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)

https://i.imgur.com/ZB3yX4w.jpg

I’m actually seeing Beck (with Spoon) in July of this year, I wanted to do this poll before that show. I have a very tight window where I can do this poll so there will not be an extension, please plan accordingly.

Ballot Part Number One (Mandatory) - Your Top 25 Beck tracks (or less: min. 5). Please order your list with #1 at the top and #25 at the bottom, no need to number them. I will take unranked lists, just clearly state that yours is unranked.

Ballot Part Two (Optional) – Your Top 7 Albums (or less min. 2).

Ballot Part Three (Optional) = Your Top 5 Videos (or less min. 2).

Send ballots to: thebeckpoll AT gmail dot com. Please include your username.

Voting is open until Saturday, June 1, 2019 Midnight Los Angeles time zone (Pacific Time).

lets have some fun!

oh cool, it should be fun to dig through beck's discography, a lot of stuff there i haven't listened to in a long time

want to start off by repping for his philip glass remix thing which i remember being really lovely

https://soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78

aw yeah

my goodness

I wanted to have a third part but didn't quite know what to do. I saw that Beck has 40 music videos and decided to go with that.

That will be a wild category.

I really like the song "Colors," not sure if I like it enough to break into my personal Top 25 Beck songs though. Can't vouch for the full album however, as I have only heard it once. It was very electronic from what I remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRCA_Fo0rWA

Vote Beercan.

i need some confidence ILM. are we excited about a Beck poll?

I don't know Beck well, but am interested in the results.

Is it just me or is it slightly odd that a massive genre-based poll has suddenly commenced too?

Truly Lawless Times, These.

I'll vote

Here is another later song by Beck that I might end up voting for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrG6xBW5Wk

went through my first big breakup shortly after Sea Change came out so going to be a lot from that. also, Odelay still sounds very cool imo

ok, i'm far from a beck know-it-all but some stuff i recommend - mostly late-period stuff because that's the era i got into him:

vampire voltage no. 6
deadweight
funky li'l song
gimme (extended version)
debra (kcrw '98 version)
santorini (record club: live at the acropolis)
nostalgia (record club: live at the acropolis)
nyc 73-78 (seconding)
green light
timebomb
scarecrow (el-p remix)
harry partch
banjo (the banjo story)

the commonplace is that somewhere in the 2000s he stopped making interesting music, but as far as i can tell that's not actually true, it's just that he stopped putting interesting music on his albums. nyc 73-78 is the outstanding example but not the only example.

Beck >>>> ambient. I'll have fun voting in this

I'm not as familiar with post-Sea Change stuff but there's some gems in the self-released flood that came in the 00's and later

have been trying to start putting together a ballot but it's been kinda hard since he's so all over the place and even at his best there's this sense of detachment that makes it hard for me to love his music - i certainly like a lot of his stuff but there's not much i feel really strongly about. i have enjoyed rediscovering Mutations though, a lot better than i remembered it being

I better see "Nitemare Hippy Girl" on ballots.

i think i might have arrived at my 'midnite vultures is the best beck album' phase

I better see "Nitemare Hippy Girl" on ballots.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, May 19, 2019 1:53 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Otm. And 'Rowboat'. And 'Totally confused'.

This will be a fun poll and I am excited for this poll, Bee OK thank u for doing this poll. Agree w/rushomancy that a surprisingly large amount of his best stuff is non-album/unreleased/one-off tracks. Very curious to see what % of my ballot will end up being nonalbum stuff, my feeling is it may be high.

I was a massive fan up through Sea Change, fully stopped paying attention after Modern Guilt, pretty happy with that decision despite my love for just about everything up through 2008. At this point I'm pretty much just sitting back and waiting for him to do a massive Neil Young Archives-style vault-emptying project.

I never manage to get my shit together in time to vote in these polls but I'm gonna really try with this one. Right now my list would pretty much exclusively be Vultures and earlier so we'll see if further listening changes that equation. I have a pretty good recollection of Sea Change and Guero and maybe a few songs from the last two albums, but Information and Modern Guilt are total blanks for me off the top of my head.

I met you...at JC POLLney

Right now my list would pretty much exclusively be Vultures and earlier

cosign, I will really try to give the later stuff a chance but the 90's material is huge for me

Good poll for me: approximately 10 songs I love--no more, no less.

This has nothing to do with the poll; but Disney’s Zootopia was on TV this morning, and I’m always intrigued by the scene where a depressed Judy Hops scrolls the radio dial and keeps encountering songs that reflect her state of mind (“Everybody Hurts,” “All by Myself”...). The final song snippet is a generic guy singing, “I’m a looooserrr...”. It seems v clear that they wanted to license the Beck song, but it didn’t work out, so they commissioned a new song with the same lyric (taking care to make it completely different otherwise). Does he not license his stuff?

