Through 514 songs on this blog I’ve somehow managed to feature Beck only once, which is strange because he’s one of the most innovative, talented songwriters and performers in my collection.

I’ve held back from featuring individual songs because I’ve always felt him worthy of a theme week and his number just never got called.

Until now. I’ll feature songs from each of Beck’s nine studio albums over the next two weeks, starting with the hit that first propelled him to fame.

‘Loser’ is perhaps the most nonsensical hit song in history, or at least the most intentionally nonsensical. Beck “wrote” the lyrics during a free-association improv session laid over a guitar-and-drums track he’d recorded earlier. He says he was so disappointed in his rapping that, when it came time for a chorus, he chose to chastise himself (in two languages), giving birth to the slacker rallying cry that blasted from many a car stereo and discman in 1994.

Of course, over the next 15 years (and counting), Beck would prove that he was anything but a loser. A career launched by a stoner white-boy rap that had all the markings of a one-hit wonder would turn out to be one of the most consistently rewarding in the business.