Little Lies and Massive Dreams

My name is Bear. I play in a band called Talking About Commas and live and work in Providence, RI. I like music.
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Oct 4, 2006

Review: Beck's "The Information"



When I first heard that The Information was produced by Nigel Godrich (who also produced Beck’s Mutations and Sea Change) I figured it would be a mellow album full of faux-string soundscapes and beautiful melancholy. To my surprise, this thing is an all-out dance party as if Odelay and Guero’s love child got a little too drunk one night and made out with Midnite Vultures. “Elevator Music” gets things going with a Guero-espque space-bass-trash-rap-funk that is as groovy as anything he’s done. “Cell Phone’s Dead” has two magnificent changes that shouldn’t be in the same song, but Beck makes it work as he always does.
The famed Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, lets his presence known on tracks like “Soldier Jane” and “Movie Theme” both of which he co-wrote. “Soldier Jane” has Beck experimenting with fast, dirty drumbeats under slow, pretty changes a la Godrich’s work on many Radiohead songs like “Morning Bell” for example (although if Radiohead wrote this song, I bet it’d be in 7/4). “1000BPM” proves to be this record’s club scene infiltrator a la Guero’s “Hell Yes” and Midnite Vulture’s “Hollywood Freaks”. Unfortunately, after a strong start the record seems to ramble on a bit and probably doesn’t need to be 15 tracks long. All of this culminates with a ridiculous rant about space travel that shows although Beck makes amazing music, he can still be an egomaniacal (so I’ve heard) Scientologist (sadly, a fact).
There are 2 amazing bonus’ to this disc (if you don’t burn it like a chump). One is the album comes with no artwork. The listener can decorate the entire sleeve, cover and back with stickers that come in the CD. I’ve posted my version above, the top is my back, and the bottom, my cover. Also, Beck has attached a bonus DVD that includes low-budget/high-art music videos for each song on the album. It is a definite must-see.
Key Tracks: "Cell Phone's Dead", "Strange Apparition", "No Complaints" (Rating: triple)

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