Can’t think of any examples but I’m p sure he generally does? Maybe he still has lingering discomfort about not wanting to be The Loser Song Guy

You know, I guess it’s also possible that the Beck song was deemed not suitable for a Disney movie, due to the second half of the chorus (even though they wouldn’t have included that part).

That’s a good theory

There are so many great Beck lines--please don't give in to a dumb pun for the title.

Not directed at anyone specific, on this or any other poll-thread. It's just something I don't understand. It's a tradition like when they stone the woman at the end of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": it's a tradition because it's a tradition, but if you asked anyone to explain why, I bet no one could.

She Can Talk to Squirrels: The Beck Poll
The Drugs Won't Kill Your Day Job: The Beck Poll
Kill the Headlights and Put It in Neutral: The Beck Poll
Where the Puzzles and Pagans Lay: The Beck Poll

Something. Anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhmnT4KpXGQ

i always forget how energetic a performer he used to be

Whiskey-Stained Buck-Toothed Backwoods Creep: The Beck Poll.

bad pun derived from artist lyric >>>>> random cool artist lyric. i don't know how this is even an argument. maybe this particular bad pun for Beck could have been improved (I do prefer "JC POLL-ney") but either is way preferable to even the best lyrical snippet.

i always forget how energetic a performer he used to be

― ufo, Tuesday, May 21, 2019 4:49 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i saw him live a few years ago and: he still is!

bad pun derived from artist lyric >>>>> random cool artist lyric. i don't know how this is even an argument. maybe this particular bad pun for Beck could have been improved (I do prefer "JC POLL-ney") but either is way preferable to even the best lyrical snippet.

― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:57 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like a POLLL...that's ripe for the votin'

Soy Un POLL-dedor

lol

Beck's lyrical snippets are almost uniquely suited to make good thread titles, but yeah I'm on team bad pun all the way.

Seeing him in 1998 with the Odelay band was one of the most fun & energetic shows I've ever seen. But then I saw him a couple times when he did the tour with Flaming Lips a few years later and he seemed like he was about to fall asleep onstage both times, just completely checked out. I'm not really interested in the new album but I've heard that the shows have been super fun, which is good to hear.

both shows I saw were killers where he just tore it up. Odelay tour in '96 was total insanity with a packed house, first time I heard "Debra" and it stuck in my head for years. then I saw some gig post-Sea Change/Lips tour and it was great again, they opened with "Novacane" and did a buncha Midnite Vultures tunes before he did his sleepy acoustic interlude, then back to more full band action.

My ideas have been polly rejected.

Everybody's Out to POLL YOU Motherfucker

ILX Makes me wanna smoke crack

I'm a loser babe so why don't you poll me?

Don't...Let...The Sun...Catch Ya...POLLIN'

^^ "Deadweight" (where that lyric is from) is a great non-LP single

People roll their eyes when aging artists enter their "great American songbook", but Beck is one artist where I would be way into it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcmmw5HNGOY

Objections stated, but if you've gotta go that way, I like WmC's title.

So meta
Let’s poll a title too

Clementa, I will take it under consideration but I think you're being outnumbered on this one.

Add stupid auto check, I corrected the name three times and it still reverted back

I have been listening to just random songs and there does seem to be some gems in his later work. Will see if it is enough to actually make my ballot.

Clementa's at peace--carry on.

Hope "Pay No Mind" finishes high. Love the video, love the non sequiturs, and most of all love the harmonica, as plaintive and indelible as Dylan in '64 or Toots Thielemans' Midnight Cowboy theme. (I've often thought that Beck has a Midnight Cowboy undercurrent running through some of his work--"Pay No Mind," the "Devil's Haircut" video [where he makes like Joe Buck walking around New York], the mood of "Jackass," maybe more.) Never tire of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d5ZAzrZ94Y

never heard this alt version of Jack-Ass before, really lovely and anticipates the sound of Sea Change except much better than he later did it

https://foxsports-wordpress-www-prsupports-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/PHOTO-Buck-HS-727x727-480x480.jpg

i always forget how energetic a performer he used to be

I remember really enjoying him on Reverb around that time (back when that was my main frame of reference for live music).

speaking of alternate versions - I have distinct memories of a drastically different version of "Soul Suckin' Jerk" with different music and the verse order reversed. Anyone know what I'm taking about?

Satan gave you a taco?

Upon re-reading the lyrics this joke doesn't make sense. Sorry.

a little research has informed me that this is the "Reject" version from the Loser EP. worth a listen.

I had that Loser EP at the time and it kind of melded with Mellow Gold in my mind, I probably dubbed them onto the same tape. Always preferred that reject version of Soul Suckin Jerk, hard to go back to the album version when you know there's a version that ends with a 2-minute organ and trombone breakdown out there.

similarly, "Got No Mind" >>> "Pay No Mind"

i decided to grab a CD on my commute to work today, so i pick Mutations. i had totally forgot about the bonus track and it's actually pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=HeohGiH6v9g

oh, it's called "Diamond Bollocks"

yeah it was on a bonus 7" that came with early vinyl pressings, along with the B-side "Runners Dial Zero"

I was totally obsessed with Beck B-sides and ephemera all the way up to Sea Change, AMA

Runners Dial Zero” will definitely be on my ballot, possibly fairly high. An incredible song, performance, and recording imo. There’s such a wealth of amazing outtakes and bsides from that pre Sea Change period.

