i would love to hear your thoughts on Midnight Vultures

let's hope i still care when the day comes

I loved Modern Guilt...really hit the spot for me.

I really really like Guerilito for some reason as well which doesn't seem to be mentioned a lot.

1. Paper Tiger
2. Go It Alone
3. Where It's At
4. Tropicalia
5. Nobody's Fault But Mine
6. Girl
7. Hell Yes
8. Side Of The Road
9. Nicotine and Gravy
10. Beautiful Way

1. Seachange
2. Guero
3. Mutations

after owning (and loving) only Odelay and Guero for years, i finally decided to jump head-first into the rest of Beck's discgraphy.

i've been spinning the newly-acquired albums (even Stereopathic Soulmanure and One Foot in the Grave) for the past week.


Mellow Gold: the countrified acid-rock shtick works well for him, but it's not my favorite Beck personality. i give the album points for being so consistent.

One Foot in the Grave: on first listen, i was underwhelmed. i don't necessarily require an all-over-the-map genre mix-up from Beck (see Sea Change below), but there was a monotonous quality to this that i found suffocating. there's a lot of lyrical gems to admire. some interesting arrangements. just need more.

Mutations: instantly a favorite. a balance between the stylistic indulgences of Odelay and the plaintive singer-songwriter vibe of Sea Change. if i wanted to give an album to somebody to convince them what Beck is all about, i'd give them Mutations rather than Odelway. it's just so breezy and virtuosic.

Midnite Vultures: maybe it's my love of R&B and funk talking, but i like this one. a great party record. who knew the guy who recorded OFITG could pull off such a convincing Prince impression.

Sea Change: beautiful. the other, more urgent, varied, and punchy albums kept my focus off of this one for a while, but it really got under my skin. i can't believe i haven't listened to this sooner. there is a lot of interesting musical flourishes (the end of Paper Tiger, the string arrangements in Lonesome Tears, and the discordant crescendoes in Sunday Sun) that i didn't expect from the lone, ostensible "morose" Beck album. for years, i had only heard of this as the "acoustic break-up album." that's selling it far short.

The Information: another favorite. this album doesn't seem to get much love among Beck fans, but i think it's engrossing. i think it's the perfect distillation of his funky, electronic side.

Modern Guilt: solid album, but doesn't have the most captivating instrumentation. i only listened to it once and my attention was divided, so i'll need to listen again to give it a fair shake. i knew this one was produced my Danger Mouse, so i expected something more electronica/hip-hop-oriented.

Stereopathic Soulmanure: uhh, okay.

all told, there's not a single album in the bunch that i'm not going to revisit. i think Soulmanure will do well to keep me awake during long car trips.