The Information

I have been thoroughly enjoying the new Beck album "The Information". As it so happens, I typically enjoy new "Beck" albums, however this one is an improvement over Guero which was Beck's anticipated return to that off beat and often nonsensical sound he is famous for.

The first single, Nausea, actually did not stand out as one of the more memorable tracks from the information (for me anyway). That being said it definitely cooks along. I've attached the official music video here which recollects the Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony".



The thing with Beck is you can't tell when he's trying to be profound or simply absurd.
While often appearing to rhyme for the sake of sound... his delivery is almost always steeped with conviction and a certain style and swagger.

For a Beck album that is the antithesis of his norm check out "Sea Change". It's style is perhaps a contemporary of the sound established by the under appreciated, Nick Drake. There is a cover of Drake's "Parasite" that Beck had on his web site for a bit, if anyone knows a way to get a hold of that one, please let me know.

I'm sure Beck Hansen often sits back either laughing at fans trying to find depth in meaningless rhymes, or perhaps steeped in frustration over a public that doesn't understand him. Who knows... after all the dude's a Scientologist.

Nausea [Version (a)]:

1, 2, 3, 4

I'm a seasick sailor
On a ship of noise
I got my maps all backwards
And my instincts poisoned
In a truth blown gutter
Full of wasted years
Like blown-out speakers
Ringin' in my ears

Oh it's nausea, oh nausea And we're gone
It's nausea, oh nausea And we're gone

Now I'm a straight-line walker
In a black-out room
I push a shopping cart over
In an Aztec ruin
With my minion fingers
Working for some God
Who could see his own reflection
In a parking lot

Oh it's nausea, oh nausea And we're gone
No it's nausea, oh nausea And we're gone

Now I'm a priest teenager
On a tower of dust
I'm a dead generator
In a cloud of exhaust
I eat alone in the desert
With skulls for my pets
I rate the days, one to ten
With lead cigarettes

It's nausea, oh nausea And we're gone
It's nausea, oh nausea And we're gone

Hmmmm.... an expression of the futility of it all perhaps??

The following is a song (video) from the Sea Change album, "Lost Cause". I never saw it because I'm too old and crinkly now to pay much heed to MTV. Amusingly enough, apparently you can no longer say the word "gun" on MTV, as it is censored here. (wow.... I know people are dim, but please give kids a bit more credit than that!)