My Main Man Beck

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. You need Beck 

Beck – Go It Alone - from "Guero"

Beck – Clap Hands - from limited edition version of "Guero"

Beck – Broken Drum (Boards of Canada remix) - from limited edition version of "Guero"

Beck – Girl (8-Bit remix) - from the Hell Yes remix EP

If you know me (or if you’ve been hanging around the Hideaway for very long) you are probably aware that I’m prone to hyperbolic proclamations when it comes to music groups that I love. And, I love Beck, so try this one on for size: Beck is our generation’s Bob Dylan.

What do I mean when I say that? I mean that both men were dubbed spokesmen for their generation when they started (Generation X’s “Loser” King of the Slackers and the Hippies’ “Protest Singer”). I mean that 1) Beck is gonna consistently be making records until he’s Dylan’s age. 2) Both men started out with their roots in folk music. 3) Both maintain a relatively private life away from the media. 4) Both are natural performers whose songs take on new life and new interpretations when performed live. 4) Both are revered by their musician peers as being at the head of the class, so to speak. 5) Early in their careers, both earned their creative freedom to release whatever they feel like (Who releases a remix album a month before their album drops?). 6) This is the last one: I’m gonna buy whatever they’re selling. Today, I bought the limited-edition release of Beck’s new album, “Guero”. And, believe it or not, Rolling Stone actually has a pretty accurate review of it (in addition to giving it 4 stars):

Guero will get Beck accused of copying Odelay, but it has a completely different mood. Tune in "Missing" or "Earthquake Weather," and you can't miss the melancholy adult pang in the vocals. The closest he comes to a funny line on the album is "The sun burned a hole in my roof/I can't seem to fix it." Which isn't too close. Beck is thirty-four now and can't pretend to be the same wide-eyed, channel-surfing kid who buzzed with wiseass charisma on Mellow Gold, Odelay and Stereopathetic Soulmanure. On Guero, he sounds like an extremely bummed-out dude who made it to the future and discovered he hates it there. The lyrics are abstractly morbid -- lots of graves, lots of devils. Nearly every song has a dead body or two kicking around. At times, Guero feels as emotionally downbeat as Mutations or Sea Change. But there's a crucial difference: The rhythmic jolt makes the malaise more compelling and complex, with enough playful musical wit to hint at a next step. Beck isn't trying to replicate what he did ten years ago; instead, on Guero he finds a way to revitalize his musical imagination, without turning it into a joke.

Alright, now to the songs. Beck’s newest album, “Guero” (latino slang for "white boy")was released Tuesday, I picked up the special edition today with the bonus tracks and album-length dvd. “Go It Alone” is the only regular album track I’m including since it’ll be more interesting to offer some harder to find songs and remixes. Buy this cd, burn it from a friend, or download it…I’m issuing a broad “must-have” recommendation on "Guero". “Go It Alone” from the regular album features Jack White on bass. The next two tracks “Clap Hands” and “Broken Drum (Boards of Canada remix)” are only on the special edition cd. The last track “Girl (8-Bit remix)” was included on the Hell Yes remix EP which was released about a month ago. It sounds as if the remix for this song was done with samples from Mike Tyson’s Punchout, it’s brilliant. Anybody else hearing that?

Enjoy. If you have any trouble downloading the tracks from the server site, see the instructions I gave in the comments from last Friday’s post.