Beck - Modern Guilt
For most of this last year or so, I have been under the impression that Beck could never top The Information. I thought that there could be no way that an album so free and precise could have a topper, or even an album able to stand beside it.
What I did not count on, though, was that DJ Danger Mouse would be on the credits.
Modern Guilt brings together two of the most talented men in music to make an album that is more intriguing that catchy, more introspective than danceable, and without a doubt, more good than bad.
Since Danger Mouse produced and played alongside Beck, it would be impossible to ignore the heavy hip hop influence and how much each song is carried by the wacky and wonderful, the pleasant and powerful Danger Mouse beats.
The samples DM uses are rooted in rock nostalgia. “Orphans” opens with a beach bash beat and bassline. “Gamma Ray” uses similar surfer rock elements with ghostly undertones. The beats work because although they have one foot standing firmly in hip-hop, the other foot moves freely in Beck’s own soft, personal, Sea-Change kind of rock and roll.
And this album is very personal. It is an album about one’s personal journey to make sense of the world around him.
It’s about looking for wisdom, journeying to, “hear what the blind men sing.” Its about searching the self and finding things that trap us or way us down, like in the title track when Beck sings, “Modern guilt/I’m stranded with nothing/Modern guilt/I’m under lock and key,” or in “Walls”: Hey, what are you doing to do/When the walls are falling down on you.”
And even the narrative of Beck’s personal journey does not seem to resolve, it does ask the right question and searches for the right solutions. Beck asks in the bass-heavy, butt-rock jam “Soul of Man,” “What makes the soul/The soul of a man.” And, in the closing track, “Volcano,” he laments, “Was it all an illusion/All a mirage gone bad/I’m tired of evil/And all that it feeds.” It’s about seeing the darkness and finding the light.
Modern Guilt is an album with a great delivery, a sad but necessary message, an album that demands to be understood and appreciate for its many musical and lyrical levels.
Posted on July 21, 2008 12:00 AM
Comments
This is completely a matter of differing tastes, but _Modern Guilt_ did nothing for me. Danger Mouse's production is starting to all sound the same for me (the tracks aren't terribly different or unique from _The Odd Couple_, for example), and the sad sack Beck bored me to tears, especially considering the fun Beck I had warmed up to during the _Midnite Vultures_ era. Understandably, an artist is going to evolve and change over time, but thankfully, I can evolve along with him and stop listening to his records.
Posted by: Dan Gibson | July 21, 2008 7:36 AM
Danger Mouse infringes too heavily on the albums he produces.
Posted by: Stephanie Nikolopoulos | July 21, 2008 10:01 AM
Beck is a constantly evolving artist/musician and arguing that Danger Mouse is infringing, or somehow over-influencing, that talent is ignoring Beck's eclectic taste. "Loser," his first single, was heavily influenced by hip-hop and Beck has consistently rapped verses across the lexicon of his catalog. [i]Midnite Vultures[/i] had heavily sampled production and both [i]Odelay[/i] and [i]Guero[/i] were produced with the Dust Brothers, guys known for their sampling. [i]Modern Guilt[/i] is one of the least sampled albums by comparison. If anything, one could argue that Beck influenced Danger Mouse more than vice versa given the standard set 10+ years earlier. Beck's acoustic-guitar- over-drum-machine sound is pretty exclusive to him. It's not hard to find similar formulas on Danger Mouse produced albums.
[i]Modern Guilt[/i] is more an example of Beck's folk-rock sensibility and Danger Mouse's soulful bluesy tastes converging with the groovy hip-hop influences they both grew up enjoying mixed with 60's rock. The hip-hop influence is actually pretty minimal on [i]Modern Guilt[/i]. The bulk of material is recorded in studio with live drums, guitars, and keys.
The album plays out more like two mutually respected artists just jamming in the studio, layering each track with harmonies, violins, synthesizers, and the occasional horn beep or laser gun, but never to the point of overproduction. Case in point:[i]Modern Guilt[/i] clocks in at just over 30 minutes.
Posted by: Casey Hurst | July 23, 2008 12:38 AM
While I can understand a bit of why Dan & Steph might not dig this album, I rather agree with Casey's assessment. A 30-minute-ish record doesn't bode well for claims of producer interference (though yes, Danger Mouse does have that tendency with other records). Modern Guilt certainly does contain some rather sad sack, sad bastard moments, but so does the literary work of Cormac McCarthy (and no one complains about him!). This is my favorite work from Beck since Sea Change.
Posted by: APN | July 23, 2008 9:44 AM
Casey said "Beck's acoustic-guitar- over-drum-machine sound is pretty exclusive to him."
You're kidding with this part, right?
Posted by: Dan Gibson | July 23, 2008 2:00 PM
I agree, that statement is poorly worded and a broad generalization. While there are many musicians that utilize the sound (Everlast, etc.), it is pretty exclusively associated with Beck. "Loser" pretty much solidified that.
Posted by: Casey Hurst | July 23, 2008 7:27 PM
As long as there have been drum machine, guitarists have recorded with them. "Loser" might be the biggest hit featuring that sound, but he hardly has a patent on it. Reflexively, Beck has released so much material since that I don't think he's particularly associated with that aesthetic anymore.
Posted by: Dan Gibson | July 25, 2008 9:22 AM
I agree he doesn't have a patent on it, or is by any means the first to use the sound, but Beck is the first to capitalize on the sound, intentionally or unintentionally. While Beck has distanced himself from it in a variety of ways, the association will forever be there since "Loser" is his breakout hit and the first popular mainstream song utilizing that sound. Even post-1994 hits were seen as imitators. The casual music listener will know Beck for "Loser" since it is the most well known of his songs, regardless of the broad scope of his catalog. Just like Radiohead's "Creep."
Posted by: Casey Hurst | July 29, 2008 10:06 PM
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think saying Beck is permanently associated with "Loser" or Radiohead with "Creep" seems to me like saying people only remember the Beatles for "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". It's just been a long time since those initial bursts of music, to the point that the generation actively "purchasing" music now weren't even aware of "Creep" upon its release.
Posted by: Dan Gibson | August 4, 2008 10:44 PM