BECK
Beck and I almost had to break up. Like everybody else I had Mellow Gold when it came out because of Loser. I liked the rest of the album as well, but one of my dorm neighbors ruined Beck for a couple years. For reasons I will never understand, he made a tape that he played over and over. Side A: Loser repeated Side B: Weezer's Sweater Song repeated. Luckily for Beck and my ears, Odelay came next and I still loved that album and have had his album consistently in the background since then. Because of college, I didn't listen to Mellow Gold or earlier Beck for a decade + after. By then, I had fallen hard for his middle run of albums. The main one is Sea Change, which I often bring up in album of the decade type discussions. That is still the album of his I listen to the most.
There still were a couple album blindspots and when we started doing this stuff a couple years ago I really dug back through all his albums. It reinforced my love of a few albums and gave me a couple more to add to the heavy rotation that I hadn't been listening to enough. Sea Change is a go-to as a rare "softer" album that I love so it gets heavy play, but most of the others were my "fun" music that put me in a good mood, like People Under the Stairs became.
Beck has 14 albums, but we will only have 10 on the playlist. Choices have to be made, and I stand by them. Mostly I think Mellow Gold does a much better job of the earlier sound than
One Foot in the Grave, his debut, and Stereopathic. Mutations I like, but in a similar vein there are better verisons of similar songs on Odelay or Sea Change. So that leaves us with 10 albums. I've already hinted at a couple favorites, but I will let the # from each album reveal itself. For my PUTS list my playlist goes by album in order of release after a bit. For this playlist, since there are 10 albums what I did was make the top 10 my favorite song from each album and I will countdown my ranking of Beck albums in the top 10. There are 2 albums that only have 1 song each, so those will be my #9 and #10 songs. It's weird, but it works as I listen to the playlist so that is what stuck.
LAST 5** OUT:
** 6 really - Spoiler Alert:
Loser will not make the playlist. I have gotten to the point where I don't insta-skip it, but I've heard it way too much still. Sorry.
Beck · Paisley Park Sessions · Song · 2019
open.spotify.com
Orville Peck, Beck · Death Valley High · Song · 2024
open.spotify.com
Beck, Phoenix · Odyssey · Song · 2023
open.spotify.com
After I went through again this last week I decided to focus all on Beck and 95% on albums. Because of that, these 3 were some of the very last cuts.
The Paisley Experience is fun medley of Prince covers. Some of my favorite songs are his collaborations, which he has a lot of - especially recently.
Death Valley High and
Odyssey were the songs I gravitated to the most of the collaborations.
Beck · The Information · Song · 2006
open.spotify.com
Beck · Midnite Vultures · Song · 1999
open.spotify.com
Here we have the last two that got bumped out this week. I am pretty sure I owned all the Beck albums from Odelay up to Morning Phase, but for some reason there were 2 I don't remember listening to at all. If I did, not enough to remember.
Cellphone's Dead and
Broken Train come from 2 albums from those extremes in my listening. One from an album I listen to all the time, and one I felt I was hearing for the first time a couple years ago.
I hope this one is a fun addition for most of the MAD listeners. There are a couple hits not on the playlist, but there will still be plenty of known songs in there mixed in with my odd personal favorites.
. Tom Johnston rules!!!
hey now ...no way can we categorize ALL songs possibly labeled "yacht rock" as crappy songs. that casts WAY too wide a net.
