All songs were written by Beck, except where noted.
There is also an alternate pressing that separates "No Money No Honey" over tracks 7 and 8 and breaks parts of "One Foot in the Grave" and "Aphid Manure Heist" over tracks 12, 13 and 14, which causes all tracks after "Crystal Clear (Beer)" to be off from the track listing on the back cover. This pressing also omits the short snippet of dialog called "Ken" and keeps the bonus noise on the same track as "Modesto". This pressing causes some online track listings, such as the track listing at All Music Guide, to be incorrect. The way the track listing should be, on the alternate pressing, is as follows:
Sea Change features ornate string arrangements and soft acoustic guitar finger-picking. Much of Beck's trademark recondite, ironic lyrics are replaced by more sincere, simpler lyrical content. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real, live instrumentation. In interviews, Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album. With its lovelorn lyrics, critics have compared Sea Change to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and the works of Nick Drake. "Paper Tiger" draws inspiration from Serge Gainsbourg, in particular the groundbreaking 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson.
Sea Change peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and was eventually certified gold in March 2005. In the UK charts, it peaked at #20.
In 2002, Sea Change was one of only two albums to receive Rolling Stone magazine's highest rating - five stars - the other being Bruce Springsteen's The Rising. In 2003, the album was ranked number 440 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Sea Change was released with four different album covers, each version containing distinct artwork on the CD and the booklet. There are also different hidden messages (lyrical snippets) written under each version's CD tray.
The Sea Change album covers can be downloaded from Beck's website as PC wallpaper.
Beck
The album features the production talents and occasional backing vocals of Calvin Johnson, founder of K Records. It was recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio, which was then housed in Calvin's basement.
Beck
Strangely enough, an officially released Odelay era rarity, "Diskobox", was not included on the deluxe edition for unknown reasons. It was also rumored prior to the release of the deluxe edition that the Odelay sessions version of "Debra" (later re-recorded for Midnite Vultures) would be included, but it is not featured here.
The Deluxe Edition of Odelay also includes some changes to the original album, including an extended "Sissyneck," an altered "New Pollution" introduction, and a more explicitly double-tracked vocal on "Hotwax."[2]. No official explanation for these changes has been mentioned. Additionally, some of the bonus tracks on the Deluxe Edition appear to be from lossy (e.g. MP3) sources (Specifically "Deadweight" and "Clock").
Disc 1
Disc 2
Odelay! might have been drastically different in direction and style. In 1994, when Beck started to record tracks for his follow-up to Mellow Gold, he recorded a number of songs with Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf of Bong Load, but then decided to work with the Dust Brotherssessions have been released: one, "Ramshackle", was included on Odelay!, and two others: "Feather in Your Cap," which was released on the soundtrack to SubUrbia, and "Brother," which was not available to the public until the release of the "Jack-Ass" single in 1997. All three of these songs are acoustic, sparse, and melancholy, and have a haunting sound very different from the more upbeat, "party" style of Odelay!. instead. Three songs from these Bong Load
Odelay won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1997. It was ranked 16 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Odelay the 51st greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 305 on Rolling Stonethe 500 greatest albums of all time. Voters in Channel 4's 2005 "100 Greatest Albums" poll placed it at number 73. The music website Pitchfork Media ranked it at #19 on their top 100 albums of the 1990s. magazine's list of
The album's unusual cover photo, which some people misinterpreted as a mop head jumping over a hurdle, is actually a real photo of a Komondor, a rare Hungarian breed of dog with thick matted hair. This came after Bush released their album Sixteen Stone, which featured a similar looking dog called a Puli being thrown into the air on the inside cover.
The image was chosen at the last minute after Beck failed to decide on an album cover. The image was presented to him by his girlfriend and the image was chosen almost out of desperation. The typeface was chosen by record company worker.
Beck
Odelay (1996)
All songs written by Beck, John King and Michael Simpson, except where noted. All tracks produced by Beck Hansen and The Dust Brothers, except where noted.
The following is from Wikipedia.com
Mutations is the third major-label studio album by Beck, released in 1998. Though less successful on the charts than the preceding Odelay, Mutations established Beck as an eclectic and innovative artist for his sample-free mixture of far-ranging musical genres, including tropicalia, bossa nova, country, and blues. The album's title is most likely a nod to an influential tropicalia band of the late 60s, Os Mutantes. With this album Beck won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance [1].
The album was initially recorded by noted producer Nigel Godrich with the intention of having it released on Bong Load Custom Records, an indie label (as per Beck's agreement with his major label at the time, Geffen). When Geffen execs heard the album, however, they insisted that it be released by them. This led to a lawsuit filed by Beck against Geffen Records.
Beck made no music videos for any songs on this album, but several singles were released. Mutations peaked at #13 in the US, going gold, and achieved #24 in the UK and #23 in Australia.
Beck
There are a variety of bonus tracks on non-U.S. pressings of the album. "Runners Dial Zero," "Halo of Gold," "Black Balloon," and "Electric Music and the Summer People" (a re-recording of an Odelay era B-Side) each appear on select international versions.
The following is from wikipedia.com
Midnite Vultures is the fourth major-label studio album by Beck, released in November 1999. Though similar to most of Beck's previous albums in its exploration of widely varying musical styles, Midnite Vultures didn't achieve the same blockbuster success as his breakthrough, Odelay though it was well-received by his fans and critics and continues to receive wide acclaim. It reached #34 in the U.S.—where it went gold—and also hit #19 in the UK.
The album was praised by most critics. Some like Rolling Stone, NME and Pitchfork MediaMetaCritic with a score of 83/100 but in 2006 was named the 50th 'Worst Album Ever' by music magazine Q.[1] praised the album with 4-star reviews (8.5/10 on Pitchfork). It was awarded the rare status of 'Universal Acclaim' by
Midnite Vultures was nominated in 2000 for Best Album at the 43rd GRAMMY Awards.
