Beck - Morning Phase

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ao9HQ8SaqZM/UrsEuOlF9fI/AAAAAAAAFlk/7wx37E54YhI/s1600/beck-morning_phase-2014.jpg

Morning Phase is the upcoming twelfth studio album by American musician Beck. The album is due out on February 14, 2014 on his new label, Capitol Records. According to a press release, Morning Phase will be a "companion piece" to his 2002 album Sea Change. Several of the musicians who recorded parts for Sea Change returned to record for Morning Phase.

Track listing:

1. "Morning"
2. "Heart Is a Drum"
3. "Say Goodbye"
4. "Waking Light"
5. "Unforgiven"
6. "Wave"
7. "Don't Let It Go"
8. "Blackbird Chain"
9. "Evil Things"
10. "Blue Moon"
11. "Turn Away"
12. "Country Down"

good time for new Beck.

I thought Sea Change was dull as hell, but I'll probably listen to this once just because I sorta miss the guy.

Yeah, he needs to do a "companion" to Mutations.

Johnny OTM

one of the most overrated artists ever.

Sea Change was the best thing he done since 2000, but still, it's overrated.

loved sea change, but i would. if this is sea change part two, can't wait.

ILX Pre-cover?

as I poste don the other new Beck thread: I really like Sea Change but yeah it is dreary like a hangover on a grey February morning - don't think I need a sequel of that one
In any case, quite looking forward to this. Can't remember the last time I anticipated a Beck album.

I dig Beck but SC was lame for the most part

some really great songs buried in the second half of sea change like "little one" and "sunday sun" but yeah beyond that what a dreary whatever

Ever notice how often he's photographed with his mouth hanging open?

I thought Sea Change was great but somehow forgot to listen to his following three albums. Should probably listen to them one day as I did like a couple of the singles from them.

Some good stuff on each of them, but they aren't essential.

still waiting for a loungey Beck album full of stuff like "deadweight" and "tropicalia"

teaser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJIUItRNC9M

i liked modern guilt quite a bit

ditto

I thought Sea Change was dull as hell, but I'll probably listen to this once just because I sorta miss the guy.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 17 January 2014 07:26 (15 hours ago) Permalink

100% with this

I really like Sea Change but yeah it is dreary like a hangover on a grey February morning

to be fair, he is releasing this in february, but yeah otm and i really like it.

Sea Change is probably the fastest "from love to hate" relationship i had with a record ever

his "Oar" covers was pretty good. better than the original imho

Sea Change is probably the fastest "from love to hate" relationship i had with a record ever

I pretty much went from "meh to adore to hate to love".

LOL @ that video suddenly switching on the old timey film effects as soon as they start cutting the record.

But yes it sounds even less fun than Sea Change, which was sort of fun for about a minute until it got boring.

Brimstead otm, he should've done a Shibuya-kei style psychedelic soft rock lounge masterpiece by now.

^ this. Beck and Yoshinori Sunahara, Cornelius or Shugo Tokumaru collab would be ace

sea change was so overrated (as well as affected, maudlin, dreary, never-ending...).

once i got over the joys of hearing beck be 'sincere' (as if he wasnt sincere on nobodys fault but my own or ramshackle), i realised 'fake' beck was better.

this album seems like its meant to be a sequel to what was more or less his last big/best-reviewed album. id rather he did a sequel to mutations or midnite vultures.

mutations his best sure but I kinda would rather he developed Mellow Gold into some rambunctious cyberhick monstrosity for the 21st century

I didn't think there was anything "fake" about his best four records (imo) Mellow Gold + Stereopathetic + One Foot + Odelay, they were freewheeling and unserious and fun in a Ween/Cibo Matto/Harry Nilsson kind of way.

