If you have difficulty placing Beck neatly into a musical category such as “pop,” “rock” or “alternative,” you might try just labeling him as an “artist.” Beck’s latest tour and visit to Nashville tonight correspond with the Oct. 3 release of his latest album, “The Information.”
Over the years Beck has shown a fairly diverse range of musical styles and influences, and “The Information” is an artistic expression that commands attention from at least three of the five senses. As an incentive to get out of the house and away from your iTunes music store account and into an actual record store, “The Information” comes complete with a DVD of videos for your visual pleasure and a pretty sweet set of stickers for some tactile fun with Beck. The CD cover insert is blank, and you can use the provided stickers to decorate it anyway you see fit. (If stickers do not appeal to you, you can of course buy the album on iTunes, but be forewarned that the video included with your online purchase does not burn onto discs and apparently eats up lots of iPod battery life, according to one iTunes user review).
Album extras aside, the music on “The Information” is also well worth the purchase price, albeit more so for longtime Beck fans. This album is the result of three years of on-and-off work with producer-whiz Nigel Godrich, known specifically for his work with Radiohead. Godrich also produced two of Beck’s previous albums, 1998’s “Mutations” and 2002’s “Sea Change.” Where “Sea Change” was a rather melancholy, but still very beautiful, collection of music, it was a departure from Beck’s usual experimental style and sample-heavy style. 2005’s “Guero” was a return to collaboration with the Dust Brothers and the style that made him famous with 1996’s genre-bending “Odelay” (which is one of the only CD’s that I bought when I was 12 and still listen to). “The Information” is another showcase of all of Beck’s musical loves and influences, from funk to classic rock to hip-hop. Hip-hop was long-rumored to be the primary genre of this album, but it’s doubtful that anyone would be liable to confuse Beck with Jay-Z after hearing “The Information,” no matter how good a producer Nigel Godrich is.
I am a Beck fan because of the music, not so much because of the lyrics. As a lyricist, Beck is a little cryptic. The final track of the album even ends with strange words, a brief conversation about music and space from director Spike Jonze and author Dave Eggers. If you are one of those people who can’t listen to music that doesn’t have lyrics you can totally identify with, then you might want to look elsewhere, unless, of course, verses like “Sorry entertainers/Like aerobic victims/Hybrid people/Light a wooden matchstick” from track three, “Cellphone’s Dead,” can adequately express your last breakup. Not every track, however, is cryptic or obscure. Track two, “Think I’m in Love,” is as simple as the title suggests. But all this aside, Beck’s true strength lies in his ability to manipulate sounds and produce infectious beats, creating harmonies and rhythms that are not soon forgotten. Although Beck’s style may be hard to label, it’s not hard to distinguish.
My only complaint with Beck at the moment is that he is coming to Nashville the very same day I leave town for Seattle. However, if you are lucky enough to be sticking around here for fall break, or at least until Saturday morning, do yourself a favor and head over to City Hall this evening to catch his show. Continuing with the multi-sensory entertainment theme, Beck’s current tour is offering concertgoers the opportunity to customize their own t-shirt. There are four different t-shirt colors and four different sets of iron-on decals that fans can choose and arrange to their liking. The decals are then pressed on the spot, and voila! You’ve got a self-designed Beck t-shirt to match your self-designed CD cover insert.
