3rd November - Beck's Mutations

Artist – Album: Beck – Mutations

Released: 3^rd November 1998

Sounds Like: The genre spanner

Howard Moon: I do many things. I span the genres - they call me the genre spanner.

Vince Noir: Yeah, they call you the spanner...

Getting started on Beck’s back catalogue can be something of a daunting task for any music fan – over his 20 year career he’s racked up 11 albums and 40 singles, hopping from style to style on each one like Howard Moon’s genre spanner. Take a wrong turn as you explore his music unguided and you could unwittingly find yourself in bossa nova territory, or stranded in some electro-indie-hip hop no-man’s-land, unprotected against stray DJ scratches and obscure samples. No one wants that.

Luckily I’ve come up with a cheat, which should help you to avoid potential pratfalls. Begin with Odelay, Beck’s seminal 1996 recording. Even here the eclectic varieties come at you thick and fast, but they’re so well-crafted and brilliant that you should be immune to them. However, you can – and this is my  point – use the songs as springboards into whichever Beck-osphere is best suited to your particular tastes. For example, if you like ‘Where It’s At’ and ‘High 5 (Rock the Catskills)’ best, then Midnite Vultures might be the album you turn to next. If the chameleon-esque approach of ‘Devil’s Haircut’ and ‘The New Pollution’ sit easy with you, then you’re safe to make the move to Mellow Gold and Guero. If, like me, ‘Ramshackle’ and ‘Jack-Ass’ are your favourites, then the lush sound of Sea Change and the acoustic Mutations are great albums.

Beck himself revels in the laid back psychedelic bluesy folk surroundings of Mutations. There’s less need to be the shape-shifting showman and we’re treated to a more open and reflective individual on the likes of mandarin-led ‘Nobody’s Fault but My Own’. Being Beck there’s still a degree of diversity, diving from The Kinks-inspired ‘Lazy Flies’ to the Brazilian ‘Tropicalia’ to the bar room band ‘Bottle of Blues’, but the changes here seem minor and seamless compared to other albums. The mellow gold of Mutations is one of the best Beck mutations.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Cold Brains – 3:41

2.       Nobody’s Fault but My Own – 5:02

3.       Lazy Flies – 3:44

4.       Canceled Check – 3:14

5.       We Live Again – 3:05

6.       Tropicalia – 3:20

7.       Dead Melodies – 2:36

8.       Bottle of Blues – 4:56

9.       O Maria – 3:59

10.   Sing It Again – 4:19

11.   Static – 5:18

12.   Diamond Bollocks – 6:02

Listen to ‘Cold Brains’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl-337I6RH0

Also released on the 3^rd November:
1978: The Jam – All Mod Cons

Also released on the 3^rd November:
1992: Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

10th Feb - Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Artist – Album: Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Released:  10^th February 1997    

Sounds Like: Impeccable indie

It is damn near impossible for any album to attain universal adoration from indie fans, more so than with any other type of genre. Annoyingly well-informed hipsters like to play at one-upmanship when discussing their favourite discoveries:

“Hey man, I’ve started to get into this new crab-core five piece called Tantric Antarctic, ever heard of them?”

“Obviously dude, they’re like a shit Chessington World of Adventures”

“Yeah, well they’re just a poor man’s Bowser and the Koopa Troops”

“They suck. You should listen to Garry and the Douches”

“You suck. You’re a douche”

Any group that starts to earn a fanbase will automatically be derided simply because somebody else has heard of them. These guys get more precious over their favourite obscure bands than Gollum with the one ring.

It’s testament, then, to the excellence of Neutral Milk Hotel’s second album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea that despite becoming increasingly well known and loved there’s not been any backlash from the enthusiasts. If anything, its stock has grown and since the turn of the millennium it has consistently shown up in best ever lists, even topping a few. If you haven’t heard it yet, do so immediately. You don’t even have to be a music geek to love it.

p.s. It's Chinese New Year today - Kung Hei Fatt Choi! I've been trying to think of ways to shoehorn that into this blog, but it was pretty difficult. Sneakily, I've just done it. You probably didn't even notice.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

Also released on the 10^th February:

1971: Carole King - Tapestry

Also released on the 10^th February:

2004: Kanye West – The College Dropout

Also released on the 10^th February:

1997: Blur – Blur