The Magnetic Clamour of IRM

When I read earlier in 2009 that Charlotte Gainsbourg was releasing a second album in Janurary 2010 with Beck writing, producing and playing a lot of the music, I was immediately frothing at the mouth with anticipation. Charlotte's 5:55, which stood at #59 on my decade albums list, is a beautiful record. However, knowing that Air was her backing band then and Beck would be handling that now, it would come as no surprise when the album would sound shockingly progressive and different. Luckily I was able to hear IRM in part when Charlotte stopped in Philadelphia recently, her first time touring and first time in our fair city. Now that the album has officially graced our shores, I can safely say that it is a work of delightful genius. It's important to know that several songs address the near death experience Charlotte faced, hence having to have an MRI (IRM in French.) That said, the track "IRM" has the claustrophobic sounds that and actual MRI has. The clamour and shifting of mechanical parts and the otherworldly sounds that are emitted from the machine. The album has many sides, but one thing is apparent; Beck draws on percussion, acoustic guitars and orchestral arrangements (some done by his father.) The song "Vanities" is a delightfully stark track filled with a delicate guitar pluck to shadow Charlotte's voice and then the strings come in and change the mood even more. "Time of The Assassins" is a short but sweet tune with Beck's cooing in the background of the chorus. As usual, a highlight of the record is when Charlotte sings in her native French. The track "Le Chat du Café des Artistes" is one of the most Beck sounding tracks taking a page from "Dark Star", the best track from his record The Information. Brooding drums and bass are accentuated by a Hitchcockian string arrangement. What IRM does is expand upon Charlotte's strengths as a singer. Although 5:55 is an excellent record, IRM progresses beyond just the love song driven piano ballads and goes somewhere else in the stratosphere. Her duet with Beck, "Heaven Can Wait", shows that there is even more promise for her career. The album is a delight and if she returns to the United States to tour it further, be sure to check it out. It was a fantastic experience.

Discography - Beck

It's no surprise I'd tackle my favorite solo artist next. Beck's album arc is stranger than most artists. He's our era's David Bowie in that respect. He's more prolific than most artists of the newer generation. Ten records out from 1994 to 2008 and that does not include some of the indie records and the slew of B-Sides and unreleased stuff. For our cause, We'll start with Stereopathetic Soul Manure.

Stereopathetic Soul Manure (1994) The first of three records in one year, Beck released Stereopathetic Soul Manure on Flipside Records before his debut came out on the major label on DGC. The album is a schizophrenic hodge-podge of all kinds of strange experiment, traditional tracks and other sound clips. It's definitely Beck's most peculiar album in the catalog, but it also contains some stellar samplings from Beck's early career. Songs like "Satan Gave Me A Taco" show Beck's troubadour/slacker story teller roots that would be paramount throughout Beck's early era. "Rowboat", a fantastic blues song, was covered by Johnny Cash at one point, shows also that Beck still has a firm foot in the blues. It's less of an album and more of brain droppings. I can't really recommend this outside of rabid Beck fandom.

Key Tracks: "Rowboat" "Crystal Clear (Beer)" "Satan Gave Me A Taco"

Mellow Gold (1994) Beck's first major label release is a time capsule of the 90's counterculture. Much like "My Generation" by our first band to get the Discography spot, "Loser" is an anthem of the 90's and one that is undeniable to the culture of the time. It's a lot harder now that Beck has become so prolific, but for the time many thought "look at this guy." and thought he would slip into obscurity. Luckily the album pointed to the future with tracks like "Pay No Mind (Snoozer)", a surprisingly stark look at the record industry, "Blackhole" which is an underrated sleeper on the record and "Soul Suckin' Jerk" which is a punk rock sloppy mess of a brilliant track. What Beck does best is take genre and sound and juxtapose them and Mellow Gold has plenty of gems worth playing some 15 years later into his career. The cool thing here is that the genre melting is so intense that it really just sounds like Beck. Mellow Gold isn't by far my favorite album, but it's a genuine classic and a must own.

