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Rating: "Stop me if you think you've heard this one before" sang the Smiths almost categorically about twenty years ago, and the story, it seems, repeats itself. Without resorting to the idea of "stopping someone," I must admit that I've had a few thoughts directed at Beck. Because Beck Hansen, known as Beck, pleasantly surprised us, constantly catching us off guard with albums like the overflowing "Odelay" or the eclectic "Mutations," moving from the funky "Midnight Vultures" to the ultra-relaxed "Sea Change". We were all waiting to see what the blonde singer from Los Angeles would come up with this time, with his strange mix of country, folk, blues, rock, funk, and more.
This time, however, the doughnut came out with half a hole. That is, all the ingredients that brought our artist fame and success are there, but the alchemy this time is far below expectations. The post-rock "E-pro" with its semi-metal riffs or the Cuban rap of the following "Que Onda Guero" add little. "Girl" winks at the classic pop song (by Beck's standards, of course) with its somewhat Beach Boys chorus and the subsequent "Missing" starts to introduce some mild novelties (Caribbean and vaguely calypso rhythms, old reminiscences still from the "Mutations" album).
The songs are there, it’s just that in general, given past performances, we expected a bit more courage from Beck or maybe it's our problem, always setting expectations too high and ALWAYS demanding the Masterpiece (which this album is NOT).
With track 6 "Earthquake Weather," the pace slows down, the sound is dirty and lo-fi, and the song is captivating. The next "Hell Yes" returns to Hip-hop registers, adding nothing (and perhaps even "subtracting") to the album, much like the following "Broken Drum," which seems lifted straight from the "Sea Change" sessions. "Scarecrow" can easily be skipped, while with "Go it alone," he returns to lo-fi registers, slow rhythms, and vaguely 60s melodies. With "Farewell Ride," Beck takes us to Texas and tackles a dirty, dusty country-blues with all the class he's a master of. Then there's the classic Beck-style rock of "Rental Car," quite classic with some Metal hints (the best part is the almost Jodal vocal interlude, completely out of context, making it great precisely for that!), "Emergency Exit," cute but dispensable, and finally the bonus track "Send A Message To Her," very classic and almost "banal" (for what it means when talking about Beck!).
In short, nothing new under the sun. A cute album, listenable and at times with some bright ideas, then the usual "great craftsmanship" of our artist and the classic ability to make acceptable songs that, in other contexts (and with other authors), we would barely give a passing grade. Beck, let me say it with affection: we want more from you. We want the ideas of "Odelay" (who remembers the braying mule?), we want the eclecticism of "Mutations"... in short, amaze us, surprise us, slap us but show us what else you can do. We're willing to wait, take all the time you need but FROM YOU, and only from you, we ALWAYS expect the best! (If not from Beck, then who else... Morrissey?!)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 E-Pro (03:22)
See me comin' to town with my souls
Straight down at the world of my fingers
Holdin' over the devil I know
Hold my troubles and hang on your trigger
Take your eyes and the knife to the bone
Shoot your mouth if you know where you're aimin'
Don't forget to pick up what you saw
Talkin' trash to the garbage around you
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
See me kickin' at the top with my boots
Broke down in a ditch of old rubbish
Snakes and bones at the back of your room
Handin' out a confection of venom
Heaven's drawn the poison you use
Thunderbolts in the eyes of a gambler
Now I seem to come to you
Hammer my bones in the anvil of daylight
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
I won't give up that ghost
It's sick the way these tongues are twisted
The good in us is all we know
There's too much left to taste that's bitter
I won't give up that ghost
It's sick the way, these tongues are twisted
The good in us is all we know
There's too much left to taste that's bitter
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na
02 Qué Onda Guero (03:29)
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda Jose?
See the vegetable man
In the vegetable van
With a horn that's honking
Like a mariachi band
In the middle of the street
People gather around
Put the dollar-dollar-dollar in the can
Ay wey!, que onda?
TJ cowboys hang around
Sleeping in the sidewalk
With a Burger King crown
Never wake 'em up
Mas cerveza
Til the rooster crows
Vatos de gallos
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda guero?
Mano Blancos roll with crowbars
singing rancheras on cheap guitars
Abuelitas with plastic bags
Walking to the church with the Spanish candles
Dirty borracho says 'que putas!'
Andale, Joto, your popsicle's melting
Run better run, da doo run run
Mara Salvatrucha in the midnight sun
Guero, where are you going?
Qué onda guero?
Guero, where are you going?
Qué onda güero?
Rampart boys with loaded rifles
Guatemalan soccer ball instant replays
Mango ladies, vendedoras
And a busstop singing
Banda macho chorus
Qué onda guero?
A donde vayas
Qué onda guero?
A donde vayas
¿Y donde encontrastes ese? en un hoyo
Alla en Tampico
Hey vamos a jugar futbol ahí en el Griffith park
Tampico and Vermont
La locura
Yeah now I'm going to LACC
I'm taking a ceramics class
See the vegetable man
James Joyce
Michael Bolton
Qué onda guero, where are you going?
Qué onda guero, where are you going?
Hey what's up guero?
"You doing pushups?"
No te veo guero!
El guero!
Que Pasa
Otra vero guero
I dunno I saw a puppet at Tang's
with a mullet and a popsicle.
Hey Guero
Que locura!
Chico
Hey Guero
Yeah Bro?
Hehehe, footlong?
