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Beck
The Information
(Interscope/Universal)
Every time we get a new Beck disc, we think it can't possibly be kookier than the last one. And every time we are wrong. Including this time.
True to form, Beck's ninth CD The Information (in stores Tuesday) is yet another twisted, meandering journey to the freaky centre of the musical chameleon's mind.
Produced by Nigel Godrich -- the longtime Radiohead collaborator who previously helmed Beck's Sea Change and Mutations -- this hour-long affair is pitched somewhere between the Angeleno troubadour's last two discs.
It's nowhere near as morose and introspective as Sea Change, but it's noticably moodier, murkier and messier than the candy-coloured Dust Brothers party Guero.
Most of these 15 subtle and intriguing cuts are driven by low-rolling midtempo bass grooves, fuelled by acoustic instruments, sombre melodies and layers of Latin percussion, and richly detailed with Godrich's squishy, squiggly electronic textures, tones and treatments.
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The collision between the human players and the electronic tomfoolery generates some alien, vaguely unsettling tunes. 1000 BPM is an offkilter elctro-clankfest. The atmospheric Motorcade is ghostly and plinky. The epic closer The Horrible Fanfare / Landslide / Exoskeleton charts a course for a funky new galaxy and then drifts away as author David Eggers and filmmaker Spike Jonze fantasize about glowing, multi-coloured spaceships.
They're not alone; Beck's lyrics are riddled with references to dark stars, otherworldly contact and ascending to new spiritual and astral plains.
Thankfully, he does get his feet back on funkier ground now and then. The title cut boasts some bashing drums to go with its space-angel vocals and flying-saucer synths. Nausea shakes to a primal beat somewhere between Black Tambourine and Sympathy for the Devil. The country-gospel Strange Apparition looks heavenward with the help of tinkly Floyd Cramer pianos.
The poppy, keyboard-topped Think I'm in Love and the get-down hip-hopper Cellphone's Dead are both catchy ditties with hooky choruses and witty sonics geared to the masses.
The rest of Beck's trippy Information might not add up to his most inclusive and accessible disc -- but there's no denying he's succeeded in raising the musical bar and messing with our heads yet again.
And hey, he can't get any kookier than this, right?
Track Listing:
1. Elevator Music
2. Think I'm In Love
3. Cell Phone's Dead
4. Nausea
5. Soldier Jane
6. Strange Apparition
7. Dark Star
8. Movie Theme
9. We Dance Alone
10. No Complaints
11. 1000 BPM
12. Motorcade
13. The Information
14. New Round
15. Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton