8/19/13: Beck: Midnite Vultures

Midnite Vultures is Beck's most sincere record, as well as his best.  Unfortunately, Midnite Vultures is also fun and funny, which means that most critics were disappointed in it, at least when it came out.  A respectable rock critic near the turn of the century was much more likely to find power and profundity in Sea Change, a draggy folk record that sounds mostly boring now.  There's been a bias against the body in rock criticism ever since... I dunno... Sgt Pepper?... And thanks to this, any record by a white person that has attempted to make you dance in the last several decades has suffered in the critical papers.

But, yeah, this one is Beck's best.  The one where he perfects his strengths (the things absent from Sea Change; you know, like eclecticism and enthusiasm and unpredictability) and minimizes his weaknesses.  Beck's never been a great melody writer, sorry, which is why his folk records (SC, Mutations, One Foot in the Grave, the mediocre half of Mellow Gold) have never as good as his groove records (this one, Odelay, the good half of Mellow Gold).  Midnite Vultures weaves the hooks into the grooves, fusing pop and funk in a near-perfect tribute to the master, Prince.

And it never grows old.  The jokes here are both lyrical and musical and I laugh at them every time.  The banjo and pedal-steel breakdown on "Sexx Lawws."  The entire second verse of "Nicotine and Gravy."  NORMAN SCHWARTZKOPF!  The random, beautiful Johnny Marr guitar break closing out "Milk and Honey."  The ecstatic screams in "Debra."  "You make a garbage man scream!"

Beware, though: the record is fun.  So if you're a serious person, you might hate it.