*farts*

eww

doorknob

*start punching matt p*

doorknob

*starts punching matt p*

haha

Flamboyant goon OTM

all of his albums have SOMETHING to recommend them but that run is crazy solid

The Information is sweet

morning wood phase

I didn't think there was anything "fake" about his best four records (imo) Mellow Gold + Stereopathetic + One Foot + Odelay, they were freewheeling and unserious and fun in a Ween/Cibo Matto/Harry Nilsson kind of way.

this is OTM but like I can get, in a personal sense I feel like I can get, how Beck would eventually want to say "there's another Beck who's more focused than that and I relate more to him than the the guy who I'll be known as forever if I keep that up"

I just wish "a more focused Beck" didn't sound like Air

That's kind of unfair. Realistically I don't think anybody can put Calvin Johnson on bgvs, or put a BBQ recording of "Ozzy", do cotton-ball-mouth first take raps, write songs like "Mutherfucka" etc., nobody can do those things a second time, or past the age of 26, or after having any sort of success, or pressure on you to move units for Geffen.

Pressure to move units for Capitol, as of this record.

"I just wish "a more focused Beck" didn't sound like Air" or air for that matter

i think that his move to major labels just made him a worse artist, i don't care if he does the old stuff he did again, just wish his newer stuff was better.

(he aint no SY or Nirvana for that matter)

New Moon is streaming everywhere. and it's meh

strange song - might be a grower, but I'm a bit tired with that vocal style & FX he seems to be have been using for the last 10 years.

i am amused at how "Morning" is practically a carbon copy of "Golden Age"

I love his early stuff so much but he hasn't made an interesting record since Midnite Vultures

And he never will again, it's not like he's going to give up all his world comforts and marriage and get lost and weird again

Love this track.

this seems like it could be good. but i feel like it's already obvious it will be considered beck's comeback album. like, it will resemble "sea change" and also be beck's highest p&j charter since that album. most people who don't know that he released "song reader" -- an album that's not actually something you can put on and listen to! -- last year are thinking "what happened to beck?" totally the right time for him to be like "yo, here i am." and also capitol's probably willing to spend a lot on him since he's new to their stable. ba da bing ba da ba it's like "beck we hardly knew ye!" lots of middle-aged rock critics out there who have a lot invested in believing that "odelay" wasn't a fluke.

this album is embarrassing.

(Harmonica solo)

I miss his sense of humor

More like Boring Phase

Is he trying to capitalize on post-Mumford and Sons shtick or something

more like trying to capitalize by recycling himself, doing generic indie folk

I forgot Beck invented generic indie folk

It's mainly the production and arrangements that don't appeal to me wrt post-00s Beck. Like if he forced himself to make this album on a 4-track it would somehow be WAYYYY better.

Like if "Today Has Been a Fucked Up Day" was recorded now it would have 64 layers of vocals and tambourines and people stomping and stuff.

he is the godfather of it, in a way...

but now it seems Bon Iver took his place

xpost

yeah, trying too hard to be "pretty"..

Wish he would record Ozzy Pt. 2

The flipside of calling this generic would be to say that it's archetypal. I like its subtleties, like the contrasting melodic contour in the second verse and the way the chorus is segmented. Also think his voice sounds great.

http://timeentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/20140119_beck_morning_phase_91.jpg
that is the cover not the hideous thing upthread.

"new moon" sounds promising, i quite like the banjo playing.

Start at track 3

i've lsitened to this record twice now and i might even listen to it again at some point

wow, really expected this to be better

I can think of few big artists I have lower expectations for than Beck...

It's a bummer this does seem rather tepid on first listen, considering all the amazing stuff he's been doing very under the radar the last few years. The Record Club 'Oar' full-album cover remains one of my favorite albums of the 2010s (http://www.beck.com/recordclub/index.php/category/skip-spence-oar). And this is one of the very best pieces of music I've heard in the last couple years, from any time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKrnjY8LiY

^ this. Beck and Yoshinori Sunahara, Cornelius or Shugo Tokumaru collab would be ace

― MaresNest, Friday, January 17, 2014 11:52 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, not cornelius, it'd be humiliating. fantasma >>>>>>>>>> beck

I mean, damn:

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

um ok wow that^ is incredible

eugene gallagher 3 years ago

i love this song. i sang it w beck at the 94 lalapalooza. very random. ck out my alt country cover of it