Key Tracks: "Loser", "Pay No Mind (Snoozer)", "Soul Suckin' Jerk", "Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997", "Beercan", "Blackhole"

One Foot In The Grave (1994) Getting a very sleek and extended re-issue this past year is one of Beck's most underrated albums, One Foot In the Grave. It's a swampy, muddy blues album that has slapdash production but an honesty that is pure and wonderful. This record, released on K Records, was the second indie released album by Beck in the same year and is by far the more superior. The songs are rather short, but unlike Soulmanure, they are at least not fragments of songs but consistently good blues. The Skip James cover "He's A Mighty Good Leader" is the front runner of the sound on the album with just a guitar, a stamping foot and Beck's wayward vocals. "Fourteen Rivers, Fourteen Floods" is the best Delta blues song that Muddy Waters didn't write. "Cyanide Breath Mint" lends to the anti-major label execs wanting him to stick to the "Loser" shtick and "Asshole" is one of Beck's finer songs of love lost. One Foot proves one thing and that's Beck knows the blues.

Key Tracks: "He's A Mighty Good Leader", "Sleeping Bag", "Cyanide Breath Mint", "Asshole"

Odelay - (1996) What else can I say about Beck's perfect album? I mean, start to finish Odelay is something else. The addition of The Dust Brothers in the production room would usher in an era of cool and probably be his best production collaborator. I know that's hard with Nigel Godrich being his other constant companion, but we'll get to that soon enough. Whether it's the big hits like "Devil's Haircut", "New Pollution" and"Where It's At" or the fan favorites like "Novacane" and "Hotwax", there are a slew of excellent folk-hop goodies to be had. When the end hits you with "Ramshackle," it's hard not to see just how brilliant Beck really is. Nostalgia aside, I still don't know if Beck has sounded as good as on Odelay. It's really a stunner of a record and one that should join the ranks as one of the best of all time.

Key Tracks: Hard to not list every song.... the only not so great track is "Derelict" and even that song rules.

Mutations (1998) Before I was hardcore into Beck, I didn't even know Mutations existed. I knew songs from the record, but it was a VH1 Behind the Music type show about Beck that got me intrigued by this album. Bought it immediately and found the first introspective look into Beck without all the clamour and bang of his prior records. That's not to dilute the meaning behind his blues or crazy records, but Mutations strips it away and brings on the baroque. Nigel Godrich's production brings in a less frenzied pace and on songs like "Cold Brains" and "Lazy Flies" we still get the upbeat Beck style, but from a different angle. The amazingly beautiful "Nobody's Fault But My Own" brings in sitars and tons of other sounds swirling in the background making it easily one of Beck's finest songs. Overall the album is one of Beck's finest artistic statements with heart felt songs to his Grandfather like "We Live Again" to the calypso of "Tropicalia." It's all Beck still but it was something different. Beck's first serious album of sorts.

Key Tracks: "Cold Brains", "Nobody's Fault But My Own", "Canceled Check", "We Live Again", "Dead Melodies", "Tropicalia"

Midnite Vultures (1999) After Beck's more personal, quite and reflective album Mutations exploded the most enjoyably fun record of the 90's, Midnite Vultures. That's right, most fun record of the 90's. Especially for it to drop amid the late 90's suck zone of popular music, Beck created an electrical sex explosion of an album. With Prince and David Bowie's Young Americans being his muse, Beck concocts sexy lounge tales of love("Debra",) Kraftwerk infused debaucheries robot sex ("Get Real Paid") and straight up dance floor ready jams ("Sexx Laws".) His hyper frenetic take on hip hop, "Hollywood Freaks" takes the whole sound to the highest and most ridiculous with screams of "he my nun!" in the background as well as calling out Norman Schwarzkopf. Vultures was also a Dust Brothers production and the clamour of sound effects, sampling, instrumentation and all other sorts of wackiness add to the sheer fun that Midnite Vultures can bring. From the first time I heard it to today, it's been a staple for any party (and originally was played at midnight at every party) as well as a staple for getting amped for any good time. For some reason, this is Beck's most misunderstood record, and to me that is a crying shame. Your loss, really.

Key Tracks: "Sexx Laws", "Nicotine and Gravy", "Hollywood Freaks", "Get Real Paid", "Broken Train", "Debra"

Sea Change (2002) Almost every great artist has their heartbreak/break-up album of sorts, but Beck's Sea Change, coming after his over sexed and hyper kinetic Midnite Vultures was a surprise left turn. When I saw Beck for the first time on his small pre-Sea Change one man show, Beck shed his heart out on forthcoming tracks like "Sunday Sun" which immediately stunned me. It was a beautiful and heartbreaking number and on the album it takes a whole level of beauty with it's arrangements and freak-out ending. Tracks like "Lonesome Tears" never lets the listener rest with the ache that he feels. "The Golden Age" is a faux prosperity. The line "these days I hardly get by" is a heart wrenching feeling for a supposed Golden Age. "Already Dead" is definitely a feeling many have gone through when the loss gets so hard, but what's funny is that beyond the lyricism being straightforward and honest, the music is still compelling and fantastic. It's by far the best of the Nigel Godrich albums, with stunners like "Paper Tiger" filled with swooping strings and a funky bass groove. There is no denying that Beck's finest work in the past decade comes from the heart rather than from a stranger place that Beck usually traverses.

Key Tracks: "Paper Tiger", "Lonesome Tears", "Sunday Sun", "Already Dead", "Lost Cause"

Guero (2005) Beck's latter career in the 21st century had troubles after Sea Change. Although Guero is chock full of excellent songs, something is missing from it as an album. Part of my feeling in that regard is the fact that the leaked version of Guero was much more captivating. "E-Pro" had less production and an abrupt ending, "Scarecrow" was a 7 minute static jam with some amazing Beck harmonica and bluesy guitar work and some songs that ended up being B-Sides ("Send A Message To Her" and "Chain Reaction") were actually superior to some that ended up on the actual release. Regardless, songs like "Missing" and "Earthquake Weather" luckily remained intact and ended up being some of my personal favorite Beck songs. The album boasts some nice celebrity guests like Jack White rocking the funky bass line on "Go It Alone" and a surprisingly strange turn by Christina Ricci on "Hell Yes." Overall, Guero is one of Beck's more uneven albums but it still has a ton of excellent music. Maybe he should have stayed with the original leak track listing, but something that trivial isn't worth dwelling on. Guero is a nice little record that has a great selection of tracks.

Key Tracks: "E-Pro", "Missing", "Hell Yes", "Girl", "Earthquake Weather", "Farewell Ride"

The Information (2006) Easily the weakest link in the chain, The Information is a muddled album. It is one of those cases where an album could easily have been an EP with the best tracks numbering in at around 4 or 5 and the rest is just there. Nigel and Beck wanted to do a hip-hop record of sorts and this is what came about. Woozy bores like "Soldier Jane" and "Think I'm In Love" are muzak compared to your usual Beck and only work when used as background music. However, songs like "Cellphone's Dead" and "Dark Star" bring the heat with more intriguing musical elements and lyrical wordplay at first glance absurd and at second glance great social comment. The album shifts back and forth from redeeming tracks to boring sleepers and the final track is a bit of a mess. It's surprising that Beck's long worked on record ended up being less enjoyable then Guero which was pounded out between sessions for The Information.

