The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

Indymisanthrope said:
100% agree with Joe here. I think of Beck as an utterly forgettable, uninteresting musician, who makes some occasionally interesting music. What is Beck's persona/narrative/defining characteristic? No clue.

I respect when artists try to remove ego from the equation and let the work speak for itself, but I also see this particular artist as a quasi-anonymous blank. I think of him as someone whose albums get attention specifically because everyone thinks that everyone else thinks that you're supposed to give Beck albums attention.

And to quote the late, great @gouis, IMO that's a whole lot of attention to devote to someone whose work is for the most part unremarkably pleasant and is generally just "fine."
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@gouis died?!?
 
Indymisanthrope said:
100% agree with Joe here. I think of Beck as an utterly forgettable, uninteresting musician, who makes some occasionally interesting music. What is Beck's persona/narrative/defining characteristic? No clue.

I respect when artists try to remove ego from the equation and let the work speak for itself, but I also see this particular artist as a quasi-anonymous blank. I think of him as someone whose albums get attention specifically because everyone thinks that everyone else thinks that you're supposed to give Beck albums attention.

And to quote the late, great @gouis, IMO that's a whole lot of attention to devote to someone whose work is for the most part unremarkably pleasant and is generally just "fine."
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I think Beck put out some excellent albums, even as someone who's not a big fan. I especially like the weird cover albums project he was doing with a revolving crew of musicians. For a while, in the late 90s/early 00s, I do think he was seen as some savior of cool on mainstream radio, but most haven't paid any attention to his many many weird projects. I'm not going to listen to them regularly, but I'm all for more musicians who just go and fuck around creatively in a way that they seem to enjoy. Occasionally I might enjoy it too. It's better than 90% of the over produced pop music that sounds the same as everything else, because it's at least trying to carve out something with a dose of originality. Beck fits in that camp for me. So I see him more as a musician trying out different ways to be creative with music and not caring so much any more if that succeeds or fails.
 
Hemotep said:
I think Beck put out some excellent albums, even as someone who's not a big fan. I especially like the weird cover albums project he was doing with a revolving crew of musicians. For a while, in the late 90s/early 00s, I do think he was seen as some savior of cool on mainstream radio, but most haven't paid any attention to his many many weird projects. I'm not going to listen to them regularly, but I'm all for more musicians who just go and fuck around creatively in a way that they seem to enjoy. Occasionally I might enjoy it too. It's better than 90% of the over produced pop music that sounds the same as everything else, because it's at least trying to carve out something with a dose of originality. Beck fits in that camp for me. So I see him more as a musician trying out different ways to be creative with music and not caring so much any more if that succeeds or fails.
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I think that's a fair assessment and actually strengthens the argument that he's NOT an indispensable artist, precisely because a lot of what he does is very of the moment and somewhat disposable.

Like, I feel about Beck the way that Derek Zoolander feels about Sting.
 
I don’t know, his ability to experiment at will and be successful doing may result in a few albums that are less than great, but the ability for him to maintain relevance while doing that and getting a sizeable audience to follow along is an important thing for music.

The more we have artists like Bowie, Beck, and King Gizz that seem to never want to stick to the status quo… the better.
 
Bohnjaggs said:
I'd also recommend Morning Phase, which is kind of the musical counterpart to Sea Change, but from a few years later. I actually prefer MP as, for some reason, I was never a huge Sea Change fan.
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Hard disagree on this one. Personally as much as I enjoy Pop Sea Change I find Morning Phase to be colossally boring.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Hard disagree on this one. Personally as much as I enjoy Pop Sea Change I find Morning Phase to be colossally boring.
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This is honestly how I feel about Sea Change

Beck is my all-time favorite artist and Guero and Morning Phase are pretty much neck and neck for what I consider his best album. And maybe Mutations after that.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
100% agree with Joe here. I think of Beck as an utterly forgettable, uninteresting musician, who makes some occasionally interesting music. What is Beck's persona/narrative/defining characteristic? No clue.

I respect when artists try to remove ego from the equation and let the work speak for itself, but I also see this particular artist as a quasi-anonymous blank. I think of him as someone whose albums get attention specifically because everyone thinks that everyone else thinks that you're supposed to give Beck albums attention.

