I have been thinking about this for a couple of days now, trying to think of an artist that I have enduring love for, someone who just seems to get better and better with every album and someone who does music that can match every mood.
Suddenly, Beck came into my head. How had it taken me all this time to think of this person who is, in my opinion, drastically underrated? I think I just answered my own question there – his name rarely comes up in a list of people’s favourites and no-one has ever done a ‘Beck Special’, not even on my favorite radio station (6Music).
Most people had written Beck off as a ‘one hit wonder’ when he brought out ‘Loser’. I thought it was a cool tune, nothing more, nothing less – a bit of a stoner anthem but when 1996 came around and he released the album ‘Odelay’ the naysayers must’ve eaten their words (me included). I played that album endlessly.
‘The New Pollution’ is probably my favorite Beck song as I love the relentless percussion and the bassline – also, great to sing along to during the chorus. Oh wait, more favourites – ‘Sexx Laws’, ‘Think I’m in Love’, ‘Cellphone’s Dead’ and ‘Girl’.
Beck’s appeal for me is that he’s a genius songwriter – someone told me once that he just chucks a load of words in a bag, pulling them out randomly and makes sentences out of them (I believed it at the time), a great musician and he just has this lovely, easy vocal style.
I saw him at Glastonbury in 1997 (I think this was the year anyway – it’s all a bit of a blur) and he BLEW ME AWAY. First of all, he has this amazing stage presence and although he’s pretty average looking, on stage he is immensely sexy. He has a great amount of confidence and can pull off a cowboy outfit (and a couple of costume changes). He also did the splits which was cool, and he covered a Smokey Robinson song so beautifully in such a spot on falsetto it actually made me cry. Easily down as one of the best gigs I’ve been to.
Anyway, I love the guy.