After listening to “Morning Phase” almost fifty times, I can’t find a single thing wrong with it. Even if you listen to popular music all day, every day, you don’t get many albums like this in your lifetime.

sasha frere jones done lost his damn mind http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2014/02/17/140217crmu_music_frerejones

lolllll

Do we like this? I'm hearing great things.

i don't think it's as good as sea change. it's very pleasant tho. maybe it'll grow on me.

i like this just fine, it is very much just Sea Change 2 in sound though so if that doesn't qualify as 'more of a good thing' for you then you won't like it

holy @ grey/afro. want a album of THAT SONG.

havent heard it yet but disappointed this turns out to be just Sea Change 2, as the recent standalone singles had a distinctive and novel sound.

Love SFJ for going so unapologetically crazy about this record. I don't hear what he's hearing but good luck to him. It's so unlike the usual New Yorker voice.

Six months from now he is really going to regret writing this review, and the New Yorker are going to regret publishing it. I'd like the usual New Yorker voice back please.

Also, Gordon Lightfoot is not “Los Angeles rock.”

I thought you were all in favour of unbridled passion Marcello? Obviously I wouldn't want this style every week.

Trouble is I don’t hear any passion, bridled or otherwise, on this record. What I do hear are a lot of below par Air Supply and Pablo Cruise tributes. It’s no All Love’s Legal, that’s for sure (they should just give that the Mercury now and have done with it).

assume DL meant sfj's review showed unbridled passion

haven't heard the album, but "blue moon" and "waking light" are hitting me real nice this morning. not passionate by any stretch, but sharp tunes dressed up all wistful and invitingly atmospheric. sounds ideally well-suited to chemical enhancement, but i'm not gonna take things any farther than coffee and a chair by the window.

Oh, I see, you mean in the review. Nothing wrong with being passionate about a record you love – if he isn’t just besotted with it for the moment – but you have to back up your passion with more than clichés like “the feeling of re-creating the American song” (how? In what ways? Doing old songs that are out of copyright so you don’t have to pay royalties? The age-old tale of privileged whiteboy ripping off black culture?) or “an unqualified embrace of sheer beauty” (what does that even mean?). It’s the same unquestioned, unchallenged fawning you get whenever Bowie or Prince decide to burp out something, rather than questioning: why should anybody be praising this guy JUST because he Did Something 20 Years Ago? Why not just buy No Other or Grievous Angel and have done with it?

self-correction: "the feeling of re-creating the DNA of American song."

I think if you're listening to a new album 50 times you're doing more than giving kneejerk praise to a critical fave. SFJ was dismayed (ridiculously imo) by Let England Shake so he doesn't just hand out Rolling Stone-style raves to the usual suspects. Rightly or wrongly, he has a sincere love for this album and I like his OTT love for it more than I like the music. Personally I think Morning Phase doubles down on the flaws of Sea Change — derivative arrangements, one-note emotion — with lesser songs. It's nice enough but i can't imagine being deeply moved by it.

No, OTT love is one thing but when it gets in the way of the music it's a hindrance. Music criticism should be at the service of the music. He's basically telling punters to go spend money on something which really isn't much more than a Xerox of far superior music. Can anybody recommend to any newcomer to this music that they buy anything but the very best, and Morning Phase is never that.

well maybe let him be the judge of what is a xerox of superior music

Streaming this on NPR - finding it much lighter and airy than Sea Change. Pleasant but boy does it feel like middle-aged music.

On the radio the other morning I heard what I thought was an oldie by the Moody Blues. It turned out to be “Blue Moon” from the new album. I will not be rushing to the store to buy it next Monday, in common with billions.

The easy-listening arrangements are slow as molasses and twice as treacly, but in a way that's sort of post-rock or something. I sort of figured at least one critic would cultivate a perverse crush for this dreadful album.

"say goodbye" is lovely. pretty reserved and impressionist. great interplay of guitar and banjo. "blue moon" is not quite as strong but it is still a solid song. a little on the schmaltzy side of the spectrum though.

