midnite vultures

Aside from that I've always thought Beck was hideously overrated.

Favourite song: "Hollywood Freaks"

Favourite line: "I'll spray graffiti where you've never been kissed"

Also: "Get Real Paid" is at least two years ahead of the electroclash curve. Except he actually vamps on the chorus, so I'm thinking that it's somehow perversely and retroactively skewering the aloofness of a genre that hasn't quite established itself yet.

I only discovered the other day that most people hate it.

sea of change
wow did he steal!

Sea Change is terrible.

makes you worried that in a couple short years they will also be praising sea change!

First time I ever heard anything from it in a record store somewhere, I asked the clerk, "Is this a new Prince album?" So...

"I'm glad i got my suit dry-cleaned before the riots started."

love that. "sexxlaws" and "Mixed bizness" were played at every party back when i was 17/18, so i have fond memories tied up in this one. also, i remember being in gran canaria, and drunkenly trying to get everyone in my apartment to serenade my beer can with "get real paid" (which was on the stereo at the time). happy days...

a-ha. does ring a bell, dimly. i mean i certainly get more easily bored by Odelay than by Midnite Vultures these days.

tho i'd probbly prefer Mutations to both of 'em

When Chaki told me Beck's parents were big scions in the Church of Scientology, I got the idea that all of his lyrics are adapted from weekly phone conversations with his dad. Barring that I don't think most of the lyrics on Midnite Vultures are so much clever or good as much as they are designed to capitalize on his established schtick. Beck could cover the TMBG catalogue, throw in some references to his SoCal milieu and nobody would bat an eye.

That said I have no idea how somebody could think this was a Prince album. I don't hear it at all.

Er, sorry. ;-)

also what nordicskillz said

This is a great rekkid for road trips too, btw. It makes for very good interstate-singalongs betwixt a boy & a girl.

and it's sounding fresh! i must have been listening for/anticipating the wrong things when i picked it up initially all those years ago. it's fun, got a surprising amount of variety, is well paced, and downright catchy. i could do without that obnoxious falsetto on the ghastly 'debra', but elsewhere things are just dandy as roses.

man, i loved this album when it came out. it's pretty much the only beck i will still listen to and enjoy. it'll shuffle onto party mixes sometimes and everyone loves it.

further props to the Cornelius remix of "Mixed Bizness" and the "Salt In The Wound" b-side.

anyone who writes the line "hepatitis contact lens" into a song deserves a medal, not scorn. i've had to explain that line to so many drunk people.

"Satan Gave Me A Taco" still cracks me up.

anyone who writes the line "hepatitis contact lens" into a song deserves a medal, not scorn. i've had to explain that line to so many drunk people.

can someone explain this line to me?

It's like beer goggles but with an STD.

by far his best album and the tour was incredible.

can't decide if that joke worksor not. i dig this album though

The LRD remix of Mixed Bizness now sounds remarkably prescient about indie's 80s/synthy direction over the following decade. No YouTube link, unfortunately.

I thought that line was about jaundice - the yellowing of the whites of ones eyes - that is a symptom of hepatitis.

The B-sides are pretty fucking great too. "Dirty Dirty", "Arabian Nights", "This Is My Crew", etc. In fact...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGz5uFaOsGE

Love love love the album, love love love the lyrics. "I cold stepped to you with a fresh pack of gum" is the "I met her at the Burger King, fellin love by the soda machine" for the '90s. Beck hit his peak and then spent the next decade being boring.

yeah, the lyrics on this one are kind of amazing -- really inspired. Even the so-called "fun" stuff from the past decade is dreary. This is actually the only Beck album I listen to these days ...

Roger Manning Jr is a big part of Midnite Vultures. The synths are amazing, but he also deserves props for the dramatic but funky piano on Nicotine & Gravy. It's somewhere between Bernie Worrell and Mike Garson on Aladdin Sane. The cape he wore on the tour was quite magnificent. It was a very odd show. I was at the Glasgow one where Beck did his back in by cavorting with a large piece of piping.

Yes, his best album by a mile and I have been patiently awaiting revisionist historians to pick up on it.