And to quote the late, great @gouis, IMO that's a whole lot of attention to devote to someone whose work is for the most part unremarkably pleasant and is generally just "fine."
Click to expand...
Kinda disagree with this too. There was a time in the early 90s where the shit Beck was doing melding hip-hop/rock/folk (but in a good way) was on par with probably only The Beastie Boys in coolness factor. His persona was being cool as fuck and he pulled it off well. I even think he showed some growth too. The tropicalia stuff he did with Mutations and “Dead Weight” was brilliant and was right around the Time Air and Stereolab were leaning into their “space age bachelor pad” eras. His hipster take on James Brown funk with Midnight Vultures were all at the forefront of hipness. Over the past 15-20 years he hasn’t had much new to say and has repeated himself to varying degrees of effectiveness during that time frame but throughout most of the 90s Beck was a touchstone for many who enjoyed alternative culture from that time.

Beck was kind of a cypher in that he gathered all of these cool things together and turned it into something palatable for the masses.
 
Bohnjaggs said:
This is honestly how I feel about Sea Change

Beck is my all-time favorite artist and Guero and Morning Phase are pretty much neck and neck for what I consider his best album. And maybe Mutations after that.
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Just out of curiosity what album really got you into Beck? I think a lot of times how we regard certain albums is dependent on which album we first fell in love with.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Just out of curiosity what album really got you into Beck? I think a lot of times how we regard certain albums is dependent on which album we first fell in love with.
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Since the beginning when I heard "Loser". I bought all four of those 1994 releases when they came out. I liked Mellow Gold, loved Odelay at the time of its release but I think Mutations, Midnite Vultures, Guero and Morning Phase are all better than his early work. Never really got into Sea Change. I don't know why. It's probably my wife's favorite album of all time.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Kinda disagree with this too. There was a time in the early 90s where the shit Beck was doing melding hip-hop/rock/folk (but in a good way) was on par with probably only The Beastie Boys in coolness factor. His persona was being cool as fuck and he pulled it off well. I even think he showed some growth too. The tropicalia stuff he did with Mutations and “Dead Weight” was brilliant and was right around the Time Air and Stereolab were leaning into their “space age bachelor pad” eras. His hipster take on James Brown funk with Midnight Vultures were all at the forefront of hipness. Over the past 15-20 years he hasn’t had much new to say and has repeated himself to varying degrees of effectiveness during that time frame but throughout most of the 90s Beck was a touchstone for many who enjoyed alternative culture from that time.

Beck was kind of a cypher in that he gathered all of these cool things together and turned it into something palatable for the masses.
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But that’s kind of his problem… he’s basically all style over substance. It’s fun but kind of disposable.
 
Bohnjaggs said:
Since the beginning when I heard "Loser". I bought all four of those 1994 releases when they came out. I liked Mellow Gold, loved Odelay at the time of its release but I think Mutations, Midnite Vultures, Guero and Morning Phase are all better than his early work. Never really got into Sea Change. I don't know why. It's probably my wife's favorite album of all time.
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Interesting. I find that I usually have more of a connection to albums that I loved first in real time. For me I really fell in love with Odelay and to this day it is still my favorite. I owned a cassette tape of Mellow Gold but I only really listened to “Loser” and “Beer Can” i didn’t get into the album as a whole until after I wore out my copy of Odelay. Then everything after I really enjoyed after to a varying degree until Modern Guilt at which point I had pretty much completely lost interest.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Interesting. I find that I usually have more of a connection to albums that I loved first in real time. For me I really fell in love with Odelay and to this day it is still my favorite. I owned a cassette tape of Mellow Gold but I only really listened to “Loser” and “Beer Can” i didn’t get into the album as a whole until after I wore out my copy of Odelay. Then everything after I really enjoyed after to a varying degree until Modern Guilt at which point I had pretty much completely lost interest.
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I can understand that. It’s artist dependent for me. I knew the Beasties from the get go, fell in love with Paul’s Boutique but Ill Communication is my favorite album by them. I fell in love with Common on One Day It Will All Make Sense, still my favorite. I fell in love with Punch Brothers with Who is Feeling Young Now but The Phosphorescent Blues is on of my top ten all time albums. Beck - I hated Mellow Gold have come to appreciate it. Odelay was where I was like “okay this is cool” and I’ve only been listening to Sea Change for ten years or so and I would say they are neck and neck.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
I guess I am shallow because I enjoy style over substance in this regard.

But I also collect records so obviously style over substance is kinda my thing.
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Are all your artists shallow though? You listen to quite a few things that are pretty heavy.

Also, I guess it depends on what your goals as a record collector are if it is a style thing.
 
TrainFan73 said:
Are all your artists shallow though? You listen to quite a few things that are pretty heavy.

Also, I guess it depends on what your goals as a record collector are if it is a style thing.
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I own $150 hand machined brass pens and also the clear blue plastic 12 for $6 bic pens. They all have their place. I am a multitude.
 
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