"Turn Away," with its Simon and Garfunkel touchstones, is pretty incredible.

absolutely. there are lots of great songs on this album, i don't understand the cynic posts in this thread. i am not sure but this could well be his best album together with "mutations". it's much much better than the terrible "sea change" which was just a pale copy of 70s serge gainsbourg and nick drake. beck has finally found himself.

heard some of this in a Starbucks and thought it was fine. My two-year-old liked it.

oh god, what have I become? I actually liked this on first spin. suppose I should be ashamed of myself now? perhaps I should pop in to Starbucks and buy something.

Starbucks is basically the only toddler-friendly destination within a five block walk of me. Speaking of what have I become.

I guess if the option is playing the Frozen soundtrack again or the new Beck, i'd put on the new Beck.

Given all the crazy and often amazing stuff Beck's been doing the last few years, I have to imagine this pleasant, straightforward record is half "gotta feed the monkey" (via the NPR crowd), half mess with all the people on ILM who haven't been privy to the stuff he's been doing off-radar. For ILMers to hear and assume "Beck's gone soft in his old age, what a putz". Meanwhile, the rest of us get stuff like the "Grey/Afro" cover (above) and the Glass reinterpretation and the whatever-the-hell-it-is 24-minute 12" single "Gimme".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKrnjY8LiY

heard some of this in a Starbucks and thought it was fine. My two-year-old liked it.

― Burt Stuntin (Hurting 2), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 2:53 PM (Yesterday)

always read this as butt stuntin

have to imagine this pleasant, straightforward record is half "gotta feed the monkey" (via the NPR crowd), half mess with all the people on ILM who haven't been privy to the stuff he's been doing off-radar.

huh?

I hear Beck spends a lot of time thinking about how to fuck with ILM

okay so i re-listened to spotify-available "wave", "waking light" and "blue moon" this morning to find that i still quite enjoy all three. post-amnesiac yacht rock? yes, please. "blue moon" may be bit shmaltzy, as alex in manhattan says, but only in the best sense: sweet, lush and gently heart-tugging.

not sure about the album as a whole (i'm currently streaming it thru NPR, its natural habitat). "morning" starts things on a thematically-appropriate but nearly soporific note. pleasant enough, but cloudy to the point of vacancy. "heart is a drum" perks things up a bit, adds a pulse and some nicely cosmic trip detailing, but wouldn't do much to dissipate one's growing impression that this is more gentle soundtrack to knowledge-working america's bleary-eyed coffee house ayems than a collection of individually attention-worthy songs. alex otm about "say goodbye" though: it's the album's first standout track, and followed by the gorgeous "blue moon", makes what came before feel like a 10-minute intro hum. yoga poses or w/e.

not gonna liveblog the whole thing, but "unforgiven" is sounding pretty nice too. initially nocturnal and even a bit menacing (lol, wrote that before the on-the-nose lyrics kicked in), though it eventually does lay the schmaltz on a good deal thicker than i'd prefer ("somewhere unforgiven i will wait for you"). as a side note, i'm loving this album's production, maybe moreso than the songs, and that's by no means a slam. where "unforgiven" is concerned, the spooky canyons of reverb, dark ambience and streaks of foreboding noise keep beck's goopier lyrical tendencies in check and provide a nice lead-in to the badalamenti-esque "wave".

"Turn Away," with its Simon and Garfunkel touchstones, is pretty incredible.

― timellison, Monday, February 17, 2014 7:50 PM (2 days ago)

$$$

Is the 'off-radar' stuff all the stuff that I've read about/seen embedded in every music site over the past several years?

I heard those cover albums, they were pretty good, but also pretty boring.

no - he released 3-4 standalone singles which were pretty unexpected and exciting ("Gimme", "It Won't be Long" and another one I think

Defriended:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDSjOM42HZU

Gimme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwn4tK5ySNU

I won't be long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLIBuuJnQHg

"wave" is so depressing

"isooooooolaaaaaaation. isooooooolaaaaaaation." my psychology is too fragile to handle this tbh

smoke less

smoke more

I listened to this whole thing at lunch on headphones, and two things kept coming up:

1) If this was not Beck I probably wouldn't make it through one of these songs.
2) Half of these songs sound like they are _this close_ to turning into the chorus for "Comfortably Numb". This happens in multiple songs.
3) It actually sounds like the arrangements are stripped down but in reality they are not, they are just boring enough to sound like nothing is happening.