"Milk and Honey" and "Beautiful Way" are a helluva twosome.

"Milk and Honey" also boasts my favorite Johnny Marr moment of the last decade: that languorous outro...

easily my favorite

came out my freshman year of college iirc and it was my jam. bought sea change, lost interest, literally have no idea what else he's done since

As far as b-sides go, "Salt in the Wound" is hardly a slouch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA9X8lSxlFE

Don't tell your right hand baby
What your left hand do
You know those road check girls
Will make your brown breath blue
Peaches and cream
You make a garbage man scream
Such a dangerous dream
Peaches and cream.
You look good in that sweater
And that aluminum crutch
I'm gonna let you down easy
I've got a delicate touch
Peaches and cream
You make a garbage man scream
Come on girl it's a dream
You're a torn out page
From a best selling book
Your home girl's on the line
But your daddy's off the hook
Where do we go now?
Give those pious soldiers
Another lollipop
Cause we're on the good ship
Menage et tois
Peaches and cream
You make a garbage man scream
Such a delicate thing
Keep your lamplight trimmed and burning

the weird out of tune guitar that come around into a tough ass riff wedded to the falsetto vox made this track my secret favorite. but i dig this album as a whole and agree that it was totally forward thinking and innovative. this guy gets a lot of shit for being an inscrutable scientological weirdo but there's no denying his cutting edge cultural impact. dude's a master of a fluxing medium.

Yes, his best album by a mile and I have been patiently awaiting revisionist historians to pick up on it.

― ian zamboni, Tuesday, 26 January 2010 03:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

This has been bugging me for years: can anyone confirm that "Nicotine and Gravy" samples "Death Dies" from Goblin's Deep Red soundtrack? It has to be, right? Or else a very close interpolation...

Bought a used copy of this a couple of months ago, finally gave it a listen in the car. Through the first eight songs, an embarrassing example of that thing white people do, I was thinking it was one of the most dreadful albums I'd ever heard from someone who'd made music I love. "Beautiful Way" was the first song I really liked, "Debra"--a completely over-the-top example of that thing white people do--too.

“Prince” “sex” “funk”

I feel sorry 4 U

^^^ it deservedly polled at #2 on ILM

Beck Albums Poll

Great album. Although generally horrible, white people are occasionally fine.

“Debra” was a highpoint for humanity.

I realized recently that this album is 90% about discovering the upper limit of ridiculous phrases that can be repurposed as euphemisms for sex.

I'm half-kidding about the white-people stuff--didn't want to dredge up the cliché du jour, which can produce both the awfulness of the first few songs and the miracle of "Debra."

90% of the lyrics are about Scientology iiirc

Is this where I learn that all those silly phrases were just quotations from Dianetics?

“Debra” aka “Win”

HOT MILK

OUR SALES GO TRIPLE

I feel like this is the album where he laughs about what made him a star and decided to make fun of himself - after this he gets too serious and it’s mostly downhill. Novelty acts, no matter how talented, should never stop joking.

I wish he did more from this album when I saw him last week.

Mopey Beck just not what I’m looking for
I sang some “ozzy” to myself this morning while walking down the long hallway at work

Terrible music for the most part

i recently rewatched Sessions at West 54th, taped at the very end of the Odelay tour. the second song they do is "Debra":

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

I think Baby Driver may have ruined "Debra" for me

saw that tour and when they pulled out "Debra" at the end it was pretty mind-boggling, then it didn't come out on a record for 3 years. For a while I thought it was an obscure cover song.

that would be one of my dream shows! that live lineup back in the day was killer.

he had been toying w falsetto pop for a long time, see Stereopathetic's "Thunder Peel"

which they also played! yeah the band with Smokey Hormel was hotttt

yeahhh, i saw maybe one of the first odelay shows in santa monica, mid-96, and "Debra" was an incredible thing.

