Beck's surprisingly good recent output - appreciation and mild anticipation

taken over from here:

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

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, September 17, 2013 11:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He must be whispering his output.

It's sort of a shame his outing as a Scientologist coincided with him going all erratic and underground. It makes it hard to tell what precipitated what.

After reading the Wright book, I was totally reminded that Marissa and Giovanni Ribisi's dad played keyboards in the Scientology supergroup People!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO5rKF2w_ro

Beck should cover this.

I enjoyed Beck fine from 1993 to 2000 or so, lost interest/track, and have to my utter and total surprise found his myriad one-offs and strange side-trips and production work and the Covers Records (especially of 'Oar') to be some of my favorite new music of the last few years. I think it's great he's seemingly freed of trying to be a star or sell a lot of albums.

This is a nice recap through the end of last year:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/41-things-beck-has-done-since-he-stopped-making-al

The highlight of it all is the entirety of the Record Club cover of 'Oar,' which possibly bests the original; and the Glass reworking:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Ee_69wf3w&list=PL344D578F844FB6DF

An additional thing I like about the 'Oar' cover (and to a lesser degree the other Record Club recordings) is that it seems like such a genuine homage--wrangling many very talented and famous musicians into doing something very few people will here and giving it their all in an egoless way. I mean, you end up with Glenn Kotche and Feist playing percussion on a track, Jamie Lidell doing "finger snaps," or Jeff Tweedy playing rhythm guitar, and clearly it's all for fun. The recordings are put up for free, the whole thing done in a day--and yet really nicely produced and arranged. Scientologist or not, Beck seems like much more of a decent dude than most pop stars; and to me he's making the best music of his career these days. I really dig these singles from the summmer, too:

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

Trying not to get too excited but new one is being talked about as very sea change-y

Not sure I'd like a new Sea Change but if the stand alone singles are any indication this should be a good one

if it's very Sea Change-y, then, yeah, I won't try to get excited.

I think that's my favourite thing he's done

(I am a corny miserable indie fuxxor)

some great songs buried in the second half of sea change

such a dreary record tho

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