6.9
Space laser sounds and cellphone button noises galore, this is the Information, by the enigma known as Beck. The album cover's cool enough to be sort of a sticker-friendly canvas; they have cool stickers for you to paste in and paste out, so you can customize your album art your way. Haha, have it your way. Sounds like Burger King.
Beck's seventh major album is the Information, released 2006. You'll have no idea what to expect in any Beck album, and even if you did, you won't expect what happens too.
The album's sudden enough to start off as a "1, 2, you know what to do!" and the sounds boot themselves in, Elevator Music is a relaxed song with Beck's signature mutter-talk-sing with lyrics about not caring, "cellphone to talk to my brain cells", and filtering drums, and random space laser beeps and cellphone button noises. Have a wild yet relaxed time listening to this.
It transitions well to Think I'm In Love, which is also relaxed, and has its fair share of spacey sounds, but has an infectious bass, and random Jason Mraz mumbling. Cellphone's Dead, the album's first single, comes out as a strange jungle like speed track, but jerks into a smooth tune with acidic synthesizers. "One by one/I'll knock you out" proclaims a woman vocal in the chorus, which alone is one of the most prominent pieces in this CD.
Strange Apparition comes to sound like a power ballad, but instead of inspirational voices like Bono or David Archuleta, Beck's super boring super cool voice belts out the verses like a droning zombie who has no idea what to do but listen to music. Soldier Jane sounds like Think I'm in Love. And Nausea, well, probably is the best song on the album. This song sounds probably thousandfold more raw and minimal than any other song on the Information. Great song.
The music is really difficult to separate the songs are so connected. No Complaints is a special case though, with its similar dull guitar riffs like Nausea, and almost being just as good as it. As the strange Movie Theme rolls out, comes the Horrible Fanfare and Landslide, two pretty schizophrenic songs. And then Exoskeleton, a poem about how great this album is, with strange farting sounds as background noises and those orchestra music too.
The UK version has the bonus song Inside Out. Its a sudden up-tempo from the three song hullabaloo that is Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton and you'll be wonder if the bonus track had been placed wrongly in the CD.
Overall, this album review will get you nowhere, because you'll have no idea which song is which. Have fun.
Track Picks:
1. Elevator Music
2. Think I'm in Love
3. Cellphone's Dead
4. Strange Apparition
6. Nausea
10. No Complaints
16. Inside Out