Beck also came on with a pair of opera glasses that he checked us all out with, great image/look

Saw him on this tour, it was fire. Much better than the sea change tour which was dismal as fuck. In retrospect I find it hard to appreciate beck as he obviously was a plant, playing out the slacker image of loser on the early mtv interview with thurston Moore. What comes across now is that Beck’s evasiveness and fidgety nature betrayed his presentation as an authentic personality, whereas he was actually pushed by Scientology into the spotlight.

On the tour for sea change, Wayne coyne confirmed Beck was nothing like the sun-dazed stoner vibe he gave off, he was rather more serious and stand offish.

Classic for mutations always tho

The second half > first half.

I'm not at all a "Debra" fan. White people are okay, though.

Wayne coyne confirmed Beck with a shit band backing him isn't as fun as Beck w a great band backing him

im not a fan of projecting narrative onto his life after watching too many scientology docs. seems like he was always a workaholic, even as a noisey anti folk slacker he put out tons of tapes.

Come on motherfucker, put your clothes on

I want to do a commercial for match.com: "Looking for a woman who's smart, who loves dogs, and--this is important--has a sister named Debra."

this ain’t cooked chicken

it's been forever since i listened to this album, gonna try it now

Can we continue the discussion about whether or not Beck should be shot for having written and recorded the song "Mixed Bizness"

his last good album

that's an amazing song so i disagree xp

this was a soundtrack to some dank ass late night hangs in 2000

Yeah, the first four tracks is some fun shit.

the most embarrassing track on midnite vultures is "hollywood freaks"

This is probably true. Some moments that are irritating af.

the production still sounds lush as hell

probably don't ever need to hear "debra" again in this life though

I just pretend the b-side would-be title track is the real closer

I'm a Sea Change denier, personally, and think Guero through Guilt are super-underrated

Nothing touches the first two Geffen albums tho

Worst track on Midnite is "Debra" and the worst thing about the album as a whole is all the "cuet" mispellingz

i've listened to it so many times and still can't remember like, most of the information

guero and modern guilt are great albums tho

i like most of this album but agree that 'hollywood freaks' is kind of indefensible, shocked and grossed me out even back then. i can enjoy most of the album as well-intentioned pastiche but always felt that track crossed the line into sounding like he was just making fun of performers he felt were beneath him

yeah i was like... if someone wants to argue that "hollywood freaks" is a sorta racist caricature of rap music, i wouldn't disagree

Anytime he tries the falsetto I consider self-defenestration.

The best MV tracks are the Beck-ian ones.

I have a lot of fine memories of dancing to "Sexx Laws" at a smoke-filled indie disco at the height of Strokes mania.

My favourite thing on Midnite is the sample of a sword being drawn on "Pressure Zone", I laughed out loud on my first listen

"pressure zone" is, iirc, the track that really rocked my world on revisit

I actually like "Debra," but as a novelty and even good jokes don't sound so funny after you hear them over and over again. (Like once a year is enough, maybe even more than enough.)

There's an old bootleg somewhere of Beck performing this where he tells the audience he's going to floor them with his triple-octave voice, and then wails the most hilariously awful shit ever.

this would be my favorite beck album if it weren't in spots almost willfully flawed

as it is, mutations wins out

haven't listened to this album in 20 years maybe but the only time i saw him live was for this album, and for "debra" they lowered a bed from the rafters down to the stage for him to roll around on, which was cool

Mutations is where I didn't get off the Beck train but I definitely stopped buying guayaberas from the thrift shops

Terrible music for the most part

Homicide once used "Beautiful Way" in a terrific montage.

Mutations is where I didn't get off the Beck train but I definitely stopped buying guayaberas from the thrift shops

― flamboyant goon tie included,

Real guayaberas? At thrift shops? Can't be the real thing.

his last good album

― calstars, Wednesday, March 24, 2021 11:28 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

as it is, mutations wins out

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, March 24, 2021 11:39 AM (forty-two seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agree on both points

"lazy flies" best song ever

xp prob not real guayaberas, no, just that particular vibe of shirt that I was wearing all the time at age 16

Mutations does have "Diamond Bollocks" (the bonus track) which is top 5 Beck songs, for me

as i discovered during the beck poll, his best late work consists of those three really long tracks he put out in the early '10s

