Open Web Player
![Mutations [LP/7"]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71U2DH8iC9L._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![Sea Change [2 LP]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61V2UIwtgcL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![Morning Phase [LP]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718YAmyciZL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
One of his best. Musical genre straddling like no other artist can accomplish, this album has songs that are groovy, driven, funky and utterly unique. From beginning to end, this is an album that begs to be heard in its entirety, rather like some of Air's albums (10,000 Hertz Legend, for example). Prior to the song "Sexx Laws," I don't think anyone would ever have expected to hear a banjo break in the middle of a synth-pop-muzak alt-rock hit song on Top 40 radio.
That's the kind of thing Beck can not only get away with, but succeed at. I think it's because all the songs on this album, and the album as a whole, manage to replicate &/or sample and then combine sonic bits of several decades of popular music. And if you've been a fan of wildly different genres of popular music across that span of time, you will hear it in his songs, but combined to beautiful effect like never before, almost as an homage. Everything from girl-group harmonies, Prince-like R&B falsetto, disco synth and hooks, hard rock guitars, brass sections, Stevie Wonder-like keyboards, Zappa-like jazzrock bits, R&B groove, Pink-Floyd-Wish-You-Were-Here acoustic guitar, Neil Young-ish country rock melancholia, Parliament/Clinton-esque funk and sax, Air-like synths, 80s/early 90s video game synth sounds, Steely Dan-session jazz-pop musician perfection, electronica, synthpop, blues harmonica, and country twang is represented here. Beck and his producer are the maestros conducting a fabulous orchestra made up of the last 40-50 years of American music. It will move your feet and your soul and make you think -- and parts are absolutely gorgeous. The electro-trip-hop-country-rock-pop combination of musical genres is a pastiche that is rich and satisfying, lyrically compelling, with a nearly non-stop SERIOUS GROOVE from beginning to end. The sampling, the instrumentation, the combination of old school analog instruments (including brass and strings) with 21st century synths, technology, and sampling -- it's utter genius. The songs and the production, when you listen to the entire thing all the way through, may make you feel like you just had a few puffs off a bong packed with high quality medicinal... even though you haven't.
Track listing (*** are my faves -- there are a lot):
Sexx Laws <--the hit single: pop, synth, muzak, and a strangely perfect banjo-synthesizer break in the middle
Nicotine & Gravy*** <--lovely funk here
Mixed Bizness*** <--fun, funny, funky and grooving
Get Real Paid <-- electronica with drum machines and video-game synth sounds
Hollywood Freaks*** <---dystopian groove with Beck's rhyming and rapping
Peaches & Cream*** <---AMAZING, hilarious TRIP-HOP GROOVE (w/tiny bits of Pink-Floyd Wish-You-Were-Here-like acoustic guitar)
Broken Train*** <--psychedelic. The bass and dropped-in sax funk it up (& the ascending "sha-la la-la la-la-laaaah" refrain)
Milk & Honey <--strangely hard rock edge here with Zappa & the Mothers jazzy instrumentation -- yet groovy
Beautiful Way*** <--SIMPLY GORGEOUS melancholic trip-hop with country twang, harmonica, beautiful harmonies
Pressure Zone <---catchy synth-pop with fuzzy guitar and fantastic chorus that slips in and out of a groove
Debra*** <--a gorgeous, sexy, silly groove with horns, string bass, Moog, and Beck's falsetto
There's also an Untitled track following Debra that seems to start KMFDM-ish industrial, go through Zappa-influenced muzak, back to 90s Ministry industrial.
Some of Beck's song lyrics here describe a near-future fascinated-but-angry trappings-of-wealth-and-celebrity-obsessed contemporary society with dystopian cyberpunk scifi poetry -- a cross between a Cronenberg film like Crash (the *other* Crash that erotified car accidents and their brace-wearing, crutch-using survivors), Bruce Wagner (screenwriter of Cronenberg's viciously satirical film Maps To The Stars) and William Gibson or Paulo Bacigalupi. Lyrics such as: "Wearing hepatitis contact lens" . . . "I'll feed you fruit that don't exist" . . . "we drop lobotomy beats evaporated meats on hi-tech streets...neon mamacita eat at taqueria pop lockin' beats from Korea" . . . "You look good in that sweater and that aluminum crutch" . . . "the snipers are passed out in the bushes again. . . . there's only rehashed faces on the bread line tonight, soon you'll be a figment of some infamous life; billionaires smile like weapons passing out platinum pensions". . . "in the aluminum sunset drinking from a drain. . . .No it isn't funny living in a garden of sleaze Bangkok athletes in the biosphere Arkansas wet dreams we all disappear Kremlin mistress she slips me roofies". . .
Seriously. Buy this. If you like Beck, you will LOVE THIS. Even if you are kind of "meh" about Beck except for his hits -- you'll probably still really like this, because it's just that good.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2016
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 1999
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
Inescapable Fun
By Melba Toast on March 14, 2016
Upon revisiting Midnite Vultures, I couldn't help but think that if this was re-released today there would be a few "summer hits" on this record. Admittedly, my favorite Beck albums are the more funky, dancey ones such as this but even fans of Beck's more mellow stylings would be hard pressed to ignore the fun and festive nature of Midnite Vultures. Even if you're not a shower or car singer, you'll suddenly find yourself bopping and crooning along with these tunes.
By Melba Toast on March 14, 2016
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 1999
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2001
Verified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Nortrop
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2018Verified Purchase
Damion Pegg
Beck
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2013Verified Purchase
BennyG
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2015Verified Purchase
Michael Taster
Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2016Verified Purchase
Arnaud
«Special Very Limited CD Digipak»... vraiment ... ?
Reviewed in Canada on November 22, 2016Verified Purchase
