Immortal Monday: Beck’s Sea Change

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mp3 – Beck – Golden Age

mp3- Beck – Lonesome Tears

mp3 – Beck – Sunday Sun

As an angst-ridden not-quite-teenager when Beck identified himself as “A loser, baby” and asked why said baby wouldn’t just kill him in 1993 and when he started playing with his “Two turntables and a microphone” (get your mind out of the damn gutter, sicko) in ’96 I have to say that his words resonated just as much as the Presidents of the United States of America’s Peaches or Dishwalla’s Counting Blue Cars.  In the sense that I had no idea what he/they were talking about.  Hey, what’s an 11-year-old kid to do?  Peaches do come from a can, after all.  I do have to admit, though, that I expected to see all three of those acts along with some of their closest friends of that time period as part of an early-90’s VH1 Where Are They Now episode.

Fast forward to 2008 when my good friend Dalvino and I were sitting around his non-air-conditioned 5^th floor apartment in the middle of July (and goddamn was it ever hot) seeing if we could tie or perhaps beat the Guiness World Record for the speed through which we could plow through a 12-er of PBR and achieve world-hipster-recognition (I still remember the skinny-jeans-nightmares that occurred that night—absolutely terrifying).  After running the gamut of my favorite jazz Radiohead and Beatles covers as performed by Brad Mehldau (if you haven’t heard ‘em go find Dear Prudence and Exit Music for a Film and thank me later) Dalvino said: now hear this…

From the opening acoustic guitar/lap steel strains of The Golden Age I knew I was in for a great experience.  As the album progressed the heat lifted, the clouds parted and the sun shined (two events which don’t normally happen in Milwaukee in July mind you) and I found that same little angst-ridden 11-year-old who was so enamored to learn ‘Where It’s At’ so long ago.   Trouble is, that little kid couldn’t figure out who was bringing him out of the recesses of my psyche.  To make matters worse, Dalvino was hip to my anti-Beck sentiment and wouldn’t tell me who was throwing me back so many years.

Now, I know that I said the night was a bit drowned in frosty, malted beverages (hey, we were just doing our part to keep the local economy….er…flowing?) so I threatened him with death-by-Macarena unless he burned me a copy to enjoy on the ride home the next day.  Somehow, even though I only live 10 minutes away from Dalvino’s joint that ride home took 2 hours and, more importantly, 2 listens through the album.  The album wasn’t labeled (damn you, Dalvino) and I proceeded to toss it in my computer when I made it home and, much to my chagrin, surprise and (I can’t lie to ya) consternation my computer asked me if I wanted to import Beck’s Sea Change into my iTunes library.

Now, I said a little earlier that I wasn’t a big Beck fan… as I pushed that poor little 11-year-old back down to the depths of my mature (hahahah) self he took his love for Beck with him.  Don’t stop reading now, I have since reformed my blasphemous ways.  This album is one of the most mature, well stated, brilliantly composed (Beck did all the string arrangements himself—words cannot describe how surprised and utterly impressed I was to find that little tidbit of information out) and phenomenally performed albums of all time.  I’m happy to listen to this album at any time, no matter my mood which, as the rest of the SC’rs can attest to, doesn’t happen very often.  I’ve been known to get up and turn off even the best Of Montreal if I’m not feeling it.  The album was written in response to ‘the dissolution of a relationship’ and I wouldn’t have had to read the Wikipedia page to tell you that little piece of info.  You feel it in every syllable, every chord and every wacky seemingly-out-of-place-but-oddly-well-placed-synth/sample hit.

Sea Change is as consistently seething as some of the cool jazz records from the West Coast during the 50’s (a la Chet Baker, Art Pepper and Gerry Mulligan) while at the same time being as stylistically varied as some of Radiohead’s best (hmmm… coincidence that Nigel Godrich did much of the synth work?).  Beck’s relaxed approach to vocal performance (annunciation in particular) and perfectly-out-of-tune-vocal-intonation really adds to the effect the album has.  The orchestral arrangements are fraught with beautiful counterpoint, divergent melodic ideas, and innovative timbres while still somehow retaining the utter simplicity for which Beck’s newer music is known for.  Two- or three-chord forms always blow my mind; the fact that this guy can write such complex melodic ideas around them is even further out of my musical-ballpark.

I submit Beck’s Sea Change this Immortal Monday and I hope your inner 11-year-old enjoys seeing the light of day as mine did.