I haven't wanted to listen to a Beck album in forever but if I wanted to listen to a Beck album this would be the Beck album I would want to listen to

yeah Mutations is my fave too, probably Godrich's best non-Radiohead work as well

I'm a Sea Change denier, personally, and think Guero through Guilt are super-underrated

Nothing touches the first two Geffen albums tho

Except for Guilt, I love those and Sea Change. Guero is where he starts to settle into his old moves, but he does it well. It's like Tougher than Leather, which I was just listening to - it's the type of the album that gets shit when it's released for being "old hat," but 15 or 33 years later, that type of complaint feels meaningly when everything then is now "old hat." The Information is too damn long, but if you cut out the flab on the back end, there's a great LP there, as good as anything he's done.

I'm almost never in the mood for him these days but when I play Mellow Gold I'm astonished how fresh it still sounds.

Guero is his Scary Monsters: you can see the mirror moves, the flexing, but they're not tired yet.

"nausea" is a good running song

*the type of album

*meaningless

("meaningly"?)

“touch my ass if you’re qualified”

won’t defend “Hollywood Freaks” but at parties in college if someone had been drinking too much we’d shout “Norman Schwarzkopf! Something tells me you want to go home!”

those three really long tracks he put out in the early '10s

Ya for real, that Philip Glass track he did is amazing

oh yes that one too!!!

haven't listened to this album in 20 years maybe but the only time i saw him live was for this album, and for "debra" they lowered a bed from the rafters down to the stage for him to roll around on, which was cool

I saw him touring Odelay where "Debra" was the encore, despite being unreleased, and he did the whole bed bit. He put on quite a show back then.

won’t defend “Hollywood Freaks” but at parties in college if someone had been drinking too much we’d shout “Norman Schwarzkopf! Something tells me you want to go home!”

ha yeah it pains me to admit thats one of the best jokes on the album

whenever I think of Beck, I always think of how much I like the Madonna Austin Powers soundtrack song Beautiful Stranger

He put on quite a show back then

After his performance at the 1997 Grammys, there was a cut-away to Diana Ross in the audience being all, "Damn, boy."

Never got into this album, it was just too much for me. But then, tbh, I have a hard time making it through Odelay these days.

Funny story: I was donating blood a couple of weeks ago, and the playlist was a lot of classic '60s and '70s soul playing faintly in the background, so me and the guys attending to me were talking about music. After a bunch of Isaac Hayes and the Delfonics and stuff this song comes on that none of us can place. We're just scratching our heads. I wrap things up and quickly Shazam it, and it's ... "Debra." I told one of the dudes, and he was, like, wtf? Beck? (The other guy's response was: "who's Beck?")

Nutty Trivia: Fox licensed "Mixed Bizness" to promote their spring 2000 lineup, and building from that, the song was featured prominently in an early Malcolm In The Middle episode.

Yeah he was on fire for a couple years there

Also figured "Debra" got a bump because of that scene in Baby Driver.

“Debra” vs Bowie’s “Win” FITE

odelay tour was one of the most fun shows i ever saw, i remember the bed. (opener elliott smith was... less fun.) tbh i dont really mind debra in the context of the album but in hindsight it should have been replaced with the title track and debra should have just lived as one of those unrecorded show-closing routines that some artists do.

Baby Driver made me hate a bunch of songs I liked

I still enjoy the bulk of Midnite Vultures though, including "Hollywood Freaks", which is just a ridiculous track

in the last couple of years i have seen 2 people do "sexx laws" at karaoke and my reaction was very much "people still care about beck, specifically this period of beck, in 2021?"

this is a good album, still!
Beck is a very good live performer, which accounts for a great deal of his longevity imo

Seeing Beck on the ultra-zany Midnite Vultures tour in early 2000 as a highly impressionable 7th grader was a major formative musical experience for me, so it's hard for me to be objective about his music in this era, which I still love without reservation

if he'd recorded just one or two more of those long-form songs he could have released the best album of his career tbh

Odelay is so fucking awesome why are always people taking about MV :-(

in the last couple of years i have seen 2 people do "sexx laws" at karaoke and my reaction was very much "people still care about beck, specifically this period of beck, in 2021?"

― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, March 24, 2021 9:21 AM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

now that i think of it "new pollution" would be a more puzzling karaoke choice. very austin powers vibe song, definitely of its time

if he'd recorded just one or two more of those long-form songs he could have released the best album of his career tbh

otm. iirc i read once that he said those were for an album he was going to call rococo which always stuck in my mind as a great title for an album of 15-minute beck songs

yeah i was like... if someone wants to argue that "hollywood freaks" is a sorta racist caricature of rap music, i wouldn't disagree

there you have it

Ah, you nerds helped me solve the mystery: the Baby Driver soundtrack must have been in the shuffle mix while I was donating blood! What gave it away was hearing Young MCs "Know How" and Brenda Holloway's "Every Little Bit Hurts" that same morning.

i think his last album is p good!

Odelay has aged like milk, dated and cringey from front to back.

Funny story: I was donating blood a couple of weeks ago, and the playlist was a lot of classic '60s and '70s soul playing faintly in the background, so me and the guys attending to me were talking about music. After a bunch of Isaac Hayes and the Delfonics and stuff this song comes on that none of us can place. We're just scratching our heads. I wrap things up and quickly Shazam it, and it's ... "Debra." I told one of the dudes, and he was, like, wtf? Beck? (The other guy's response was: "who's Beck?")

Everybody knows my name at the recreation center

devils haircut ffs

incredible sampling across the board

An instrumental version would be an improvement.

i will probably still enjoy coming back to Odelay when i'm ~one foot in the grave~ . i think of it as jam-packed with hooks, with sounds, with meaningless turns of phrase that sound good and are fun to sing along to. it came out when i was 14 and i dunno if i'd ever be in a position to, like, weigh its merits and flaws or w/e.

midnite vultures, which i think was a christmas item when i was 18 (overshadowed by the more immediately disappointing Ultima IX: Ascension), is more like, throw it on every four or five years like "oh, let's see how this holds up," and i consistently go "i still like this song... this song's annoying... i think i'm good with this one listen for the next four or five years." i think, anyway. it's been four or five years.

Odelay is so fucking awesome why are always people taking about MV :-(

We're only talking about it because it came up in the metoo thread for no good reason.

But yes, Odelay is fucking awesome and I'd rather talk about that. I didn't know there were originally more samples (just a few, they had to take them out for legal reasons), nor that it leaked out on the original promos - was happy to get a copy a few years back.

no claim of 'odelay has aged like milk' is complete without the claimant being forced to listen to 'novacane' three times in a row

The last time I put on "Odelay" my entire family pretty quickly told me to turn it off, which is definitely an achievement of sorts. Not many things get the full
https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_12/1940631/170321-chuck-barris-mn-0736_339ea4f6f7204e16d4bbaf802b8fdffe.fit-760w.jpg

(overshadowed by the more immediately disappointing Ultima IX: Ascension)

Ultima IX or whatever is so fucking horrible, Richard Garriott should be thrown into a field of fire for that, imo

Beck thru Mellow Gold = stone classic (yes, even much of the lo-fi dipshittery)
Odelay = VG+
Odelay b-sides = VG++
Mutations = VG
Midnite = nuts, fun, haven't listened to it in a minute
Sea Change = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Post-Sea Change = don't really know but nothing I've heard has hooked me

^^^

_Odelay is so fucking awesome why are always people taking about MV :-(_

We're only talking about it because it came up in the metoo thread for no good reason.

As far as post-Sea Change goes, "Girl" and "I Think I'm in Love" are stone cold classic singles

unpopular opinion: sea change is mostly good

or, its highs are high at least

those highs being 'the golden age', 'round the bend', 'sunday sun' and 'little one', and the 'guess i'm doing fine' video cos he plays soccer in it

"Girl" was the post-MV single I heard in the wild and on my college station for a while.

I heard a few from his most recent album(s), and they sounded like ... Cut Copy?