"Diamond Bollocks" might be my favorite Beck song tbh

B-side etc. "Search" recommendations:

Clocks
Corvette Bummer
Mexico
Got No Mind
Halo Of Gold
Devil Got My Woman
Dirty, Dirty
Midnite Vultures
Salt In The Wound
Diamond Bollocks/Runners Dial Zero
.000.000
the amazing Cornelius remix of "Mixed Bizness"

I sleep in slime iirc

What about Arabian Nights? B at his best lyrically and the beat is aight too.

https://youtu.be/K5irVZljrFY

Bazookas and fisticuffs medicating in Porches
98-karat stick shift, Chinatown late-night meals
Alfonso giving me a backrub, 2 pm laser vizzaginal rejuvenation
Triple album project, detonatin' tracks like these
Magnums and barrettes, part-time hostages in pottery classes
Blind date at the wax museum
Norwegian hockey players passed out in government limos
Prime ministers with cryogenic faces
Louis Vuitton suitcases
Autographs and paid vacations
Divorce papers and synthetic lubrications
Playin' you like top-40 stations, ah you know the deal

Arabian nights
White satellites
Voodoo is tight
Like a sleek diamond ice

Airbrushed memories strewn like pamphlets into fifth Mississippis
Time-lapse footage of duct-taped lies
Animal frequencies pinching deodorized nerves
Cosmetic procedures on the cartilage of apocalypse
Mannequin tycoons with airport piano bar mystiques
Remodeling conjugal amaracus, flexing like suburban Spartacus
Getting smacked up by unemployed hand models
Running out into the middle of traffic with Beaujolais bottles

Shout Out to "Fume"!

xp Diamond Bollocks is one of the GOAT

xp I never realized "Devil's Haircut" video is a Midnight Cowboy homage til now.

I take it the Noel Gallagher remix of "Devils Haircut" will not figure.

driveby body POLL

this is probably missing the point but i wish there were an entire album of screaming noise rock beck a la "mutherfucker" "pink noise" back half of "fume" etc.

and "Spanking Room"!

anyway the b-side i would like to rep for is "thunder peel," both in stereopathic and odelay forms

wait there's an Odelay version ?!?!?

that song rules, definitely making my ballot

check out the deluxe version of odelay!

just looked it up, whoa man I have gotta get that!

never heard either "Inferno" or "Gold Chains", this makes my day

gahh so many tracks I've never heard, all those radio show one-offs

https://www.discogs.com/robot-jazz-vol-1-6/release/11220708

YSI?

I was v excited to hear "Inferno" and "Gold Chains" when the deluxe odelay came out but ended up finding them a bit disappointing, I guess they each contained samples that were deemed too expensive to clear, and so were reworked/rerecorded to a certain extent supposedly? I feel like I can hear it, they each sound like theyre missing a little something compared to the dense sound of the other odelay party jams. "Inferno" fairly wild but still sounds like a dress rehearsal for "High 5" to me.

reading up on our friend Beck while listening to his catalogue last night and learned he just split with his wife of 15 years (Giovani Ribisi's twin sister), that's a drag.

Apparently he released a new single with Pharrell last month?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXrlWw3yhW4

love that odelay is one of those cd-era albums that informs you when the first side ends and the second side starts

stuck together like a readymade!

"inferno" is absolutely amazing but i can barely evaluate it as a "song" to "vote" "for"

"where it's at" song/video combo weirded me out pretty hard when i was a kid, like i couldn't even figure the song out enough to know if i liked it, but when "the new pollution" video hit mtv it was like nothing i had ever seen or heard before (of course it was actually several things that had been seen or heard before combined) and i looooved dancing along to it in my room

he also played some sort of mtv show that year (vmas? probably?) and i spent the whole time thinking "this music is great and he's dancing so much but how is this guy considered cool? he looks like a huge dork like me!" tbf i was in elementary school and did not know what cool was

But you knew what a dork was, right?

yeah it was me

Have we as a board discussed how Beck would be beyond cancelled if he released Mixed Bizness today?

have we as a board decided we're not going to debate National Review headlines?

Midnite Vultures I mean

it sucked then and it still sucks

lol I respectfully disagree

The second half (except "Debra") >>> first half

just gonna leave this here

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

midnite vultures rules so much, i have no idea how he made some of the ridiculous ideas on it work

huh one foot in the grave is a really good album

yes, it really is, I think "Hollow Log" placed in the recent "Best Songs Under 120 Seconds" poll?

thirded

"forcefield" is prob gonna be high on my ballot but it's early

“Beautiful way” is nice
The backing track of “Hollywood freaks” is nice
The chorus of “milk and honey” is pretty slammin

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".

