I don't care that Beck is a Scientologist. I also don't care that he practices yoga or wears pink polka-dotted thongs and eats raw seaweed (just kidding). I do think his brand of everything-but-the-kitchen sink noise on his new release, The Information, is enjoyable.
Some of these songs definitely have echoes of Odelay. "Soldier Jane" plods along with some woozy synthesizer and some fuzzy production. Nothing really stood out on this song to make me want to listen to it repeatedly. "Elevator Music" starts out this CD with Beck's postmodern mix of slowly cooked hip-hop blues, telephone operator recordings and dial tones and it's one of the stronger tracks.
"Cellphone's Dead" is a kitschy rap that features a cheesy '80s old school synth. It's a fun romp and definitely one for the dance floor if you're like me and you like to lock your fingers together and execute the arm wiggle.
"Strange Apparition" sounds like "Torn and Frayed" by the Rolling Stones in the Beggar's Banquet days. Beck ganks Jagger's singing style masterfully and they even have the piano stylings down cold. I guess if you're going to imitate the Stones, it's good to do it from a time when they weren't wheel-chair bound and didn't suck.
On "The horrible fanfare/landslide/exoskeleton" Beck attempts to be post-postmodern and samples his own work from The Information. It's tedious and not worth trying to stay awake to enjoy. He should just stick to being simply postmodern.
The interesting thing about this effort is how Beck incorporates a number of different elements into his recordings. On this record, produced by Nigel Godrich, he uses not only a kalimba and glockenspiel, but also a Gameboy, sitar bass, and even a Speak n' Spell. Although some of The Information is predictable, there are enough bells, whistles, and bleeps to keep it intriguing.
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