Eh, that's three things. The album has turned my mind to mush.

This album is one monotonous, dreary blur. Good Starbucks music though, I'll give him that.

Emperor is right. Dull songs with REVERBbbbbbb in place of tunes or anything novel.

my reaction to the album oscillates between being mildly soothed and strongly disgusted

this album is like being given the choice between the blue pill and the red pill by someone who has somehow already managed to take the blue one. can't believe I just made a Matrix reference but that's simply where this album took me.

1) The three Beck songs baaderonixx posted are great.

2) Morning Phase sounds nothing like them.

**shrug**

I like it. It's not super exciting, but it sure is lovely.

^^ pretty much my reaction

blackbird chain slays

This is a really good album for mornings when you aren't fully awake yet. I still think it's boring but it gets better after repeated listens.

'Blackbird Chain' is probably my favorite song.

This is a really good album for mornings when you aren't fully awake yet

Hah just like Sea Change this sounds very much like hangover music

Sea Change : Morning Phase :: heartache : backache

Nothing to do with the musical content, so forgive the side-step from such discussions with this post, but this situation makes me quite frustrated as a music retailer...

Vinyl for this was horribly under-pressed, at least in the UK.

On the day of release (yesterday) there was just one single (speculative) copy on Amazon, via the marketplace, at £10,000. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morning-Phase-VINYL-Beck/dp/B00HHYEOV8/ I just cite that as evidence of the general scarcity on the first day of release, as no legitimate sellers (shops using Amazon marketplace, Amazon themselves, as examples) had enough copies to offer for sale beyond what had gone to curtailed/limited pre-orders.

Hard to fathom any decent reason why the record company et al would deliberately stick to a mere ~1000 copies on an album like this, when shops and online retailers and by extension the record-buying public were quite clearly clamouring for more. Well, I can think of reasons, but they're quite dispiriting.

St Vincent album is also in the same situation, from the same record company... http://www.amazon.co.uk/St-Vincent-VINYL/dp/B00H783104/

this is kind of a slog and the songs aren't great

but man this sounds like a million bucks! so well produced.

It does. I listened to it again this morning and it sounds so good. The arrangements are really nice. And the songs are great. And his singing is so good!

I listened to Stereopathetic Soul Manure again too. His voice is so nervous and wavy, and it's been a huge leap for him to get to this spot. I'm sure he doesn't want to hear/play some of those songs because the performances are super rough (though that is part of the charm). In a way it's sort of like Cornelius's artistic trajectory: more and more clinical recording techniques, and super-close attention to detail. Beck's earlier works are defiantly ramshackle and I think even if he makes a "party" album it will be the coolest, cleanest machine he can invent.

The problem with this album is that John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvM3D4XE9qM&feature=kp

somebody should ask him if some of that Morning Phase money will go to fund scientology's department of attack and general harassment . didn't listen, too bad for me.

the strings on "wave" sort of sound like homogenic-era björk imo

I heard a review of this album on NPR but thought it was a look back at 'Dark Side of the Moon'.

I like this more now that I can listen to the whole thing. Phase->Turn Away does it for me.

not heard sea change since it came out really but i like this more than i remember being into that album. the melodies seem less 'monotone'. or maybe its just that theres a lushness to how hes produced his vocals on this that does it for me (beck seems to sing 'better' these days). was expecting it to be really lame and transparently trying to court a specific audience but its a bit better than that.

its odd, even those other non album tracks like i wont be long, they all have a similar sheen to them. its the sound of nice, lush digital production, but not that expensive, its low-ish budget lushness. i wont be long is great though - chorus reminds me of i wanna be adored/stone roses, surprisingly.

none of these non album songs is all that novel or radical etc (at least not in the way his old stuff was) though, only defriended sounds like becks been listening to clams casino or some cloud rap stuff.

actually, i take that back - the extended version of gimme is pretty special. reminds me a little of mid-80s/parade-era prince.