Beautiful Way will be on my ballot for sure

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"

"nicotine & gravy" will be in my top 5 for sure

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.

yeah that's maybe my favorite Beck deep cut when I DJ out

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

Justin Meldal-Johnsen – bass, percussion, background vocals
Roger Manning – synthesizer, organ, keyboards, harpsichord, background vocals, percussion

ah i see this album marks the appearance of my main dudes

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 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.

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)

Mutations has always been my fave and nothing will budge it

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.

Sunday Sun!

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.

midnite vultures is still my favorite maximalist r&b kazoo party

the banjo in "sexx laws" alone

i did not know that eye from boredoms designed the album art

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

"get real paid" is an astonishing soundworld and yet also lean and funky, i guess beck can have it both ways!!!!

did not completely understand whiney's "canceled" comment until i remembered what "hollywood freaks" is like

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.

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

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.

holy shit "milk & honey," i forgot how good this song is????

Johnny Marr in the outro!

this song is the actual nexus of beck's career

it has everything

god the b-side would-be title track is so good, criminal it got left off

did not completely understand whiney's "canceled" comment until i remembered what "hollywood freaks" is like

― 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.

a specifically g-funk pastiche sits weird with me, i'll have to think about it more

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.

He must have had some serious entitlement feelings after then.

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.

I have a few of those if anyone wants a YSI, just PM me and leave yr email

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 (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this will be very high on mine too

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.

That's why I added the asterisk, I hadn't heard about that album until yesterday, after having lived w/the thought of the rock album for years. It might just be down to the story Beck felt like telling that day, as there's more evidence of the acoustic record existing.

That said, what is the deal w/"Minus"--different sound & producers than the rest of Odelay.

tbh I think its likely that both stories are true - mellow gold is such a scattershot of styles, its easy to imagine him trying out different sessions trying to decide between "Blackhole", "Loser", or "Mutherfuker".

"Minus" is a weird track for sure. I like it on Odelay but not sure if I could hang with a whole album of that.

wow so it turns out mutations is an extremely amazing record, "lazy flies" will also be high on my ballot but i could vote for almost all of it

gonna re-listen to that one tonight

'Minus' really is the odd one out on Odelay. Always felt like he thought the album needed a 'Mutherfuker pt 2'.

Since "Hollywood Freaks" has come up, I found this from the NME in 2000 last night looking for Beck's oft-told P.Diddy story:

Beck also revealed the truth about his failed attempt at collaborating with Puff Daddy, and that the hip-hop star now snubs him.

“He was pursuing me heavily,” Beck said. “He basically came out on my tour and followed me around and then got me into the studio late one night and I threw down some awful vocals over some Elton John track with a hip-hop beat, and I was singing something about how expensive my hormones were, and it didn’t connect, and I never heard from him again. I’ve seen him at awards shows, he shook my hand once, and otherwise I didn’t really exist any more.

“It was like he was pursuing me and he had me, and I was discarded. I’m trying to get over it. But actually some of the tracks on my last album were from after that experience, I was inspired to write some songs, like what if that Puff Daddy track had worked out? ‘Hollywood Freaks’ was my fantasy of what Puff Daddy would do. That’s the kind of track I’d like to hear him do.”

cracked beatlesesque psychedelia achieved through really spare homespun-sounding instrumentation that's also beautifully layered, the arrangement of every song seems to ripple outward as it goes (i find it kind of funny that the nigel godrich paul mccartney record chaos and creation in the backyard is kinda... mutations 2)

I ride hard for "Sing It Again" off Mutations, especially that guitar solo - not sure if its Beck or Smokey Hormel playing it, but even 20 years later when I listen to that album and it gets to that part it feels like a total showstopper, espec with the simple acoustic arrangement and live feel of the recording after all the harpsichord and tropicalia and Godrich keyboards and etc that come before it. One of the great end-of-album comedown songs. Like I said upthread, I would kill for an album's worth of no-frills acoustic country like that from Beck, but its probably not to be.

yeah, beautiful song.

Weirdly I think "We Live Again" was my Beck gateway song. Heard it on a Mojo comp or something?

I think one of the main reasons Mutations is my favorite is that it's somehow much more successfully/convincingly aching than Sea Change turned out to be, without sacrificing any of the lyrical eccentricity of that period

otm

(if all of Sea Change vanished besides "Guess I'm Doing Fine" and "Paper Tiger" I'd be fine with that)

Sunday Sun is great but otherwise... The album served its purpose for me once but ive no need for it anymore really

For me, part of why I prefer Mutations to Sea Change is the change in his vocal style that came with Sea Change. He started singing differently and seemed interested in becoming a "good" singer in a way that changes the way a lot of that kind of material comes across in a big way, imho (not for the better).

But also compared to Mutations, Sea Change just seems like a louder record, which makes it less appealing as a late night listen. Like I can put on Mutations at home late at night and it sounds really right, but if I did that with Sea Change, before "Lonesome Tears" is over I'd be getting a call from my neighbors I'd imagine.

