What was Beck's last great album?

I haven't heard much after Sea Change but I have a soft spot for that album.

haven't paid attention since Sea Change so Midnight Vultures. this roughly corresponds, perhaps not coincidentally, to his "coming out" as a Scientologist.

that song in Inland Empire is good tho

would vote midnite vultures if mutations didnt suck so fucking much and also typify and uncannily predict all the drecky mopeboy shit sandwich garbage still to come

of this decade, out of the ones I've really heard, Modern Guilt is probably my favorite. Is it great? Nah, not really. Last one I was really excited about was Midnite Vultures.

Also Midnite Vultures. imo "Debra" was the last time he wasn't humorless and for me that was a key part of his appeal.

Guero is actually pretty bad-ass and "Missing" is one of the best songs he's ever done, IMO. So, that's my vote.

Although I'm still pissed at that album for tricking me into getting Modern Guilt.

"The Information" was amazing (if overlong) and very unfairly ignored, imho

would vote midnite vultures if mutations didnt suck so fucking much

... I kind of don't see how Mutations sucking would keep you from voting for Midnite Vultures? There's no stipulation saying that every album previous to the one you voted for has to also be great, otherwise I would be voting "this dude has always been terrible".

Mutations is his best album THERE I SAID IT etc

(followed by Mellow Gold, THEN Midnite Vultures, THEN Sea Change, THEN Odelay)

I like "Mutations" too...

O_o

omg i remember hearing Guero and HATING it

I haven't heard much after Sea Change but I have a soft spot for that album

^this. but i hardly ever listen to it.

His latest album is his version of Skip Spence's "Oar"

It's pretty damn great.

Don't go near his VU&Nico one, it's unlistenable.

I don't know his LenCo one.

Think I might vote 'Sea Change'

Mutations is my favorite as well. Loved it since day of release.

Voted Midnite Vultures.

I think everything up through Midnight Vultures is great to varying degrees (altho I've never even heard of Golden Feelings?) It's really kinda startling now to go back to his earlier stuff like Stereopathic or Mellow Gold and the accompanying singles and marvel at just how fucking UGLY some of that stuff is - just distorted tape loops and screaming and whatnot - amazing that people saw commercial potential in this guy, he started off in a pretty abrasive/confrontational vein in a lot of ways. Course that's all gone/been sanded off now.

also Mutations is great.

the ballads on mutations are a+
i love guero and haven't heard information or modern guilt, so guero.

I like midnite vultures

I hate sea change so much that even thinking of it makes me mad

Mutations is great. Not at all humourless. It's got a great Stones circa Aftermath/Between The Buttons thing to it - harpsichords and folky-pop psychedelic touches. My favourite Beck record too - certainly the most consistent. I checked out after Sea Change, which I never fully came round to loving. Heard a couple of songs from newer things here and there that sounded good but nothing's given me an overwhlming desire to dig deeper.

I don't believe in the concept of disliking music over time, because there's always a residue of the things you once liked in there, but Beck might be the exception that proves the rule. With the exception of Where It's At and the first few songs on Mutations, I think I must have just been plain wrong about Beck in the 90s.

My husband has been downloading all his new covers projects of L. Cohen, Velvet Underground, etc., and damn they are mediocre. I hadn't picked up anything of his since Midnite Vultures. I used to be super obsessed w/him in high school & jr. high. I got weirdly wary about him shortly after...Scientology + breakup album sounded like a poisonous combo, so I never picked up Sea Change. I listened to modern Guilt at the strong recommendation of a friend & was like, "dude...why." Anyway, I voted Midnite Vultures (which I am extra sentimental about bcz I got some high school newspaper award for my review of it that netted me a pretty sweet scholarship).

Does not help that he used to be so hot and now he is like Duke of NAGL

http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2009/02/beck-necessary_evil.jpg

Hah, Loser has just come on 6Music and it sounds really really lame.

Mutations was the last album of his that I really enjoyed. I've given most of his albums since then a try but tend to lose interest before they're finished

amazing that people saw commercial potential in this guy, he started off in a pretty abrasive/confrontational vein in a lot of ways. Course that's all gone/been sanded off now.

― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, April 29, 2010 12:46 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't think anyone saw commercial potential in him til loser got played on KCRW and people liked it.

Has he done any good videos since Midnite Vultures? I used to rly dig his videos for Odelay & Midnite Vultures.

IIRC the video for "Girl" was good

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

Opening track of Mutations (Cold Brains) was my favourite song of all the songs ever when I was 15/16

ok i should prob listen to mutations again. i know that part of my reaction to it is that he played here like 2 weeks before it came out and basically did 100% midnite vultures all night review replete with wacky out there funk jams (it was fucking amazing actually), so when i went out and bought the album that was what i was expecting and then it was this limp tepid soft rock balladeer thing instead and i got very mad.

(and 'Diamond Bollocks' remains THE Beck prog-jam to end all others)

The last page of "Seventeen" magazine used to have a "dress like x celebrity" style guide. A year or two after Odelay came out, they had one of "Dress like Beck." I wonder if, ever before or since, they've had a dude celebrity on that page.

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

okay I am not so sure about this video

I've been listening to One Foot in the Grave lately.
I don't think I can stand to hear anything else by him.

JJ you will wet your pants to 'Diamond Bollocks'

like my honorable friend aerosmith albums upthread, sea change makes me want to punch people in the fucking throat

xpost glad you used quotation marks there

t was this limp tepid soft rock balladeer thing instead and i got very mad

His voice gets to be a drag after a while, on the ballads, it must be admitted

I am listening to "Diamond Bollocks" right now and I am predicting LJ will be completely incorrect.

My friend used to say "I liked Beck until he started wearing Frenchie shirts." which is a pretty ??? statement

I think Guero is the last great Beck album (haven't heard Modern Guilt). Its a relaxed, confident record, which doesn't really push new ground sonically but takes some basic Beck templates and fills them up with great songs. Compared to Odelay, which I always found to be kind of exhausting and stuffed with too many ideas, Guero sounds a bit more digested and it goes down a bit easier.

Also I love that song Broken Drum.

Duke of NAGL

rofl

i don't think anyone saw commercial potential in him til loser got played on KCRW and people liked it.

this is true, but he followed this up with two totally difficult/non-commercial albums and a bunch of inscrutable singles (Steve Threw Up, for example) that are pretty harsh sounding

I am listening to "Diamond Bollocks" right now and I am predicting LJ will be completely incorrect.

Well, he has his reputation to live up to

So if I say Odelay is that considered a challops?

also Abbsies, dude has always dressed like that (nb: i have not seen him in over 10 years)

So if I say Odelay is that considered a challops?

ha not really, not if you measure his commercial success

guero is one of the best beck albums imo

not really sure I interpreted 'great' very well in voting for an album I barely listen to these days

but it's got some good stuff on it so what gives

idk Steve he wasn't always secreted away in a burqa of plaid and flowing tresses.

that sounds delicious

xpost dammit, too slow

haha

xxxposts: kxlu dude, you know this!

well I *was* there and remember it I just didn't think such a large portion of ILM was too

We represent the only people who discuss music!

I still listen to kxlu its hilarious

kxlu broke Beck? kcrw was where i first heard him.

KCRW put him back together

I still listen to Beck it's hilarious

I spun some Guero tracks just last week.

tho now i do recall hearing a beck interview on kxlu sometime around the time Loser was hitting it big.

i used to listen to radio

i saw one of his first shows. he was opening! for the treepeople (dug's pre-Built2Spill band) and further. i think "the reverend bud green" was also on the bill. it was at a downstairs bar in midtown LA (?) which closed after the 94 northridge quake. he covered BS's the wizard and his finale was blowing a bag of leaves with a leaf blower all over the stage... brief footage of which ended up in the Loser video. i thought it was kinda LOL, had no idea he would mainline into the zeitgeist of Alternative Nation within a few years... muchless have a record released 10 years later that ILM would deem "great". also he had yet to convert to scientology and he was much weirder before the e-meter took over, my dear thetans.

i went to the Troy Cafe (?) a coupla times when I was in high school and saw Beck there (hanging out, not playing) right around the time he was on the cover of BAM. Totally thrilling.