Key Tracks: "Cellphone's Dead", "Dark Star", "We Dance Alone"

Modern Guilt (2008) Luckily Beck picked up a new companion in the studio with Danger Mouse and in 2008, beck released a morbid but delightful psych pop record in Modern Guilt. It's by far Beck's shortest record since One Foot in the Grave and it's even shorter than that record. Somehow Beck learned his miscue with The Information and instead of packing in tracks, gave us the ten best. Short, poppy but dark, Modern Guilt boasts one of the defining moments in Beck's career in "Chemtrails." Although not the usual clamour of funky grooves and sounds, the track swells in and out like the tide with fantastically woozy synths and falsetto and then comes crashing in with it's intensely groovy bass and Moonesque drums. "Gamma Ray" may seem like a cheap rip off of "Girl" form Guero, but it still works as a beach blanket party shuffle. "Volcano" is Beck at his darkest giving up on humanity to get "back into the womb of the world." The titular track is an ode to the Zombie's and "Orphans" is a perfect album opener. It also houses one of the most poetic and beautiful Beck lyrics of all time, and it is in this lyrics that I leave you on this edition of Discography:

If I wake up and see my maker coming
With all of his crimson and his iron desire
We'll drag the streets with baggage of longing
To be loved or destroyed
From a void to a grain of sand in your hand

Key Tracks: "Orphans", "Chemtrails", "Walls", "Volcano", "Replica"

Beck is up to lots on his website via Record Club where him and musician pals will get together and cover full albums. He's almost three records deep, but I will not be reviewing these. Beck, more so than The Who, has a mountain of B-Sides and unreleased tracks as well as other smaller indie records. My apologies for not delving into these but due to their wildly out of print nature, I would not want to tease you into thinking you can get them without it being illegal or damn lucky to get.

The Definitive Beck/ 10 Years of Midnite Vultures

Beck is coming up a lot lately this year and has been getting more buzz then if he had a proper album being released. Between his Record Club series through his new and revamped website to his working with Charlotte Gainsbourg, their has been no creative shortage from one of the best musical minds of our generation. That being said, this post serves a two fold purpose. First to chronicle the 25 Definitive Beck Tracks as well as to say Happy Birthday to Midnite Vultures.

Recently, a few friends of mine gathered around and surprisingly banged out a fantastic 25 Best Beck Songs spanning his entire career. For those who only know Beck's big hits, the man is more prolific than some give him credit. With over 400 different songs, Beck has pounded out some of the most intriguing tracks be his big hits or his rare, B-sides. This list takes into consideration all of Beck's catalog. IT was chosen by four people by casting votes on their 25 favorite Beck tracks. After arbitration, intensive listening and lots of beer and whiskey, this is the list. If you want to set this list up and listen, it flows really well from 25 - 1. Somehow the fates steered us to a Definitive Beck list that works as a listenable mix as well. Enjoy!

{Editor's Note} - The other three goons involved in making this great list were Daniel Somavilla, Ryan P. Carey and Steven Lipenta.

25. Earthquake Weather - Guero - 2005
24. Missing - Guero - 2005
23. Ship in a Bottle - Sea Change Japanese Import - 2002
22. Cold Brains - Mutations - 1998
21. Devil's Haircut - Odelay - 1996
20. Lord Only Knows - Odelay - 1996
19. Feather In Your Cap - Sissyneck Single - 1997
18. Ramshackle - Odelay - 1996
17. Hell Yes - Guero - 2005
16. Tropicalia - Mutations - 1998
15. Sexx Laws - Midnite Vultures - 1999
14. Where It's At - Odelay -1996
13. The New Pollution - Odelay -1996
12. Debra - Midnite Vultures - 1999
11. Novacane - Odealy - 1996
10. Hotwax - Odelay - 1996
9. Soul Suckin' Jerk - Mellow Gold - 1994
8. Nicotine & Gravy - Midnite Vultures - 1999
7. Paper Tiger - Sea Change - 2002
6. Lonesome Tears - Sea Change - 2002
5. Hollywood Freaks - Midnite Vultures - 1999
4. Diamond Bollocks - Mutations (secret track) 1998
3. Loser - Mellow Gold - 1994
2. Nobody's Fault But My Own - Mutations - 1998
1. Chemtrails - Modern Guilt - 2008

It was much a surprise how this played out. Some of it is obvious (7 out of 13 tracks from Odelay, most major radio hits appear) but some things didn't work out as planned. The top 5 alone sits as a testament to the different styles Beck would tackle. "Loser" is where it began, "Hollywood Freaks" is like "Loser" on ecstasy, "Diamond Bollocks" took a trash pilke of song ideas and crammed them into one glorious track, "Nobody's Fault But My Own" is poetry and melancholy and "Chemtrails" sounds like a throwback to 60's psychedelia with a modern twist. It's no surprise that this list careens from dance floor exagerations to relationship lamentations. Only Beck could do an album like Midnite Vultures and follow it up with Sea Change. To those who don't understand the Beck mythos, I suggest you give this 25 song listening experience a whirl.

