New Beck Album The Information: First Listen
The Information album will be coming with stickers so that fans can make their own cover.
I’ve been a fan of Beck dating back to first hearing “Loser” in 1994. To get an idea of where I stand on prior Beck releases I think Odelay and Sea Changes are probably his best two albums partly because of how different they are from each other. They are both excellent but in totally different ways. That being said I’m also a big fan of Mellow Gold, Midnite Vultures, and Guero. I also find his early work like Stereopathic Soulmanure quite interesting. I know you’re asking “Where’s Mutations?” For whatever reason I’ve never been able to get into that album. I know it’s many Beck fans favorites. I think the songs on it are good enough but they all sort of strike me as the songs on a Beck album that aren’t as interesting as the really goood ones all collected onto one album. I know that’s a very unpopular opinion to have, but hey, there it is.
So for those who haven’t already completely invalidated my opinion due to my feelings on Mutations, here’s my first impression of the new Beck album “The Information.” which like Sea Changes is produced by Nigel Godrich who is most well known with his work with Radiohead(see also Thom Yorke’s new album, Travis, and Paul McCartney’s “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.”)
1. Elevator Music – Loving the “one two you know what to do” intro. There’s a looser and funkier feel to the this than on anything on the somewhat underwhelming Guero (mostly because of it’s similarities to Beck’s prior work making it not feel as fresh, I still feel it’s a fine album.) I’m really liking the production on this track with the spacy reverb being used to create very interesting sonic textures.
2. Think I’m In Love – The drum and bass here is really killer. Reminds me of some of my favorite moments of Stereolab. This is a track that really goes into some different territory but the segues from genre to genre seem pretty natural. It sort of feels like a journey through the different styles he’s experimented with before. I can see now how this sentence could be taken as a negative thing or a positive, I mean it actually in a positive way. The song really smoothly goes into these different styles/feelings and each seems perfectly realized.
3. Cellphone’s Dead – This one reminds me most of Midnite Vultures but the feeling is a bit more organic here. The song goes from sounding very sort of MTV raps (or whatever they play on MTV now a days.) to being very sort of strangely peaceful towards the end.
4. Strange Apparition – Really dense (there’s a lot going on and a busy beat.) country pop. I think this is an interesting track almost precisely because there seems to be too much going on. Most of the time this sort of track would be done in a more straight forward way but Beck seems to be going for hyperactive combined with a sort of Rolling Stones “Wild Horses” vibe. There’s really some quite stunning changes in this song. One second things are very upbeat and poppy in this strange chaotic way and then the next moment you feel like you are listening to this sort of beautiful ballad. Really nice. Hard to get across. I must say though, I’m loving this album.
5. Soldier Jane – Soft synths and spacey atmosphere underpin a catchy song that while fast still has an introspective sound to the vocals and feeling to the overall music. Again the production on this song (as with the previous songs) is extremely interesting.
6. Nausea – Beck’s voice on this track reminds me a lot of Thom Yorke’s delivery on recent Radiohead material. Actually to the point where I really think he’s “doing Thom Yorke” vocally on this track. The ear candy in this album is really stunning me at the moment. First impression is I’m really just floored by the energy and the sounds I’m hearing. Great Stuff.
7. New Round – Really nice combination of the ol’ funky drums and soft acoustics and really pretty vocals by Beck, the harmonies on this track really kick my shins in.
8. Dark Star – Beck and Godrich really outdo themselves with the textures in this song. It’s sort of like an interstellar version of a Sea Change track. There is extremely tripped out stuff happening throughout this album.
9. We Dance Alone – Combines synths with what sounds like someone rubbing a stick against the floor. The vocals again remind me of recent Thom Yorke. This track doesn’t seem quite as inspired as the first 8 tracks to me at the moment. Gets a bit repetitious which I found to be the biggest problem with Guero on repeat listens, that along with just being too long, with this album at 15 tracks I’m concerned that’s going to be the case with this one as well.
10. No Complaints – While this song seems similarly repetitious as the last it gets away with it just by being catchier and a lot of fun. Sort of a catchy clap your hands sing along with plenty of weird sounds and really pretty harmonies again. This track is just 2:59
11. 1000 BPM – This is some really crazy stuff. It’s like Stereopathic Soul Manure era Beck getting a hold on all of 2006 Beck’s toys and just going mad with it. This is the highlight of the album to me so far because it sounds just absolutely insane. This song is very “hip hop” but it’s got so much more imagination than anything you’ll hear on the pop hip hop radio. Great, Great track.
12. Motorcade – The album seems to making a real turn for the bizarre and I really am appreciating that at the moment. This track is a very strange combination of sounds. At about two minutes things really go insane. This is the kind of exciting music I’ve been wanting to hear from Beck again since Odelay. By that I mean it doesn’t sound like Odelay but it sounds as fresh to my ears now as Odelay did then. This track is just exactly what I need to be hearing right now. This is absolutely tripped out awesome music.
13. The Information – The title track sticks to the weird. And I love it. The amount of awesome stuff going on sonically in this album is just mind numbing. I mean there was ear candy in Guero too but it all felt like things I’d heard before done again. Here I really feel like I’m hearing some amazing ingenious stuff going on with the sonic textures. This music is extremely psychedelic. I think this is Beck’s trippiest album of his career and that’s saying quite a bit in my opinion. The spooky backing voices in this track are what really make it.
14. Movie Theme – This is probably the most Air (the French band.) like track I’ve heard Beck do. It’s definitely keeping the spaced out feeling of the past few tracks continuing on. I was really loving the album through the first 10 songs but now it’s just turning classic on me. I’m really floored by this album the most I’ve been on a first listen in quite awhile.
15. The Horrible Fanfare, Landslide, Exoskeleton – This album is 61 minutes and this track is over 10 minutes. I’m really a fan of an album more in the 40 minute territory just how I like it as a general rule of thumb. My initial reaction is this album almost pulls off this long length but I’m not quite sure yet. I am pretty sure that it’d be a tighter album if some of the fat could be cut and get it down to 45 minutes. I don’t really mean any of the spacey sections because those are my favorite bits really, I mean maybe track 9? I don’t know, none of the songs are bad and I can see why they are all included. Anyway I’ve gone off topic but that’s partly because I think this topic is too big to be written about properly, at least by me, at least at this point. This song dives into complete spook out territory. I hate to bring up another Thom Yorke comparison but this track reminds me a lot of Yorke’s “The Erasure” but it is probably weirder than anything on that album. It’s freaking me out a bit at the moment. Seriously this is insane. Perhaps one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever heard on a “pop” record. And I think it may have something to do with Scientology.
Overall Final Impression : I may have a new favorite album of 2006 (Current is Thom Yorke’s The Erasure) This album sounds very fresh, very daring, very exciting. This is music meant to get into your head and make you really feel something and that’s exciting to me. For people who really love listening to music and letting it take over their world this is a treasure. The last third of the album is some of the most out there music I’ve heard in a long time. Wonderful. I’m looking forward to hearing this album again.