"Little One" on Sea Change is awesome (and also iirc a vintage copyright).

oh yeah "Little One" is nice, I like the grungy vocal line on the verse

tbf Lonesome Tears is the one I'll be voting for highest off Sea Change

I doubt I'll have room for anything off of that one

I think one of the main reasons Mutations is my favorite is that it's somehow much more successfully/convincingly aching than Sea Change turned out to be, without sacrificing any of the lyrical eccentricity of that period

― Simon H., Friday, May 24, 2019

until recently I couldn't explain to people who loved Sea Change why they were wrong and Mutations did it better. Like I wrote this morning, in 1998 sounds and arrangements still interested him; they bespoke the "sincerity" with which the SC lyrics dripped.

i think the songs on sea change, individually, at a songwriting level, are good-to-great. but all of them smushed together? with those arrangements? yikes

it’s like trawling at the bottom of a single shitty feeling

yep

which is why it sounds great when you're a teenager and a drag afterwards

o t m

It never sounded good -- worse, it sounded like an old man wit the maturity of a teen

i have some ballots, getting very excited about this poll. yes, i will be sending out confirmation emails starting next week. none have been sent out yet.

and this is the best thing i have ever seen in my life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwXeCuhEch8&list=RDYwXeCuhEch8&start_radio=1

let's try that again
https://youtube/YwXeCuhEch8

one last time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwXeCuhEch8

LOL @ him hugging the band at the end

haven't much enjoyed beck since i went through a huge phase in high school (round guero times), but i'm definitely considering submitting a one-song ballot with Debra

is frontin on debra eligible?

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

i won't reject anything.

but did make it a minimum of five songs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyCkhPTU13w

Ugh, I hate Debra

It is amazing to me that he was SO YOUNG when he made all this stuff, wow. I remember the interminable time it took between Odelay and the (rumoured) Midnite Vultures (with the stop-gap Mutations in the middle) and it was... three years? Between age 26-29 for the dude? Wow.

i don't really get why debra is so polarising? it's a solid enough slow jam pastiche, but nothing more or less

Yeah he had a turbocharged few years of brilliance and really only a few glimpses of goodness since then. It happens! xp

Sessions At W.54th was such a great show. Saturday nights with ACL and it were formative for me.

Here's the whole segment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ8AsbddEN4

It's bound to be a licensing nightmare, but I really wish PBS could create an HD channel that's just reruns of their vintage music shows (ACL, Sessions..., Soundstage, Live From The Artist's ?Den etc.).

I mean, look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sessions_at_West_54th#Episode_list

as far as his 00s material goes, Sea Change is quite good and i probably like it more than most here do, but i agree with Brad upthread that it's a bit too much overall. the best tracks are excellent and the first side is especially solid but it could easily lose say two tracks somewhere because it's almost suffocatingly dreary. "the golden age" and "lost cause" are lovely tunes and i love the strings on "paper tiger" and "lonesome tears"

Guero and The Information are both pretty boring and are the most 'Beck-by-numbers' he's ever been. a lot of the tracks on both albums will come up with a nice groove from the rhythm section but then won't have anything else going for them at all. the maximalist collage approach from Odelay and Midnite Vultures is gone, leaving both feeling a bit empty. The Information especially is so bloated too, there's probably an decent (if unexciting) album amongst its tracklist but it really didn't need to be an hour.

Modern Guilt is kinda nice though, it's short and breezy with psych-pop tinges and a fair bit stronger than the previous two. it's not really on par with his peak period from the 90s but i'd be very happy with more Beck albums of similar quality.

My greatest beck-related memory was going to see the opening night of “The Core” with a friend that was so shitfaced whenever Hillary Swanks’ character Rebecca “Beck” Childs name was mentioned he would start singing “The Golden Age.”

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.

Maybe too many syd barrett echoes for me in the first half of lazy flies. Second half better

If I tried to do a tracks list for Beck, it would probably be a perversely odd one. He was never an artist I deeply loved or listened to obsessively, but I always admired his boundless eclecticism which seemed the work of a genuine enthusiast and music lover and not a dilettante. But I think a lot of the stuff that's stuck with me over the 25 years or so have been less the hits and more the detours and homages and one-offs.

I don't know if you'd call this a Beck piece, as technically it's a "remix" of many Philip Glass works, but it feels like it very much transcends that: https://vimeo.com/51116926

A much cleaner recording of "NYC 73-78": https://soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78

def voting for the philip glass rework

ok, i'm far from a beck know-it-all but some stuff i recommend - mostly late-period stuff because that's the era i got into him:

vampire voltage no. 6
deadweight
funky li'l song
gimme (extended version)
debra (kcrw '98 version)
santorini (record club: live at the acropolis)
nostalgia (record club: live at the acropolis)
nyc 73-78 (seconding)
green light
timebomb
scarecrow (el-p remix)
harry partch
banjo (the banjo story)

the commonplace is that somewhere in the 2000s he stopped making interesting music, but as far as i can tell that's not actually true, it's just that he stopped putting interesting music on his albums. nyc 73-78 is the outstanding example but not the only example.

