The Greatest Albums of 2006

#4 - Beck's The Information

The thing about Beck is that he’s innovated so much, its now hard to think of new genres of music for him to mix. Think about it: he’s touched rock, hip-hop, disco, techno, folk, pop, jazz, art-rock and even had a few moments of soul. That being said, he claims his latest album The Information is his take on the hip-hop scene. Yes friends, we’ve finally reached the day where Beck has run out of things to innovate. He’s now pretending to have “discovered” hip-hop.
Career commentaries aside The Information is a great album. But his “newfound” fusion of hip-hop and 60’s/70’s rock isn’t the reason why it’s great. Rather, The Information stands high on this list because of one thing and one thing only.

It’s simply a well-thought out album.

I dare you to listen to The Information, an album Beck has been struggling with since 2003, and not hate his last work Guero. I dare you. For me, it’s suddenly easy to see Guero as filler meant to tide us over until he could work out this hard-edged masterwork. Guero seems like a scattershot, and Guero a death-blow.
According to several accounts, The Information was the first thing Beck and Godrich began working on following the darkly introspective Sea Change. But somewhere down the line, The Information became too painful an album for Beck. It was too daunting. And so, he shelved it in favor of Guero.

A mistake.

Listening to The Information is a revelation in the sense that it is an immediate progression from Sea Change. Whereas Guero felt like a reversion to Beck’s daytime TV, The Information picks up right where Sea Change left off. It is brooding, contemplative, bitter, and oddly enough, hilarious. One masterful development in Beck’s recent work is the darkening of his playful, junk-culture persona. Once cute and nostalgic, Beck’s interest in the realm of all things sub-culture now seems snide and edgy. Each game boy bleep in place of drums is infused with a tone of mockery. Face it, Beck hates you, and he’s using Tetris to explain why. It’s marvelous.
Equally impressive is Godrich’s masterful production. Take note of the title track, The Information, in particular. So many layers of sound hum in and out of dangerous proximity, so much sounds so cold and seems so warm. Clearly, this is the album Godrich wanted to make. An album where Beck is the bad guy, where the production can be ramped up as much as possible and Beck’s tar-pit discontent still sneers right through. It’s the album Beck never wanted to make, but that we all wanted to hear.

In order to get this list out before 2007 is over, I have to write up limited commentary on this album. I couldn't conjure up much to say on this one. That's mostly because I didn't get to listen to it enough. But it was enough to know I liked it. I was a fan of his early work, and my interest tapered off after "Mutations." Interestingly enough, "The Information" feels like a dark blend of "Mutations," or "Sea Change," with "Odelay." And that makes for a tasty blend indeed.

Godrich's presence is apparent on this album. It has wonderful bippity-boom beats, spacey sounds, and dark, brooding guitar work. This album just may have gotten me back into Beck.