2008 Woodie Awards
It's Only Rock and Roll
'Beck' and Call: Time Traveling with Everyone's Favorite Guero
Xiomara Martinez-White
Issue date: 4/14/05 Section: Arts
"Missing" is yet another throwback track. However, it owes much to the album "Mutations" and a song like "Tropicalia." Its slow background music is very "The Girl From Ipanema." Opening with verse-length scat singing, Beck looks into the schizophrenic mind of a man who lost love. He is very torn, because in the first verse alone he moved back and further from "I prayed heaven today would bring its hammer down on me and pound you out of my head" to "I'd drag all that I owned down the dirt road to find you." In the latter parts, Beck strings together a series of the most gorgeous images filled with water and colors and nature (for instance, "the background birds take a flight from the earth, a bonfire burns") - so pretty! It's especially expressive in the way it shows the conflict and feelings of the narrator; indeed, "something [is] always missing [and there's] always someone missing something." And the music is just beautiful.
"Hell Yes" is old-school Beck to the hilt. Here he raps again over some beats reminiscent of the Notorious B.I.G. song "Who Shot Ya," using the usual bizarre string of references that he's known for. Who else would rhyme "Skeleton boys hyped up in purple, smoke rings blow from across the disco, bank notes burn like broken equipment?" The chorus is also worthy of bobbin' your head, with a woman's voice encouraging listeners to "please enjoy." With this track, Beck wants every to just "get your damned hands up." He's getting props for this one too, in the form of a remix produced by British rapper Dizzee Rascal.
About midway through the album, the tempo switches and every song becomes mellower than the last. But, in my opinion, "Go It Alone" best represents this side of the album. It reminds of the year 1997, when I was 13 and electronica was supposed to rule the world. Its beats and the lyrics would not seem out of place sung by a petite female British trip-hop singer. He paints a dark scene, where he stands "with my hands in my pocket/jingling a wish coin that I stole from a fountain that was drownin' all the cares in the world." The song also has a kind of White Stripes vibe to it, a little like "Sister, Do You Know My Name," especially in the chorus ("Na na na na na, I better go it alone"). Little did I know I was right on about that; the song was actually co-written by Jack White.
As great as this resurgent disc is, I suppose it couldn't be a real comeback unless Beck actually did come back. But he has proven himself commercially successful too, debuting at number two, held back only by the 50 Cent juggernaut. So go on, call it a comeback. But Beck has been here for years.
"Hell Yes" is old-school Beck to the hilt. Here he raps again over some beats reminiscent of the Notorious B.I.G. song "Who Shot Ya," using the usual bizarre string of references that he's known for. Who else would rhyme "Skeleton boys hyped up in purple, smoke rings blow from across the disco, bank notes burn like broken equipment?" The chorus is also worthy of bobbin' your head, with a woman's voice encouraging listeners to "please enjoy." With this track, Beck wants every to just "get your damned hands up." He's getting props for this one too, in the form of a remix produced by British rapper Dizzee Rascal.
About midway through the album, the tempo switches and every song becomes mellower than the last. But, in my opinion, "Go It Alone" best represents this side of the album. It reminds of the year 1997, when I was 13 and electronica was supposed to rule the world. Its beats and the lyrics would not seem out of place sung by a petite female British trip-hop singer. He paints a dark scene, where he stands "with my hands in my pocket/jingling a wish coin that I stole from a fountain that was drownin' all the cares in the world." The song also has a kind of White Stripes vibe to it, a little like "Sister, Do You Know My Name," especially in the chorus ("Na na na na na, I better go it alone"). Little did I know I was right on about that; the song was actually co-written by Jack White.
As great as this resurgent disc is, I suppose it couldn't be a real comeback unless Beck actually did come back. But he has proven himself commercially successful too, debuting at number two, held back only by the 50 Cent juggernaut. So go on, call it a comeback. But Beck has been here for years.