Beck returned a year and half after Guero with The Information, an album that received more press for the circumstances of its release than for its music.
The cover art of The Information was a blank page and the CD case contained a sheet of stickers. Fans were encouraged to create their own cover art, with the goal that no two versions of the album would look the same.
On YouTube, Beck released low-budget videos for every one of the songs and encouraged fans to upload their own videos.
In 2005, Beck released Guero, a return after several detours to the vibe he tapped on Odelay, and his top-selling album to date.
Just about anything would feel like a let-down after Sea Change, but in a way Guero reflects the lessons Beck learned making that album. It’s a more mature, reflective record, even as it indulges in street-smart hip-hop flourishes and oddball backing tracks. He seems more focused on this album, less likely to throw in everything including the kitchen sink. The result is one of his most consistent records, and one of his best.
Beck waited three years after Sea Change before releasing another album, but in between he found some time to record a song for my favorite movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime’ was originally recorded by British pop group The Korgis in 1980 and was a modest hit, though I’d never heard it before. Beck’s version is a note-for-note copy but the production and delivery are far moodier than the synth-pop sheen on the original.
Beck’s fifth studio album, 2002′s Sea Change, remains his finest achievement, and I consider it one of the best albums I own. It’s up there with Blood On the Tracks and The Road to Ensenada as one of the greatest break-up albums of all-time.
Stylistically, Sea Change see-sawed back to the somber acoustic mood of Mutations, the polar opposite of the frenzied eclecticism of Midnite Vultures. Both musically and (especially) lyrically, Beck is at his most straight-forward on this album. It’s as if all the genre blending and cryptic lyrics on his previous records were a mask and he’s finally allowing his listeners to look him directly in the eye. And what we see there can best be described as beautiful heartbreak.
Ben Folds once said that every band in the world formed by taking some piece of what The Beatles did and turning it into their own thing. According to his theory, The Beatles are the superset from which all popular music is derived.
It’s a good theory and one that’s easy to support when you listen to just about any modern pop or rock band. I’ve read a lot of praise of Radiohead recently, about how their output in the 00′s revolutionized popular music… but is there really anything on Kid A that doesn’t sound a little bit like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’ ‘A Day in the Life’ or ‘Revolution 9?’ Give me a break.