I'm not really feeling this but then again "Midnite Vultures" was the last Beck album I was into.

actually, i take that back - the extended version of gimme is pretty special. reminds me a little of mid-80s/parade-era prince.

― StillAdvance, Wednesday, February 26, 2014 11:20 PM (Yesterday)

The extended versions of all of them are pretty great, IMO, but yeah, "Gimme" went from being not much of anything in its normal release, to something really special and unexpected in the 24-minute version.

What did you think of "NYC 73-78"?

woah "gimme" is great- where is this extended version?

This album seems to be what is known as 'polarising'.

This album is what some call "boring."

Luxuriously boring though. This is high-end, hand-woven, artisan tedium.

Gimme Extended version here maybe

http://plixid.com/2013/09/25/beck-gimme-single-2013-mp3/

the beck that I wish would return:

http://www.spin.com/sites/all/files/styles/style620_413/public/130730-Best-Lollapalooza-Beck.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I357vCLnHTM#t=46

Thanks, SNL, for not trying to appear funny in the slightest. Is that lady on the right in the show now?

yes.

She isn't funny.

She's pretty funny.

bazinga.

Well, not in that promo. But in general she's pretty funny. Her 'Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started Talking to at a Party' character was great.

Sounds like a riot.

Ha, I realized as I typed it out that the name of the character was going to make it look much less funny than it actually was. But I also realized I'm defending an SNL cast member on a Beck thread and, why?

By the look of this, Beck is turning into Capt Beefheart in his demeanor

beck is looking plastic and inanimate as ever... look at that perfectly sculpted hairdo. ever since the Mutations cover, his projected image has been well dubious to me.

By the look of this, Beck is turning into Capt Beefheart Crunch in his demeanor

Fwiw, that hair doesn't look so much perfectly sculpted as it does a combover.

Oh shit. That's what's with those fucking hats. Beck is bald!

man, tough crowd

like this as much as sea change now. Heart is a Drum and Turn Away are great. I know it's boring, but I am kind of boring. Write a Simon and Garfunkel song. Put some reverb on some overdubs. Add some reverse tape effects. I will listen to it.

"Write a Simon and Garfunkel song" is no easy task. Especially not to the extent that he pulls it off.

Yes, he definitely pulls it off. Turn Away is stunning.

still have yet to listen to this but did DVR Saturday Night Live to hear two songs, they were OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YFuu512Fjo

it isn't "thrilling," but i like this song. i like singer-songwriter, gloomy beck.

Beautiful album. I like it more than Sea Change.

Will see how it fares as the year progresses.

yeah, I've grown to like it more than sea change as well.

"blue moon" rules

finally heard this on real speakers and it does sound magnificent

Seeing him on Thursday. It's been awhile.

sounds great on Austin City Limits atm

Don't keep up anymore, so I missed this--ordered a copy after looking at this thread. Objectively, if you'd told me 20 years ago that the guy who made "Loser" would one day be doing nothing but sad-guy ballads that occasionally sound like Dark Side of the Moon, I probably would have said "Please, no." But going through one of my periodic bouts of self-pity last week, it fit my mood perfectly. My favorite is "Don't Let It Go," which I'd recommend to any parent in the middle of Frozen overload. (I realize sad-guy ballads were always a part of Beck--"Pay No Mind" was my second-favorite song on the debut.)

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Lol at super specific Grammy categories

LOL at them getting rid of gender-specific categories (which, for the record, I'm absolutely fine with) but keeping categories that stopped making sense whenever Van Cliburn's last #1 album was.

LOL at Kanye getting up just as Beck began his speech, only to wave a "never mind" and sit down. Beck looked more confused than Taylor Swift did.

'indie' rock now the official music of old farts

Didn't you pay attention to the awards? Beck is simply "Rock" as opposed "Indie" or "Alternative".

They have indie categories now?

let's just say he's the only Best Album winner I've seen play at Maxwells.

As I said to a friend last night, the GenX/millenial cuspers have finally reached the point where Grammy is awarding the musical acts we worshipped as kids for doing work we aren't going to listen to more than once or twice.