Several songs were inspired by very prominent 80s acts; "Debra" was inspired by Prince's hit "Raspberry Beret", while "Get Real Paid" quotes directly from Kraftwerk's Computer World album.
The first 500,000 copies came in a digipak.
Working titles for the album included Zatyricon and I Can Smell the V.D. in the Club Tonight, the latter from a spoken line on "Milk & Honey".
Beck
Midnite Vultures (1999)
Track listing
All songs were written by Beck Hansen, except where noted.
Initial versions sold at Best Buy stores came with a bonus disc that contained three songs.
Although these were part of the original pressings, they came in a standard jewel case. The bonus disc was enclosed in a cardboard sleeve outside the jewel case.
The following songs were recorded during the Midnite Vultures sessions but did not make the album:
The following is from wikipedia.com
Mellow Gold is Beck's first major-label studio release and, despite previous low-fi recordings, is considered his first official album. Mellow Gold was released on March 1, 1994 (see 1994 in music) on the strength of the surprise hit "Loser" (U.S. #10). Critics noted its hybrid of styles and ironic, witty lyrics. Because of the novelty style of "Loser," Beck was initially perceived by some as a flash in the pan, but the subsequent release of critically-acclaimed album Odelay has long silenced these claims. Mellow Gold reached #13 in the U.S., going platinum, and #41 in the UK.
In an effort to get the album into stores such as Wal-Mart and Kmart, which do not stock albums with a Parental Advisory sticker, a "clean" version of the album was released shortly after the original version. This version removes all profanity and replaces the "offensive" song titles. The song titles in question are listed as "Fuckin With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock)" and "Mutherfuker."
Beck
Mellow Gold (1994)
Track listing
All songs by Beck, except where noted.
The following informations is from wikipedia.com
The Information is the seventh major-label studio album by Beck, released in October 2006. It was produced and mixed by longtime Beck collaborator Nigel Godrich. Recording began in 2003 concurrently with Guero, but the album was not completed until 2006. Rolling Stone magazine has named it the 24th best album of 2006, while Spin magazine ranked it number 10 on their 40 Best Albums of 2006.
Release history
Before its release, Beck said the album was not a "stripped down" record, in contrast with his previous Godrich collaborations Mutations and Sea Change.[1] According to Beck, "Nigel [Godrich] said he wanted to do a hip-hop record" before they began work on the album. "And in a way it is, and in a way it isn't. It has hip-hop songs, and my previous work with him was Mutations and Sea Change, these sort of introspective records, and so this new one is sort of bringing those two worlds together."[2]
In an interview with the BBC,[3] Beck said the album had been "painful" to make:
| “ | It started out painless, and ended up being painful. It's as if we made the album once, and we made it again, and we made it a third time. We started the record in 2003, and we got together annually, the producer [Nigel Godrich] and I. We combed over everything, and got rid of the things we were tired of, the things that seemed trite. | ” |
The first single in North America was "Nausea," which officially went to radio on September 5, 2006.[4] The first single in the UK was "Cellphone's Dead", with an official video directed by Michel Gondry;[5] the track samples Primal Scream's hit single "Loaded" quite prominently. "Think I'm In Love" went to US radio as the second and final single and became a Modern Rock and Triple A radio hit, garnering renewed interest in The Information.
The album reached #7 on the US's Billboard 200, #6 in Canada and #31 on Australia's ARIA Chart. As of March 2007, The Information has sold 380,000 units in the United States.
On February 27, 2007, a "deluxe version" of the album was released. It contained the original album plus three songs only available internationally, six remixes, a complete printing of the lyrics, a DVD with all the studio-released videos plus bonus non-studio-released videos of "Nausea" and "Cellphone's Dead," and four different sticker sheets for the album cover.
Some copies of the album include a bonus DVD of specially filmed music videos, one for each track on the record.[1] In the Wired interview[6], Beck explained the making of these videos, which would also appear on video-sharing site YouTube:
| “ | We filmed a series of very low-budget, homemade videos for all the songs on the record. We got a bunch of cameras and a $100 video mixer off eBay and shot 15 silly, impromptu videos against a green screen. We even invited our friends and family into the studio to be a part of the action — my mother-in-law did the lighting, and my son and nieces and nephews are running around acting crazy. It was just a complete free-for-all, done on the fly. We're putting all the videos together right now with the idea of having a visual version of the record that we'll put on the Internet. I'm totally curious to see how the videos will add to the experience of listening to the album. Or maybe they'll actually detract from the experience. That would be funny. | ” |
The album was issued with a blank sleeve and booklet and one of four different sheets of stickers for fans to make their own album art. Beck explained to Wired magazine[6] he wanted no two copies of the CD cover to be the same: "The artwork is going to be customizable. The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity." However, because the unique album art concept was seen as a gimmick to bolster retail sales, The Information was deemed ineligible to enter the UK Albums Chart.[7]
In an interview with Wired magazine in September 2006, Beck challenged other artists to follow his lead—set by Guerolito—in abandoning the traditional concept of an album release:
| “ | There are so many dimensions to what a record can be these days. Artists can and should approach making an album as an opportunity to do a series of releases—one that's visual, one that has alternate versions, and one that's something the listener can participate in or arrange and change. It's time for the album to embrace the technology. For me it's more about giving the music legs, giving people new ways to experience it ... Even though the mashup sensibility has become something of a cliché, I'd love to put out an album that you could edit and mix and layer directly in iTunes. | ” |
Guerolito reached #191 in the U.S. album charts.
Beck
All songs were written by Beck Hansen and The Dust Brothers, except where noted.