Yeah, I hated Sea Change when it came out, but now I absolutely love it now. It really marked the last time every Beck album meant "Something he hasn't done before." Something was really lost when he starts going back to the well, whether by coincidence or causation

challenging opinion: sea change was far more influential in the world of sad white guy music than it gets credit for

oh, 'lost cause' is quite good production-wise especially

'the golden age' is absolutely top-tier beck tho

he needs to go back to basics and write more songs about Ozzy, weed whackers, and winos

Most of the songs on Sea Change are great, but I can't fault anyone for getting burnt out on having them all in a row on one album, even if you gotta admire the tonal consistency and audacity to make that album, esp right after MV

The string arrangements are pretty impressive on Sea Change but becks “regular” music makes me yawn

I didn't know there were originally more samples (just a few, they had to take them out for legal reasons), nor that it leaked out on the original promos - was happy to get a copy a few years back.

― birdistheword,

didnt know this - any notable differences? worth tracking down?

Someday I'll go back to Sea Change and try listening to it as something other than a Beck album. As a Beck album in the context of all those previous Beck albums, it sucked hard (says the me from 20 years ago as that was the last time I listened to Sea Change).

I may have quipped that it should've been called Whineona.

Yeah, I hated Sea Change when it came out, but now I absolutely love it now. It really marked the last time every Beck album meant "Something he hasn't done before." Something was really lost when he starts going back to the well, whether by coincidence or causation

I loved Sea Change and I saw the tour that preceded it. (He previewed the songs, but it was still early - at the Chicago/Evanston stop, he mentioned that he had to turn in the album title but couldn't say what it was yet.) I was already a huge fan of Hank Williams, Plastic Ono Band, the Velvet Underground and Big Star's 3rd, and the songs he picked from them to cover on that tour pretty much laid the foundation for Sea Change. Along with Odelay, I still think it's his best work.

Morning Phase is fine - he's even more comfortable covering the same ground as before (this time in a very relaxed state), so it gets by on craft, but except for a few moments I didn't like the two albums he's made since. Colors kind of makes some sense, especially after I saw him on that tour - a lot of it recalls or outright lifts things from contemporary hits, and hearing its tracks next to his older stuff got me thinking that it's a logical progression from the sampling he used to do. It played well live, but I tried hearing the record again on its own, and it didn't really transcend those limitations.

I didn't know there were originally more samples (just a few, they had to take them out for legal reasons), nor that it leaked out on the original promos - was happy to get a copy a few years back.

― birdistheword,

didnt know this - any notable differences? worth tracking down?

More info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Beck/comments/5ln2yd/odelay_promo_anyone_ownheard_this_really_curious/

Colors is lol totally a Cut Copy album

He put on quite a show back then

After his performance at the 1997 Grammys, there was a cut-away to Diana Ross in the audience being all, "Damn, boy."

Odelay tour is easily in my top ten live shows ever, he just killed it

Yeah, that show came to my college with ... Atari Teenage Riot opening!

I do enjoy Mr. Beck's string arrangements on Sea Change, you can tell Beck Jr. was pushing for a Vannier sound

his old live band was siqq - smokey hormel, victor indrizzo, lyle workman, the amazing roger manning jr.. DJ SWAMP

is he still playing with the geggy tah guy?

whoever he is...

Beck and timbalands incredible remake of diamond dogs should've been on MV but then it would've been the best thing on here. I still like it a lot. Prob my fave beck album actually. Very dense production though, prince would have cut it back, but then it wouldn't have been a beck album. Lost interest in beck since tbh, sea change was kinda snoozy, but I like the guy.

Mv has a peculiar tone though, its obv he likes the sources, but obv he also is a bit snide about it, so seems somewhere between the two. I guess that's just beck but hard to love a guy that seems to find it hard to show real love without worrying how it looks for this stuff, hes too worried what cool ppl think. Idk if he grown up since.

Didn't Beck give Justin Meldal-Johnsen his first big break?

Very dense production though, prince would have cut it back, but then it wouldn't have been a beck album

For all the Prince influence cited Re: this record, seems like a lot of folks miss all the P-Funk worship also on display, particularly in said dense production.