Let me pause in wonder as I gaze at Eric and Morbs in a Beck thread.

truly the days of chimpanzees

i was buying Beck records when u were worshipping NKOTB

My response to Beck winning album of the year was: "Beck put out a new album?"

Turns out they were looking for that Mellon-feeling after all!

I was surprised the album wasn't in the lower end of this years ILM poll tbh

i bet morning phase *is* really well engineered

all thetans were cleared prior to committing sound to tape

i like the idea that the grammys dgaf about anything except trolling kanye at this point

As I said to a friend last night, the GenX/millenial cuspers have finally reached the point where Grammy is awarding the musical acts we worshipped as kids for doing work we aren't going to listen to more than once or twice.

― Eric H., Monday, February 9, 2015 3:56 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

See also: Aphex. I mean Syro's alright, but lol at getting a Grammy for it considering the rest of his entire career to this date.

i was buying Beck records when u were worshipping NKOTB

You bought a Beck album last week?

xp + Daft Punk

I was addressing the Floridian; I would never take on the Einsteinian task of misunderestimating your musical fixations.

Jon Knight was an Odelay fan.

i bet morning phase *is* really well engineered

― tylerw, Monday, February 9, 2015 10:08 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I imagine a Grammy Member up late at night filling out his ballot and coming to this category and saying "y'know the music is garbage, but goddamnat is a well engineered album" and then making a very bold check mark with his No.2 pencil.

"it sounds expensive!"

That's what a lot of people said about Daft Punk's album last year. And it seems it also won "Best Engineered Album".

"I'd loved the tones and I could hear all the vocals, album of the year"

seems like every idiot on the internet has a beck + scientology joke to make today

i wish he'd go back to making weird troubadour folk music.

beck did a reverse tom waits, and everyone is mad

he wore a hat & now he doesnt?

i heard a few tracks from this at a saturday morning yoga class. rolled my eyes when his smoggy voice rolled in, think i was in warrior two.

i wanted to hate it but i was trying to let go of stuff, you know?

i liked modern guilt for a sec, at least it was kind of funky iirc. this all-the-instagram-filters white bread beatific beck is not my thing.

Looked at some rather dubious analysis today that tried to attach meaning to Beck's win (and Beyonce's not-win). It's a nice album for fans only (and far from all of them), quite inconsequential, no it shouldn't win any awards. But it's the kind of Lifetime Achievement award, long after somebody's most vital work, that happens all the time at these affairs. Paul Newman wins for The Color of Money, Scorsese wins for The Departed, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, etc. Mellow Gold was not nominated in 1994, The Bodyguard soundtrack won; Odelay was nominated three years later and lost to Celine Dion. I think the guy from the Verve Pipe threatened to boycott future Grammy shows after the Odelay snub.

certainly somebody has polled the most outrageous grammy album of the year

i have listened to this album more than Beyoncé's

1981 best album grammy noms and winner are so awful. who is christopher cross?

yourmom

this is wonderful news ty

i was buying Beck records when u were worshipping NKOTB

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 February 2015 16:03 (Yesterday) Permalink

NKOTB broke up the year Mellow Gold came out

The trouble with calling this a 'lifetime' award is that Destiny's Child debuted in 97. Why wouldn't Beyoncé get a 'lifetime' award when on top of that, her album was a masterpiece?

Fair point, but I think part of the lifetime-achievement concept is that you've been overlooked in the past. Prior to this year, Beck had won three Grammys; Beyonce (I just counted), 18--including her controversial 2014 award for Best Surround Sound Album.

this album is exactly boring enough to deserve this award.

This album is beautiful and deeply boring, and Beck probably still can't believe he won any awards for it.

Looked at some rather dubious analysis today that tried to attach meaning to Beck's win (and Beyonce's not-win). It's a nice album for fans only (and far from all of them), quite inconsequential, no it shouldn't win any awards. But it's the kind of Lifetime Achievement award, long after somebody's most vital work, that happens all the time at these affairs. Paul Newman wins for The Color of Money, Scorsese wins for The Departed, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, etc. Mellow Gold was not nominated in 1994, The Bodyguard soundtrack won; Odelay was nominated three years later and lost to Celine Dion. I think the guy from the Verve Pipe threatened to boycott future Grammy shows after the Odelay snub.