Now, it seems odd to me that after 10 years, Midnite Vultures has yet to get old or dated. Maybe because the album is an homage to Young Americans era Bowie and 80's Prince or maybe because it's such a frenzy of different sounds, I still see myself coming back to it for many reasons. First and foremost, this album will pump you up. It's party aesthetics and it's overall dedication to groove is incredible. As much as it seems odd, Midnite Vultures may be Beck's biggest departure. You can compare most of his other albums to each other to some extent, but nowhere else in his catalog can you say he has done Midnite Vultures again. Beyond the albums overall vibe, it has turned into a veritable memory explosion. Nostalgia comes oozing forth from each song with sign-a-long memories of drunken parties to still having the urge to play it at midnight during any given late night event. From the opening horn exultation on"Sexx Laws" to the lulling post sex euphoria of "Debra," Midnite Vultures never stops slaying. Even when the lull of "Beautiful Way" comes on, the only downfall to the record, we are spit right back into the maelstrom. If you look at the record as a party concept record, only then can we see "Beautiful Way" as that time when you steal away from the party with a close friend or two and complain about the bad things that are going on over a smoke, but then you crack the door to your bedroom back open and into the "Pressure Zone" ready to burn those last few hours of partying off. Beck was relentlessly fruitful around this time. Just a year after Mutations and with loads of B-Sides attached to the Vultures sessions, it's no surprise it took a few years for Beck to return to the studio in 2002. If there were to be a deluxe edition release of Midnite Vultures, it would be worth picking up for insane B-Sides like "This is My Crew" or "Arabian Nights" to make you wiggle and giggle. Beck is an absurdly brilliant guy and it's no surprise that Midnite Vultures has endured. It's 10 years young.

Rock of Ages: Beck - "Chemtrails" (2008)

It's hard to believe we are finally here, the last two tracks. It's also a surprise that it took this long to arrive at the Beck song. He is easily the most influential artist on my life from my own era. I look far and wide for anything Beck related music wise. I've hunted down rarities, b-sides and live concerts that I've attended or that have a fantastic set list. When people ask "Why do you love Beck so much?" part of the answer is that his career has yet to dissatisfy me in any way. He may have had lackluster moments (ie. The Information) but for any of the lackluster, there has been massive high points (ie. every album from Mellow Gold till Guero and then of course Modern Guilt.) Which get's us to where we are today. 2008's Modern Guilt was the exact opposite of The Information. It's a short album with 10 tracks and doesn't get bogged down in excess. It harkens back to Beck's earlier career yet shows new direction in sound. The first track I heard from it blew my mind on many levels.

"Chemtrails" is a harrowing track that surges back and forth like the ocean tide. It's lyrics are stark and nihilistic. Musically it sways from Beck's falsetto and a murky, organ filled haze. As the chorus comes, the rhythm section comes to life. That's an understatement really as the drums come in full force like a crashing wave. The bass amps it up with a funky groove as the falsetto and organ haze carry over without noticing the bombast that swells forth. It goes back down for every verse until the end of the last chorus where strings, the intense rhythm and a guitar solo come together to make one of the most riveting Beck songs finalize in a fast drop off. It's a very surprising song that is easily the high watermark of Beck's career. Although not at all on the sillier side that Beck sometimes can be construed as, it's definitely more definitive of his eclecticism. It's Beck at his musically and lyrical greatest.



Up Next: The Final Track in the Rock of Ages Countdown goes to Portishead