Mutations was one of the very first CDs I ever bought. It's kind of surreal to be sitting here, a decade later, writing a review of it. I've listened to the album so often that I have almost ceased to hear it anymore; it's become part of my DNA. Mutations, along with Radiohead's OK Computer, was the album that led me to fall in love with music and the idea of an album as a unified work of art instead of just a collection of songs. Returning to the album after a decade of enjoyment, its richness and appeal are sharper than ever.It may or may not be telling that Beck wanted to release this album exclusively on Bong Load Custom Records. When signing his record deal with Geffen, Beck stipulated that should he choose to, he would be allowed to release albums on indie labels and Geffen couldn't do anything about it. They seemed to feel differently, and Beck sued the label for releasing Mutations against his wishes, and all manner of lawsuits between Beck, Bong Load Custom, and Geffen were filed. I assume it was settled out of court because I've never been able to find more information on the matter. At any rate, does Beck's desire to release Mutations on an indie label show that he didn't have much faith in the album, or was it for a different reason??
My assumption is that Beck felt he could continue as he had before his success with the 'Loser' single, not to mention the Odelay album. Remember that he had released two albums on indie labels before, one of which was the blues/folk/indie One Foot In The Grave. It seems to me that his plan was to release a big, mainstream appealing fun record, like Odelay and Mellow Gold had been, and then supplement with albums on indie labels as his whimsy carried him. To be sure, Mutations has more in common with the hardcore-fans-only One Foot In The Grave, but sales and reviews both proved that even on a major label Mutations was brilliant, earning Beck a Grammy for 'Best Alternative Music Peformance.'
The sound of Mutations is radically different from Odelay, but at the same time it's removed from its closest sibling One Foot In The Grave. Where that album stuck to a mostly acoustic blues/folk sound, with some indie rock bits thrown in for good measure, Mutations embraces a full band singer/songwriter canvas and paints it with colors and techniques borrowed from country, blues, folk, bossa nova, tropicalia, psychedelia, and classic late 60s/early 70s pop/rock. With Radiohead uber-producer Nigel Godrich in tow, the whole thing has a clean sheen that nevertheless doesn't get in the way of the more rustic and spontaneous feel on hand. That is to say, when keyboards and odd sound burbles appear, they drift in naturally. At any rate, gone are the genre mash-ups and sample-heavy sound of Odelay. It must have come as a shock to people who were only familiar with 'Loser' and Odelay.
Most shocking of all, however, is just how good Mutations is. While I have always liked this album, now I fully notice just how texturally and melodically rich it is. The production is full and thick, but never suffocatingly dense; every instrument and sound has a space all its own to demonstrate its purpose. Nothing is arbitrarily slapped on: I suspect even the casual studio chatter opening of 'Sing It Again' was planned. Even so, the songs are the true stars here, from the honky tonk, piano-and-harmonica goodness of 'Canceled Check' to the mournful 'Dead Melodies' with its delicate acoustic guitar fingerpicking to the drunken waltz of 'Sing It Again' to the staggering, reeling fun of 'Bottle of Blues', which has Beck seemingly making it up as he goes along. Even the odd man out, the, uhh...tropical 'Tropicalia' somehow fits, with its strange cuica sounds and chilled out, almost-Muzak horn section. On a side note, this is the song that I heard on a TV commercial for the album which made me want to buy it.
I want to make a quick mention of the lyrics for this album because I think they're the finest in Beck's career. Before this point, his lyrics ranged from the fairly-straightforward to absurdist word jumbles that sound cool. With Mutations his songwriting took a more lucid and poetic turn, with lyrics of true depth that aren't immediately obvious but also aren't inscrutable nonsense. It's not that Beck's lyrics were necessarily bad before Mutations, or that they would be afterward, but this is definitely his best album in terms of the words alone.
The lasting impression about Mutations is that it was just something Beck made for the fun of it. Reportedly it only took two weeks to record, with Beck working on one song per day until it was completed. Fa
No comments:
Post a Comment