BeckThe Information
Just when you thought you would never again buy another CD, and that the age of the MP3 is upon us, rendering the compact disk obsolete? Wham! Beck is back ? and he brings you stickers. And if stickers are what it takes to get people buying album hard copies again, then colour me all over that.This is great news, not only for you, but mostly for me, since my coolness as an 8 year old was directly contingent on whether or not I could successfully trade a fuzzy for a fuzzy, or a shiny for a shiny. I had a sticker album and everything, and quite honestly, if I could go back in time, prevent myself from ever giving it to my younger cousins and rehash it somehow, I would.
This being said, you can imagine my two-fold delight upon acquiring the latest Beck LP, The Information: Number one ? Beck is fantastic. He is constantly changing and reinventing his sound with every new album, and he can pull off almost any musical style with arty, eclectic flair. His music is quirky, sonically experimental, and The Information is no exception.
Number two: The Information comes with a spread of four blank CD covers, and several sheets of stickers so that the consumer may create his or her very own cover art. Finally, an interactive album experience that goes beyond singing to yourself in the rear-view mirror while driving and then swerving off the road because, come on, look how cool you look! Not only that ? the album is supplemented with a DVD of home-made music videos corresponding to each track on the album.
The Information is more of a grower, as they say, than Beck?s previous endeavour, Guero (March 2005), which is arguably one of his most solid and consistent achievements to date. Many place it right up there with Odelay, although Guero maintains much of the funkadellic flavour that inflects Beck?s edgy 1999 LP, Midnite Vultures.
The Information may not be as immediate as some of its predecessors, but it is artistically more dense and layered. In fact, this album demands further listens in order to fully appreciate it. Produced by Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead production fame), the album is deliberate in such a way that presents itself as random; in reality, a sense of random disconnect and communication-breakdown appear to be running themes on the album. In fact, Beck seemingly fetishizes the idea of the unfinished, with Guero preceding Guerolito, a remix album reworking the tracks from Guero. He follows through with this theme in The Information with the do-it-yourself cover art and the home-made videos.
Notable tracks include ?Cellphone?s Dead,? ?Strange Apparition,? and the current single, ?Nausea? (which sounds suspiciously like a reworked version of ?Black Tambourine? from Guero). As a unit, The Information feels more like a concept album, progressing sonically into a swirl of electronic ambience; The second half of the album is notably slower and more off-beat.
And since we?re talking off-beat, I should tell you that this album is a real treat when performed live. Each member of Beck?s band has a marionette puppet version of himself, performing the exact same show on a much smaller scale. Opening his set with ?Loser? at his recent Richo Coliseum gig set the stage for a really awesome, if not totally weird, concert experience. Not since the movie ?Being John Malcovitch? has there been such a glorious and unnecessary use of puppetry. Beck?s performance visuals are equally as quirky as his music; An endearing video of the puppet band members out on the town is all the proof I think we really need. Of course, none of it seems really necessary?but that appears to be the point.
In a surprisingly refreshing take on post-modernism, Beck makes you think he?s a lot more random and out there than he really is. There is a sort of comfort that can be found in that which is unfinished; it allows for an artist to evolve organically, and this is what Beck taps into on The Information. This allows the artist elbow room to work with, and each track on this album is constructed as such. We could get really deep and start philosophising the use of stickers, but that would certainly suck the fun out of all of this, wouldn?t it? That?s right. All you really need to know is that The Information continues Beck?s string of enjoyable albums. It?s still funky, thoughtful, and fun. Now, go buy the album and play with the stickers that Beck has generously bestowed upon you.