe was sustained over an entire album! It's the "The Flaming Lips could never" song
― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 20 February 2023 19:44 (one year ago) link
All of the extraneous tracks from Mutations are great.
― MaresNest, Monday, 20 February 2023 19:57 (one year ago) link
ya, runners dial zero is Quite the Vibe too
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2023 20:00 (one year ago) link
Yep.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 February 2023 20:37 (one year ago) link
I saw him in 2014 and thought he was very entertaining, if a little removed from the audience. Pretty much the way I feel about his albums also.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 20 February 2023 20:40 (one year ago) link
he prob still puts on a good show I would imagine, the one I saw after Sea Change was very good
very much co-sign the extra Mutations tracks, he has many many superb B-sides, comp tracks, and oddities
POX just off the top of my head"Corvette Bummer""Dirty Dirty"Cornelius remix of "Mixed Bizness""Mexico""Diamond Bollocks""Strange Invitation""Deadweight""Midnite Vultures""Spanking Room""Got No Mind"
― obsidian crocogolem (sleeve), Monday, 20 February 2023 20:46 (one year ago) link
― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, February 20, 2023 2:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Uh :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcfjChmxoT4
― The field divisions are fastened with felicitations. (Deflatormouse), Monday, 20 February 2023 20:52 (one year ago) link
― pee change (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 20 February 2023 19:44 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Mansun's Six is kind of this btw! Another flawless victory for late-90s Pro Tools abuse. The title track especially makes me think of Diamond Bollocks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEi2cBpoAk
(Draper obvs cancelled as hell now or w/e but this goes)
― imago, Monday, 20 February 2023 20:55 (one year ago) link