I think it's funny that the only album that didn't get a vote was the one no one has heard.

bongload HAND DELIVERED the loser 7" to kxlu... this was after a couple features on demolisten:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fll5C756_4s

so you had a show on kxlu around that time? ha, i probably listened to it! i pretty much lived off of kxlu for a while there. thought you guyz were the cooooooolest.

KBLT was cooler!

haw

lol but I guess they didn't start broadcasting til '95 so my chronology was off a bit

you are deluded! plus you couldn't get kxlu in the inland empire doggie

don't care wasn't livin there back then, just visiting my bro in Silverlake

DJs included Mike Watt, Bob Forrest, Keith Morris, my brother, loads of random guests like Jason Pierce, the Bros Reid, etc.

also he had yet to convert to scientology and he was much weirder before the e-meter took over, my dear thetans.

wow you were down with him before he was born, u r hardcore

orly tell me all u kno dawggie.

he was brought up $cieno & went to a clam school, just drifted away from active membership a bit in his late teens and early 20s

why so much hate for beck? i missed his moment of peak cultural significance (just not paying attention, i suppose; also, i'm old). but what i've heard, i've liked (e.g., parts of one foot in the grave; sea change; the information (tho i sold back my copy of odelay and never understood why it was considered such a masterpiece)).

so is it just me or is Beck quietly putting out some of his best music in a looooong while this year. Surprised no-one has been discussing this

i'm glad 'last great album' is not a common poll topic around here, i look at these results and i realize that i have no idea what it even means or implies

Wait, Beck's made a great album?

I'll rep for this one:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b5/Jeff_Beck%27s_Guitar_Shop.jpg/220px-Jeff_Beck%27s_Guitar_Shop.jpg

idg Jeff Beck's elite status as a guitarist. He's a bore.

is Beck quietly putting out some of his best music in a looooong while this year

He is.

Eh, I don't really like any of his albums, or necessarily his playing, but I really respect the guy's guitar skills. He's got a weird streak which vies with his blues roots.

his only acceptable contribution to music is on a Donovan song imho

Sea Change? Oh, come on.

It had its moments but as a whole? Boring as fuck

"Gimme" is nice!

fave so far has been "I won't be long" I guess I should move this to a more appropriate thread

Loved that loooooong track he released earlier this year, wanted to buy the 12" but the postage costs of sending it to the UK were way way prohibitive

Idg people who dg Jeff Beck. (Guitar Shop was really good but was by no means his last great album btw: Emotion and Commotion rules!)

Beck and his power trio (Tal Wilkenfied and Vinnie Colaiuta) are backing Brian Wilson on most of his new record!

Emotion and Commotion docked for Joss Stone and its cover:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Emotioncommotionbeck.jpg/220px-Emotioncommotionbeck.jpg

I tried listening to jeff beck one night and just could not do it.

His catalogue is pretty varied.

so is it just me or is Beck quietly putting out some of his best music in a looooong while this year. Surprised no-one has been discussing this

Anyway, you guys are talking about the three tracks he released this year, according to Wikipedia? I haven't even checked out any of Song Reader yet.

Jeff Beck should record Song Reader!

One Foot in the Grave is his only good album

is Beck quietly putting out some of his best music in a looooong while this year.

it always gets me when people use the word "quietly" to describe things that are only "quiet" because no one actually gives a shit about them. I recently read in the local paper that some barely-famous musician "quietly" moved to town. What was he supposed to do, invite the world press to welcome him as he unloaded his U-Haul into his dilapidated apartment complex?

it always gets me when people use the word "quietly" to describe things that are only "quiet" because no one actually gives a shit about them.

i think in this case it means it is not being hyped by publicists, etc, like his major-label work has been, and as a result is not getting much press (although the sheet music thing got plenty of attention).

yeah - what I also meant is that he's been releasing these songs one by one through iTunes

Anyway, I moved this topic over here: Beck's surprisingly good recent output - appreciation and mild anticipation

He also produced Thurston Moore's fine 2011 solo album and a Malkmus album (if you like that sort of thing).

loved his work with thurston - hope they do some more work together