― Flood-Resistant Mirror-Drilling Machine (rushomancy), Saturday, May 18, 2019 9:39 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is my feeling, heavily. Maybe the poll *won't* be just a bunch of 'Odelay' tracks? (Which I'll admit is my favorite album--but in putting my rankings together, I realized my tracks list and my albums list (as in albums-as-a-whole-work) are very different)

What’s the point of that Puff Daddy story? “It was like he was pursuing me and he had me, and I was discarded.” It sounds like Beck turned in a shitty performance, so Diddy didn’t want to work with him any longer, but is still polite to him. “Discarded”?

I'm listening to Mutations ("Bottle of Blues") as I type, a perfect post-pool album.

XP Some of it is probably Beck playing to the NME--tabloid-ing it up, if you will--other versions of the story involve Diddy bringing him in to freestyle over a track, because he was the hot thing at the moment, and Beck delivered a very Beck-y freestyle that was too weird for the room.

Usually the context is all the weird offers and doors that were opened to him immediately after Odelay.

I feel like Beck prob dodges a bullet there tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkCg-3nxT8E

he just split with his wife of 15 years (Giovani Ribisi's twin sister), that's a drag.

considering that ALLEGEDLY the tax haven / slavery farm / cult church that he had been avoiding for years swooped in and arranged this marriage and anchor pregnancy to another born-into-it devotee 9.2 milliseconds after Beck split from his long-term SP girlfriend, this sounds like great news for Beck, not a drag

lol I googled to see if I had that timeline right and turns out that she was unaware that he left her in June 2017 until he served divorce papers in Feb 2019

soooo.....

another born-into-it devotee

(like, literally: Beck's mother delivered the Ribisii)

Maybe the poll *won't* be just a bunch of 'Odelay' tracks?

This is a v tough call putting my ballot together, on the one hand there are many nonalbum/outtakes that undoubtedly rank among my favorite beck tracks, but on the other hand its hard to seriously make the case that "Where Its At" and "Loser" &c are NOT among the 25 best songs in his catalog. I suspect I'll end up adding the hits but underrating them in anticipation of them being on p much everyone's ballot.

i put on sea change today and feel like i've been listening to it for 13 years. boy are "lonesome tears," "sunday sun," and "little one" great though. feel like even beck takes a nap during "round the bend"

"sunday sun" p much the only song on that record that actually has mutations energy

The contrasting takes on "it's all in your mind" say it all really

I'm so repulsed by the idea of Beck trying to Mean It that I can't relisten to Sea Change.

he's got several "Word on a Wing"s in his catalog, but he recorded them earlier in his career.

mutations is a top one for me besides the more obvious prior highlights, and i kind of liked modern guilt a lot actually

I remember being stoked to download the leaked version of Guero at the time, excited about the talk that he was back with the Dust Bros, and being generally disappointed except for two tracks that immediately stood head & shoulders above the rest, to my ears: "Send A Message To Her", which was the only track that successfully captured that manic collage feel of his 90s rockers without sounding tired or forced, and "Scarecrow", which in the leaked version was a 7-minute groove that included a long harmonica solo and felt like an extension of earlier songs like "Steal My Body Home" - I could not stop listening to it at the time. Then when I finally got the official release of the album "Send A Message" wasnt on it and "Scarecrow" was edited down to a weird cluttered single-length version that was impossible for me to enjoy after living with the 7 minute original version. So that whole record has the air of a letdown for me. Those two tracks and "Missing" are the only ones from that disc I ever dust off to listen to.

i think "girl" is wonderful and it'll be high on my ballot. still figuring out how i feel about guero though i like it much more than sea change

I gave Guero a listen on our weekend road trip, I wasn't super impressed and I don't think anything from it will make my ballot. It's a fine record and a breezy listen but it sounds like a scientifically engineered midpoint between Odelay and Midnite Vultures. Kinda sterile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jRGe5WbNuc

"scarecrow" is a really awesome song both edited and unedited

also like "go it alone" and "broken drum"; i think guero figures out what it wants to be in the second half (loose jammy bluesy acoustic record with the dust bros). i baseline like every song though, even if they don't manage the sonic depth of odelay the ways that singer-songwriter beck tries to flatten out postmodern pop beck ("missing" and "earthquake weather" for example) are really fascinating to me

also completely ridiculous "send a message to her" wasn't on the record, like cutting "the new pollution" from your album

huh I never knew Jack White wrote "Go It Alone"!

the black keys rode the sound of "go it alone" straight to the bank

i listened to the information a lot when it came out and i remember almost nothing about it beyond the singles. i have very little sense of what this album is trying to do (beck, pretty reductively and to his discredit, described it as a folding together of mutations/sea change with odelay but there's WAY more of that on guero) and the songs are mostly not there beyond some ear-catching detail in the production. but then once in a while the clutter recedes and the space clears around an excellent late beck song, cf. "cellphone's dead" and "new round"

still you can sure tell it took three years of on-again off-again sessions to record, what an overload of... restraint?

huh I never knew Jack White wrote "Go It Alone"!

― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Tuesday, May 28, 2019

I think he's credited with bass too.

"Exoskeleton" section contains dialogue spoken by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze.

ugh no none of this

post-information non-album single "timebomb" RULES though

otm time bomb is the shit

I'm surprised how often I've heard "Colors" in the wild. Also, my students' college radio station put it in rotation in 2017.

modern guilt is pretty fantastic tbh

misread that as morning phase for a sec and was about to extend you an invitation to join the recording academy

I wonder if anyone will join me in voting for Colors and Morning Phase, and a few tracks from each? Maybe it was the result of having skipped all his 00s albums but I'm pretty fond of both. Absence makes, etc.

My favourite version of It's All In Your Mind is on The Bridge School Concerts, Vol. 1 (1997). Took me a while to appreciate the one he later released on Sea Change with a slightly altered melody and added instrumentation, but I still think that Bridge Benefit performance tops it. The One Foot In The Grave outtake is okay too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEN0NIkFHYA

first round of confirmation emails are going out...i will let you know when all have been added to the spreadsheet.

I forgot about that Bridge School version of "Mind", that really is a great recording.

While I've still got zero interest in in Colors - that Greg Kurstin pop production is definitively Not For Me - this thread may have convinced me to give Morning Phase a spin for the first time(even though my ballot's already in). Revisiting the 00's stuff makes me think that even if it doesnt fully satisfy there might be a few tracks that click with me.

all confirmation emails have been sent out, if you didn't get one please resend.

***********************

Asking for help, I need someone who would be willing to help out with the images for the main poll. If anyone has the time and wants to help with the images for this poll, email the Beck email address above. I would really, really appreciate it as I don't have enough time to also do some good images. Besides, collaboration polls I feel are the best ones on ILM anyways.

Morning Phase is just a fairly pointless album to me - I like Sea Change a lot more than quite a few people here seem to but it certainly wasn't in need of a sequel. "Blue Moon" is a nice enough song but nothing else really stands out from it.

Colors also doesn't do much for me, the pop production doesn't really suit him and ends up making him feel pretty anonymous. it mostly feels like Cut Copy b-sides

q: are you folding all the votes for "got no mind" into "pay no mind"? same question for all the different versions of "jack-ass"

p.s. the odelay b-sides are all so so so great

xp my vote is yes to the Jackass versions, but "Got No Mind" is significantly different lyrically and should be separate imo (plus it is better)

i'm kinda down for folding them into each other bc then "pay no mind" would prob be top twenty if not higher. i do like that he sings "give the finger to the folk singer" instead of "rock n roll singer" in "got no mind"

19 (!) B-sides on Odelay?! I know some are remixes, but that's a lot of listening.

and one foot in the grave has 16 b-sides. and mellow gold has at least five or six that are not imported from golden feelings, and every album after odelay has 3-4 b-sides at least etc.

Just realized I forgot to vote for this gorgeous Carter Family cover, oh well

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

there's only 3 remixes on the Odelay deluxe edition, and it does leave out "Diskobox" and a few remixes, while including some previously unreleased tracks ("Inferno" is the coolest thing on the deluxe edition by far, a 7 minute freakout) and "Deadweight" (hope people don't forget about this, being a non-album single and all) and its b-sides too

idk if i'll vote for anything else from it except "Deadweight" and maybe "Inferno", though the alt versions of "Jack-Ass" are really great

weird, there's like half a dozen remixes of "Where It's At" and "Devil's Jukebox" alone!

I have spent zero time with any of the expanded reissues, gonna be doing some listening in the next few days

this is a very difficult but very fun ballot to assemble. it's also wild to go through his whole catalog bc it feels like he's five different artists in the '90s and only two thereafter

i'd generously put it at three different artists

Help Wanted

Can someone help me out with images please? Email the box.

Btw, this is going to be such an amazing poll by looking at the ballots. We are in for a treat.

and one foot in the grave has 16 b-sides.

?? there weren’t any singles from One Foot In The Grave

it’s probably part of why it’s always felt so singular and distinctive among his first batch of full-on albums, even apart from being the best

(there was a K / Calvin 7” out later that had the three bonus tracks from the Australian CD, which I resented mildly when I realised the existence of, having bought the LP on import)

think Brad is referring to the 2CD expanded version, but yeah none of those were actually released at the time except the K Records single

these dang millennials & their not knowing what a single was

I had to walk ten minutes to the station, wait 29 minutes for a train, ride 50 minutes to the city and spend $30 of paper route money just to HEAR He’s A Mighty Good Leader

Haha

I have a poll partner, now we will have great images to boot. I will let them reveal who they are.