Plus goofy '80s Funk (Cameo, Zapp)

...and how could I forget Morris Day? I just watched the '96 VMAs "New Pollution", and Beck did a little homage to him during it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGFXLcOLM90

no claim of 'odelay has aged like milk' is complete without the claimant being forced to listen to 'novacane' three times in a row

Force is the only way that's happening.

Joey going ham in that clip

It is weird to watch Beck videos from 1996/1997 and think about a time when that whole schtick was enjoyable (and well-executed), before its memory was sullied by the Ben Kwellers and Of Montreals of the world

The '90s were a sexless time for white non-gay people

when i ran the Beck poll about two years back "Debra" was the highest placing track from this album and finished in the Top 10.

The '90s were a sexless time for white non-gay people

You could make this argument musically for each decade. Sexless synthpop, soft penis prog...

xp that’s because “Debra” attracts Bowie fans and “Beck is a novelty act” peeps alike. Can’t think off the top of my head of a more horribly formed opening couplet “joke” than “JC Penney / Jenny”

this is the best beck album, don't understand why "debra" is getting so much hate, he pulls it off fine. i guess i get why people find his schtick exhausting in general but i don't really mind it bc the music is genuinely great, love the hyperactive kitchen-sink funk sound he developed for this album.

"hollywood freaks" is indefensible though yeah

I love Debra unreservedly

I have a workplace crush whose name is Debra. Anytime I see her my brain starts playing the intro.

this was a riot when it aired, and still is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK7bK6JWctA

fuck, is that waronker again? he's so good

There's a real dissonance when you realize just how serious he is/was about creating these funk masterpieces, and they really are masterful, with this weird feeling that I can't describe in any other way than "why doesn't the Serge schtick work in English"

there's a couple moments in that "mixed bizness" performance where he really does look strikingly similar to bowie

Also, I’m an Ice Cube fan and I have no idea what Beck was talking about

Didn't Beck give Justin Meldal-Johnsen his first big break?

they both grew up in the church together!

fuck, is that waronker again? he's so good

no its vic indrizzo!

Serge? Makes me think of David Byrne a lot. I dont hear p funk on this album much, but I do hear him still employing his approach to sampling, that kinda beasties ish aesthetic, just without much actual sampling. It is a white funk classic for that 90s alt rock era. Works for ppl who love funk and rnb as well as those who dont take them seriously but dont mind them in this guise.

Weirdly I was going through my records to sell stuff yesterday and decided to keep the 7"s from this album in the end. Then I saw this post. I never actually realised he released the mv title track as a b side too.

then again, i guess you could see some clinton influence in the weirdness and lyrics.

Can’t think off the top of my head of a more horribly formed opening couplet “joke” than “JC Penney / Jenny”

I think it's hilarious because it's awful, and intentionally so.

listening to this for the first time in like 20 years and it mostly holds up, though i agree "hollywood freaks" was probably already a mediocre song that has aged to be even worse. i had forgotten about the middle run of peaches & cream/broken train/milk & honey, which are all pretty great.

the falsetto gets exhausting after a while, and if you want to listen to falsetto slow-jam pastiche joke song, you should go with "freedom of '76" over "debra"

Beautiful Way has no place on this album with its strained sincerity.

I don't hear sincerity at all.

it could've worked on Mutations too

For what's ostensibly a good-time, satyrical, party album, this record sounds really belaboured.
Listening to Beck can be strange for me because I find each new song can be entrancing or totally banal. It's like I don't give him any benefit of the doubt, he has to impress me anew with each new thing. Partly because his persona comes off as blank.

I dont think he does or can do off the cuff spontaneity though. His music comes from the head usually. And he has a lot of filters the music has to pass through before it is finished.

Also who says good time records have to mean the artist turns their brain off or tries to sound as if they do? :)

I've just realised after many years that it goes "touch my ass if you're qualified" and not "touch my ass and you'll feel quite a fright". this definitely changes my enjoyment of midnite vultures tho i don't know whether in a better or worse direction.

Depends if you're qualified

Nicotine and gwavy