Beck - The Information
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Free Music Notes for The Information
Free Music Review: slightly disappointing
Hit: 3 Stars
This album feels like a transitional album that should go between Sea
Change and Guero, not after both of them. It has some very good songs
e.g. Think I'm in Love and No Complaints - both of which have great
grooves, catchy melodies, and the uniquely Beck mix of strange noises.
Unfortunately it also has a lot of duds, e.g. Strange Apparition,
which sounds like Beck weakly mimicking the Beatles, or Cellphone's
Dead, which features a bass line that is identical in rhythm and tone
to Chameleon by Herbie Hancock (get his album Head Hunters to hear the
original).
Bottom line, The Information is worth getting, but for me it doesn't
achieve the level of greatness Beck's hit on Midnite Vultures, Sea
Change, and Guero. More like a return to the inconsistency of Odelay.
Free Music Review: Great album
Hit: 5 Stars
Great CD, I love every song. More upbeat CD than some of his more mellow ones. Love the fact that there are a whole 16 tracks, the cover includes Beck stickers, and you get a DVD of the videos for all the tracks. Terrific buy.Free Music Review: Beck offers same experimental sound, new mixes
Hit: 5 Stars
It's still the same Beck music: the style where creative riffs and drum solos mix with a bit of synthesizer. Add in some high-quality sound recording, and you've got 16 impressive tracks.
But by Beck's standards, it's not exactly "impressive".
Don't get me wrong--the album is great. But to compare the October release of The Information, Beck hasn't exactly "upped" his production. In fact, it sounds almost exactly like his 2005 album, Guero.
By now, Beck seems to only want to impress crowds. Harsh? Yes. But in my eyes, it's true. He performed the same routine on his world tour that he did in Bend Oregon's Les Schwab Amphitheatre.
I was there when the crowd had to wait an extra 45 minutes just because of technical problems with the live video feed to show dolls dressed up as the band perform in the same way the band was on stage. Confusing? You bet. The audience paid nearly $30 per person to see Beck live--not the dolls.
I wasn't the only one a little discouraged that summer 2006 night.
Even though Beck hasn't turned The Information into something new, it is still a great cd. With a Flaming Lips-like sound, Beck experiments and takes chances--something you don't see too often in popular artists. The leaps the band takes are usually winners, too.
The Information sounds like Radiohead... Thom Yorke, to be exact. It still maintains that psychedelic pop-like rhythm, yet ventures into a new world of, shall I say, "synth-hip-pop." "Elevator Music," the first track, displays the quick words of Beck--almost sounding like the cd's single. "1,000 bmp" (a.k.a. "1,000 beats per minute") sounds like an LCD Soundsystem knock-off (but not in a bad way).
After listening to the cd a dozen times, "Cellphone's Dead" is always the one track to stick in my brain. With its European and cow bell sounds, it catches attention. Good attention. Beck's so-called single, "Nausea," brings me back to when I saw him live. This song gives me the perfect picture--the one of him with his cowboy hat and acoustic guitar in the front of the stage while the rest of his band members exercise the long list of instruments behind him. It was almost distracting. Again, in a good way.
Is it horrible of me to say the last song is one of the best on the album? I mean, the best songs are usually the first, second, fourth, or fifth tracks. But the last? It's true. "Inside Out" is probably the perfect ending to Beck's rise to ruining $30 shows, but making up for the so-called disturbing experience by showing the crowd he really does have talent, no matter the number of dolls on stage. Of course, I say this in a good way.
Free Music Review: lazy lyrics, weak hooks, pseudo cosmology
Hit: 2 Stars
What made early Beck so compelling was his word pairings "Misery waits in vague hotels to be evicted" (Tropicalia); "I've been looking for my shadow but this place is so bright and so clean" (O Maria). These were not just odd and arresting juxtapositions. They conveyed a sense a beautiful sadness Beck appears to have abandoned. I find this album to be an excercise (as in tired) in self-indulgence. Yes, the instrumentation, overlays and influences are interesting, but there's just no real feeling. Call it what you will, to be it is overlayering at the expense of substance. I'm not a big fan of Guero, but this album doesn't have anything close to the hooks of "Girl" or "e-Pro". The more promising hooks appear to be quickly abandoned.
Free Music Review: Fun Album
Hit: 5 Stars
I like this album's broad considerations of songs, namely interesting lyrics and pretty interesting musical edges. I have read some criticism of Scientology, but if the sum exceeds the parts, then the music should be the focus here--I think that some people overreact to the Scientology angle and it detracts from the music (I am not a Scientologist and don't know much about it, granted). If Scientology's impact on the music is not manipulating someone or causing destruction, then is it any worse than Christianity or Islam, Judaism or Hinduism? Give that some thought in early 2007 [Iraq 2.0, neverending remix]
I saw Beck perform outdoors last Fall or Summer in Downtown LA and it was one of the more entertaining shows at that festival. Beck is a really interesting artist and I look forward to his artistic growth--I think that many artists make personal choices that aren't manifest in their art. People should give the guy a break, but that's just my opinion.
I have fun listening to the album, so I'll leave it at that.