In Defense Of...Beck - The Information

This isn't really going to be a defense column no more than a "why didn't anyone buy this record" column. Of course, I'm sure that a decent deal of the music I listen to goes through the same quandary of not many people buying the record, but Beck's 2006 album The Information seems like a weird surprise non-success in terms of its commercial aspirations. After earning the third-highest sales of his career with 2005's Guero, Beck was revitalized in the mainstream and also buoyed by the success of the anthemic "E-Pro" and the cute "Girl".

So for a new album, Beck did what he always does best: he made it his own way. After creating probably the most accessible album of his career (excluding Odelay), Beck decided to make an hour-long record that's mostly electronic-based. Using producer Nigel Godrich -- he of producing Radiohead's OK Computer fame -- Beck creates a sound that's completely different than his usual material, and yet is still unmistakably Beck.

And yet, there's a more nervously human side of the man on this record. In amidst songs about dancing alone and elevator music, there's a track called "Think I'm In Love," which is about when an awkward guy falls in love either for the first time or even for the millionth time. Who the person or thing he's in love with is not really the issue. The issue there's so much more meaning in Beck's nervousness. Not that Beck never shifts his personality to his human self, he talked about his summer girl (probably) Marissa Ribisi on Guero and pined away for lost love for the entirety of 2002's Sea Change. But whether it's a true example of the man or not, there's something that Beck never seems to show. Not him as a character or as a guy spouting off about "mouthwash jukebox gasoline." And it goes a long way to leave a lasting impression for this monster of a record.

Video for "Think I'm In Love".

The Information runs sixty-one minutes and twenty-nine seconds, and for the most part, is completely worth the length. The sixty-one minutes is a bit of a misnomer, as ten and a half are thrown onto the intriguing if not necessarily great or even really necessary outro "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton." Still, there's a spectacular amount of noise on this record. All of the tracks feel like they're spinning on from the rhythms of past Beck songs, but don't feel derivative. "Strange Apparition" kind of sounds like Odelay's "Jack-ss" and "Where's It At," but is good enough in its own right to be awesome. Plus, if there's any artist who's surely running out of material to not rip off, it's a man with twelve full-length albums. Beck can be cut a little slack.

The entire album is just so fluid. No song is particularly unlistenable (even the aforementioned outro), and that's quite an accomplishment for any record to achieve. Interesting diversions like "Dark Star" use its orchestral background to near-perfection, while "1000 bpm" plays with electronic conventions. "Nausea" is the perfectly suitable lead single while "Soldier Jane" is an ethereal experience. All of the songs on the album either have a purpose, or are so interesting to listen to that any sort of purpose doesn't matter.

So in short, Beck's The Information isn't really a record that is being defended because it was considered mediocre, when it should be considered great. No, The Information just deserves to be heard. Period.