Beck - Modern Guilt
I think Beck has finally left Odelay behind. That album is one of the best albums of the 90’s - perhaps tied for best album in the mainstream - but Beck’s way of walking away from Odelay (Mutations, Sea Change) and then running back (Midnite Vultures, Guero) only magnified his failure to top it.
What has he done now? Where Odelay mixed garbage noises and big beats with lyrics inscrutable in a tantalizing “let me just try to scrute that after all” mixup of culture references and big ideas, Modern Guilt’s lyrics remain difficult to scrute, but span from mopey to dire; references to pop culture are primarily musical, and very slick at that.
Here’s some lyrics:
Down by the sea
Swallowed by evil
Already drowned
You and me
Watching the sea
Full of people
Already drowned
So many people
So many people
Where do they go?
You and me
Hit by a cloud
Full of evil
Watching the jets
Pass go by
You and me watching
You and me watching
Chemtrails is where we belong
That’s what I mean
When we talk
In this jetstream
We’re climbing
A hole in the sky
(Chemtrails)
Yikes, right? Modern Guilt indeed.
Listening to Gamma Ray, above, is the first time I got really excited listening to Beck since Mutations, even with mope-lyrics - the music is just great. The whole album has really great sounds and structures.
1 year ago
