Two years after Odelay took the music world by storm, Beck released a low-key, acoustic album that featured none of the kitchen-sink experimentation for which he’d become known. Mutations is a mix of straight-forward country, blues and folk songs (with a tropicalia tune appropriately named ‘Tropicalia’ thrown in for good measure) and it was the first indication of exactly how versatile a songwriter Beck is.
Mutations is a decidedly downbeat album, filled with songs about loneliness and despair. Here’s a typical lyric, from the song ‘Dead Melodies’: “Night birds will cackle, rotting like apples on trees, sending their dead melodies to me.” This isn’t the last time Beck would wallow in beautiful misery on record… it’s something he excels at and would return to on his best album (which I’ll get to soon enough).
Beck says the album is about being fed up with life… not in a fatalistic way but as a natural part of existing. “I don’t know anybody who doesn’t reach a point of exhaustion on a regular basis,” he says, and I know I can relate.
Mutations is the first album Beck recorded with a live band and they do marvelous work, with piano, bass, drums and acoustic guitar featured on most tracks and the occasional horn or harmonica accent kicking in at just the right time.
‘O Maria’ is typical of the sound and mood of Mutations, somehow simultaneously bleak and upbeat. As Beck sings in one verse, “Everybody knows death creeps in slow till you feel safe in his arms” … I kind of feel the same way about this album.
The night is useless and so are we
Because everybody knows
The fabric of folly is falling apart at the seams
And I’ve been looking for a good time
But the pleasures are seldom and few
There’s no whiskey there’s no wine
Just the concrete and a worried mind
Cos everybody knows death creeps in slow
Till you feel safe in his arms
And I’ve been looking for a new friend
I don’t care if he’s decrepit and grey
O Maria haven’t you known
Days so careless
All on your own
Everybody knows the circus is closed
And the animals have gone wild
And I’ve been looking for my shadow
But this place is so bright and clean
Meet Me In Montauk 
Odelay took the music world by storm? Wow–I must have missed that, Mr. Hyperbole!
This is getting closer to the Beck sound I like–less electronic, more earthy.
According to Beck’s biography on AllMusic, Odelay was “widely acclaimed as one of the decade’s landmark records.” I’d say that qualifies as taking the music world by storm!
I don’t think an album that never cracked the top ten and sold only 2 million copies over time can be rightly declared as taking the music industry by storm.
Well, there’s a difference between sales and influence. I’m not suggesting it was a huge seller. Maybe “industry” is the wrong word.
I’ve never heard of other artists listing Beck or this album as such an influence, certainly not to the degree that other lesser commercial artists have such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Kurt Cobain, etc… Beck is, undoubtedly, critically acclaimed and admired, but I don’t think any of his work has had tremendous influence or has ever taken the music industry by storm.
The opening of this song sounds extremely familiar to me. Any thoughts? I bet I’d l ike this song more sung by Adam Duritz or Ben Folds; something about his voice makes everything he sings sound a bit like he’s whining. I just want to tell him to get over it.
I find it funny that you frequently bring up Adam Duritz as a counterpoint to singers you find whiny. Duritz is probably one of the whiniest singers around! And I say this as a huge fan of him and his voice… I guess I like whiners. 🙂
He doesn’t whine!!! He is emotional without whining, which is why I bring him up as a counterpoint.