― clemenza, Monday, February 9, 2015 6:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was gonna listen to Bey, Beck, and Skateboard P's albums today for a thinkpiece tonight about why Bey lost and why they won but today was rough and I'm exhausted and somehow I never made it to re-listening to Bey today

i heard a few tracks from this at a saturday morning yoga class. rolled my eyes when his smoggy voice rolled in, think i was in warrior two.

― mattresslessness, Monday, February 9, 2015 4:09 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love this post so much <3

I do think Beck gushing about how excited he was when Kanye West came onstage, and about what a fan he is, is pretty funny (good-funny). I still see him as Mark Fidrych, more or less, part of why I still like him.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Mark_Fidrych.JPG/200px-Mark_Fidrych.JPG

wow. That is uncanny.

i like this album but i swear i have seen/heard more ppl talk about it now than when it came out, the level of interest its getting w/r/t Bey far outweighs its actual interest as an album

and if i see one more person do a shitty FB "Beck album =1 writer 1 producer vs Beyonce 27 songwriters 19 producers"i will burn down the internet with a flamethrower

See also: Aphex. I mean Syro's alright, but lol at getting a Grammy for it considering the rest of his entire career to this date.

― oi listen mate, shut up (dog latin), Monday, February 9, 2015 10:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

To be fair, the best electronic album category has only existed since 2005.

apparently some indie women i know think that Beck is gorgeous? WTF?

he used to be when he was young. now he just looks scrawny & bug-eyed

Yeah he was dreamy 20 yrs ago

Still dreamy gawd what do you want a 45 year old to look like

less gaunt

Beck hasn't gotten crazy enough with the Cheese Whiz in his dotage for some, apparently.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-beck-annie-lennox-grammy-awards-album-sales-bump-20150218-story.html

Answering the Twitter hashtag mystery "#whoisbeck," the veteran indie rocker not only came away from the 2015 Grammy Awards ceremony with the coveted album of the year trophy, but his exposure on the show (and additional media fallout from Kanye West’s photobombing of his moment) helped fuel a whopping 483% increase in sales of his winning album “Morning Phase.”

The album shot from No. 39 a week ago on sales of 12,200 copies to No. 8 as about 71,000 copies were snapped up following the Grammy telecast.
Historically, artists featured in the show’s high-visibility performance slots often fare better than many who actually win awards, but in this case, Beck benefited from taking one of the big four category awards (record, album, song and new artist) and got additional camera time in his joint appearance with Coldplay’s Chris Martin...

Wow that doesn't sound like too many extra sales.

It's 2015, less folks are buying albums and cds

i'm more surprised that 12k ppl bought it the week before to be honest

An increase of 50,000 tho, I wonder how many people watched the Grammys and how much money was spent on it and LOL

This is very heartwarming:

http://www.etonline.com/music/160033_kanye_west_finally_listens_to_beck/

@justinbieber
This @beck album is incredible

well I just received this as a present

why is Beck so sad

the gentrification of silverlake?

forced back into Scientology, had to dump his old GF, hasn't cheered up since Sea Change

the happy party vibes of guero always seemed forced to me (still some jams on it)

Why is his voice auto tuned on this audiophile album?

I liked the Oar cover album a lot, and I have plenty of love for earlier sad Beck but this just sounds so flaccid and mopey, the pace of everything is near glacial, like its goal is to help me take a nap

i remember i used to fall asleep listening to sea change when it came out - i felt that was one of its great attributes!

hey I like naps too

not really what I want/expected from Beck, there's better nap-inducing music out there for me. the industry love for this album is based more on industry politics than anything else bu it's still weird to think that anyone would rate this sleepy fairly generic and hook-free album ALBUM OF THE YEAR I mean waht

was pretty sure the endgame of the whole beck / kanye kerfuffle this year was going to be kanye embracing scientology