BECK

[tragabigzanda]

I almost feel bad for Beck. He's been working on this record for 2-3 years, and he's just now embarking on the promotion blitz. Gotta be tough when no one loves your album.

Spoiler: show

Not really, life has probably been a breeze ever since Loser dropped.

[gardenparty]

Saw his record release show last night at the tiny, gorgeous Ford Theater in LA

Show was excellent. The touring band this round is slick AF. Jason Falkner (guitar), Dwayne Moore (bass), Roger Manning keys, Chris Coleman(Drums), couple back up singers and a multi instrumentalist tucked in the back that i didn't recognize.

Even the new songs sounded great

[digster]

I never really dived too deeply into the Song Reader material, but looking back I love the idea. Just seeing the multitude of covers, live shows that have been done; the sheet music and price tag probably kept it from taking off too much, but I think it works really way in the age of YouTube, etc. I think the first song is gorgeous:

[PHATJ]

Just listened to the new album for the first time today. I was pretty underwhelmed. The last track was pretty easily my favorite.

[bart]

Sea Change was the last Beck album I liked.

[dimejinky99]

I'm loving his new one. Totally different to Sea Change which is also brilliant. Takes a few spins but totally worth it.

[ridleybradout]

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/10/beck-performs-up-all-night-on-ellen-watch/

embarrasing.

Just watched this - cringeworthy stuff. When I first heard the opening riff to this song I thought it was a Spotify ad.

Dear Life and No Distraction are quite good but not really feeling the rest - not sure there's much there to feel actually

[tragabigzanda]

oh my gosh this new record is a shitty mess!

[E.H. Ruddock]

oh my gosh this new record is a shitty mess!

It isn't that bad, dude

[tragabigzanda]

oh my gosh this new record is a shitty mess!

It isn't that bad, dude

I'll qualify my statement: It's a shitty mess for a Beck record. I'm sure there are a ton of young pop acts who dream of making a record this zany, and with this quality of production. But as an entry into the Beck catalog, I think it's trash, easily his worst one ever.

[PHATJ]

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/10/beck-performs-up-all-night-on-ellen-watch/

embarrasing.

Just watched this - cringeworthy stuff. When I first heard the opening riff to this song I thought it was a Spotify ad.

Dear Life and No Distraction are quite good but not really feeling the rest - not sure there's much there to feel actually

I couldn't even make it through that entire song. It's really, really bad. This album is bumming me out, but I can't say that I didn't expect it to be a letdown.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Have we heard WCT's opinion yet? For fear of saying this before hearing that, sometimes I think you guys just don't really get Beck.

[tragabigzanda]

Have we heard WCT's opinion yet? For fear of saying this before hearing that, sometimes I think you guys just don't really get Beck.

I stopped getting Beck when Guero came out. While I did not like Sea Changes, I did appreciate it as a bold about-face, and a uniquely confessional approach to his lyrics that had previously been absurdist/wacky; so Guero felt like a half-baked step backwards, an attempt to reclaim the wacko/pastiche crown he had worn during the Odelay era. Virtually nothing he's done since then has connected with me, save for a couple songs on modern guilt.

[Norris]

Of course you're wrong about Guero.

[PHATJ]

Have we heard WCT's opinion yet? For fear of saying this before hearing that, sometimes I think you guys just don't really get Beck.

Ruddo, Beck has been one of my top five favorite artists since I was 12 years old. I've seen him in concert nine times (I'm pretty sure that's the right number). I'm pretty confident I "get" Beck. I just don't like this new album yet. It may grow on me, but I doubt it.

[tragabigzanda]

Of course you're wrong about Guero.

I realize I'm in the minority on that one. I just don't think the songs are very good, and I usually love the Dust Bros.

[digster]

Of course you're wrong about Guero.

Yeah, I do realize that that was the press push when it came out (Guero is a return to the Odelay days), but it feels as useful as calling every Pearl Jam record a 'return to form;' it doesn't hold up when listening to the record, IMO. In particular, I think the back half of Guero, after Hell Yes, is one of the best things Beck has put down.

[digster]

I think one of the reasons this record doesn't bother me, even though I really only am connecting with a few songs, is Beck's just going to be going down some other road in a year anyway. Like in the period between Modern Guilt and Morning Phase, when he didn't realize a record, he produced a ton of albums for other artists, made the Song Reader project, covered albums for the Record Club project, wrote soundtracks, and released a bunch of singles, including stuff from a record he never released. I think he's one of the more exciting musicians to follow fairly closely, if you are into his work.

[tragabigzanda]

I think one problem I have with modern Beck is that his absurdist lyrics just don't resonate with me. His lyrics up to and including Midnite Vultures seemed like the perfect post-modern take on the Gen X/slacker experience for those who had grown up in the era of Ronald Reagan, TV dinners, and the commercial co-opting of identity that began in the 90s (Naomi Klein talks about this concept far more eloquently than I ever could). While mostly nonsense, there was something about how the lyrics to Devil's Haircut spoke to the larger sense of feeling like a tool of the commercial industry, or feeling lost in a world of empty corporate messaging about products and services...

The world has changed quite a bit since the 90s, and the feeling of being lost or directionless is now tied up in ideas about politics and globalization, the digital world, etc. I don't know that his wacko lyrics have really reflected those feelings adequately, so his modern absurdist lyrics feel pretty hollow to me, like he's just aping himself; plus I think the beats are pretty bland (wtf Dust Bros?).

And then I just downright don't enjoy the emotion on Sea Changes, despite it being effectively administered (it makes me feel druggy and depressed, plus the whole record is filled with blatant ripoffs of other albums); and I just didn't enjoy the actual music on Morning Phase, I find that one to be extremely boring.

[tragabigzanda]

I wish he made a whole record that sounded like Diamond Bullocks.