?? there weren’t any singles from One Foot In The Grave

i was gonna correct myself but i figured it was a matter of time before you did it

outtakes*

my god

stfu whippersnapper

I have a poll partner, now we will have great images to boot. I will let them reveal who they are.

q: are you folding all the votes for "got no mind" into "pay no mind"? same question for all the different versions of "jack-ass"

good question that i haven't really put much thought into yet...

i think "Got No Mind" is different enough to place separately.

"Jack-Ass" remixes will be counted as one entry with a side note if other versions are specified.

welp i guess i have to out myself as a "got no mind" partisan

i can throw them together, that really is not a big deal.

lol it's also not a big deal for me to pick one but thank you!

any as a consequence of this poll i'm *really* into modern guilt rn, v introvertedly groovy + sudden bursts of power pop

"chemtrails" -> "walls" is a run of amazing songs

"replica" is sort of idm beck and i love it too

xps as a partisan I'm fine with rolling them together but giving separate vote totals, same for remixes (cuz I am def voting for the Cornelius remix of Mixed Bizness)

Just listened to Mutations for the first time in 15+ years, turns out I still know every word and note. Time's weird; great album.

whoaaaa @ "runners dial zero" i wish all copies of mutations included it

uh wtf these standalone singles he did in 2013 ("defriended," "it won't be long," "gimme") are all great, especially the extended versions?

why did he immediately abandon this direction for morning phase

I've stopped listening. Way too many.

otm, there are definitely too many beck songs

plus the extended versions of "defriended" and "i won't be long" run 14 minutes, and "gimme" goes for a lean 25. his most creative work of the '10s for what it's worth, the songs are v weird and layered but not as excitable as his early work (figures) but for once this is a feature not a flaw, they're like beck's cracked synthetic idea of chamber music. i would recommend anyone who loves beck's music listen to "gimme" at least

conversely, do not listen to the warby parker song reader comp if you want to stay awake

Time is running out. I have done a few of these poll and know that the majority of the ballots will come in on the last day. That is fine and this plea is not for those people. People on the fence however, PLEASE VOTE! Even if you can only put together a five song ballot, I will take it. We need the ballots and there won't be an extension.

putting together a ballot, struggling with the order...are mixed ballots accepted?

they are

guys i cannot emphasize enough how essential the three 2013 singles are, i have been listening to them all day

thanks for that tip. i would not have gotten around to hearing them otherwise.

i have tried Colors but just can't get into it. maybe a song will make my Top 25 but doubt it. might just vote one of the songs into the video part of this poll and be done with that album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvDy3Gi8k2s

OK yeah I can make room for that, very cool

damn I'm at 23 tracks already

my ballot is a mess

but i'm giving up after finally adding "nyc (73-78)," there's no more room

can’t manage to get any of the songs on morning phase stuck in my head, they all turn into “cold brains”

Yeah, taking some time to draw up a ballot now

sent my ballot a bit ago

surprised myself with my number 1

I would bet money that I will be the only #1 for my #1

I would bet money that I will be the only #1 for my #1

same

can't believe all of you love "Satan Gave Me A Taco" as much as I do, I'm touched

i may try and throw together a ballot on this, havent had the time to dive into the catalog like i wanted so it may be pretty basic.

go crazy with or without cheez whiz, spottie

that run of non-album singles from 2013 rules yeah and is easily his best material this decade. iirc they were from an abandoned follow-up to Modern Guilt

"Satan gave Me A Taco" just baaarely missed my ballot

yay, we are into double digit ballots now. keep voting!

i will send out another round of confirmation emails in the morning.

going through them again i'm pretty sure "I Won't Be Long" is my favourite of the 2013 singles, especially the extended version

^^^^ yes!!!!

Voted! Took a while to decide on a ballot - I had one ready about a week ago but ended up re-doing the whole thing after re-listening to various things. I do think Beck is quite hit-and-miss as an albums artist so in the end I only voted for five of those rather than the full seven.

upon winning best album in 2015, somebody interviewed him in the press room immediately afterward, and asked him about Kanye pass/ag walking up to the podium in protest. memory serves, he handled it exactly right, saying something like "well he and what he does is what I aspire to." In the next 24 hours, there was a tidal wave of "how dare kanye do that" from the likes of David Crosby, Paul Stanley…and also many people who would have been delighted if, say, Axl Rose rushed the grammy stage and did a punk-as-fuck move on a past his prime guy like Lionel Richie.

I'm in like a phaser pedal

i'm totally confused...

...by you

i have received a few more ballots, another round of confirmation emails will be coming out soon. i will let you know when finished.

time is running out...please remember to VOTE!

Mine is sent. Hope it got through.

just sent out all confirmation emails (including yours wtev) if you have not received one from me then please resend.

just looking over what we have so far, without giving away anything all i can say is that we are in for a treat next week.

I should send a ballot soon.

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