Let's go to Cap'n Cork. They have the new yanni cassette
03 Girl (03:29)
I saw her, yea I saw her
With a black tongue tied round the roses
A fist pounding on a vending machine
Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger
With a noose she can hang from the sun
And put it out with her dark sunglasses
Walking crooked down the beach
She spits on the sand
Where their bones are bleaching
And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
She doesn't even know what's wrong
And I know I'm gonna make her die
Take her where her soul belongs
And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
Nothing that I wouldn't try
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
My sun-eyed girl
Hey, My sun-eyed girl
I saw her, yea I saw her
With her hands tied back
Her rags were burning
Crawling out from a landfilled life
Scrawlin her name upon the ceiling
Throw a coin in a fountain of dust
White noise, her ears are ringing
Got a ticket for a midnight hanging
Throw a bullet from a freight train leaving
And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
She doesn't even know what's wrong
And I know I'm gonna make her die
Take her where her soul belongs
And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
Nothing that I wouldn't try
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
My sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
My sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
My sun-eyed girl
Hey, my sun-eyed girl
04 Missing (04:43)
Doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Ohhh doo doo hmm
Ohhh doo doo doo doo
I prayed heaven today
Would bring its hammer down on me
And pound you out of my head
I can't think with you in it
I'd drag all that I owned
Down the dirt road to find you
And my shoes, worn-out and used
They can't take me much farther
Ohhh
Something always takes the place of missing pieces
You can take and put together even though
You know there's something missing
The sun burned a hole in my roof
I can't seem to fix it
And I hope rain doesn't come
Wash me down the gutter
Something always takes the place of missing pieces
You can take and put together even though
You know there's something missing
She rides in a car
Like a queen on a card
And the guns of her mind
Aim a line straight at mine
To a heart that is broke
Tried to feel but got choked
In the smoke of a desert
A beach with no treasure
A night that seems blue
Feed the aching in you
And the background birds
Take a flight from the earth
A bonfire burns
And the night current turns
On a lifeboat floating
Down a river of sleep
Can't see her hollow eyes
Walking along with my boots full of rocks
Can't believe these tears of mine
I give 'em to you to keep away in a box
Something always takes the place of missing pieces
You can take and put together even though
You know there's something missing
Something always missing
Always someone missing something
Something always missing
Always someone missing something
Something always missing
Always someone missing something
Something always missing
05 Black Tambourine (02:47)
Black hearts in effigy
We sing the song that was hated
All dressed like vagabonds
Sharks smell the blood that I'm bleedin'
I know there's something wrong
Might take a fire to kill it
Might take a hurricane
Don't know the life that I'm leavin'
Ohh ohh oh black tambourine
Ohh ohh oh black tambourine
My baby run to me
She lives in broken-down buildings
Can't pay the rent again
These spider webs are my home now
And when the sun is down
We'll shake and rattle our bodies
To keep it warm at night
My tambourine is still shaking
Ohh ohh oh black tambourine
Ohh ohh oh black tambourine
Doo doo doo doo
Black hearts in effigy
We sing the song that was hated
All dressed like vagabonds
Sharks smell the blood that I'm bleedin'
I know there's something wrong
Might take a fire to kill it
Might take a hurricane
Don't know the life that I'm leavin'
Black tambourine
Ohh ohh oh black tambourine
06 Earthquake Weather (04:26)
Spaceships can't tame the jungle
And I feel like I'm giving in
We've been driving through a desert
Looking for a life to call our own
I push, I pull
The days go slow
Into a void
We filled with death
A noise that laughs
Falls off their maps
All cured of pain
And doubts in your
Little brain
Something's coming, sky is purple
Dogs are hounding to themselves
Days are changing with the weather
Like a riptide come rip us away
I push, I pull
The days go slow
Into a void
We filled with death
A noise that laughs
Falls off their maps
All cured of pain
And doubts in your
Little brain
I push, I pull
The days go slow
Into a void
We filled with death
A noise that laughs
Falls off thier maps
All cured of pain
And doubts in your
07 Hell Yes (03:17)
Looking for my place on assembly lines
Fake prizes rising out of the bomb holes
Skeleton boys hyped up on purple
Smoke rings blow from across the disco
Bank notes burn like broken equipment
Looking for shelter, readjust your position
Thought control, ghostwritten confessions
Two dimensions, dumb your head down
Duck, don't look now, company missiles
Power is raunchy, rent-a-cops are watching
Make your dreams out of paper mache
Cliched wasted hate taste-tested
Hell yes now I'm moving this way, I'm doing this thing
Please enjoy.
Hell yes now I'm turning it on, I'm working my legs
Hell yes now I'm calling you out, I'm switching my plates
Peace and joy
Hell yes now I'm cleaning the floor, my beat is correct
Stretched to the limit, attention spans snap back
Retract, collapsin' the laugh tracks
Noise response, applause and handclaps
Floodgates open to the sound of the rainbow
Breakin' points on the verge of pointless
Fools anointed to the follower's fanfare
Look for the common, not superficial
Code red Cola War conformity crisis
Perfunctory idols rewriting their bibles
With magic markers running out of their ink
Lives in White Out, turn the lights out
Fax machine anthems, get your damned hands up
Hell yes now I'm moving this way, I'm doing this thing
Please enjoy.
Hell yes. now I'm turning it on, I'm working my legs
Hell yes. now I'm calling you out, I'm switching my plates
Peace and joy.
Hell yes. now I'm cleaning the floor, my beat is correct.
Yes (Hai) Umisei(?)
Yeah, That's it. (repeated)
Umisei sumisei(?)
Yes.
I like your bass.
Yes.
Your beat is nice.
Yes.
Hell yes.
Hai.
Hell Yes.
Hell Yes. (gasp)
Hell Yes.
Yes.
Hai.
08 Broken Drum (04:29)
I see you there
Your long black hair
Your eyes just stare
Your mind is turning
You know I'll laugh
I won't take it back
I've seen your eyes
I know what you're thinking
And one by one
We'll shoot our guns
We'll have fun
Don't ever doubt it
And when I say
"Fare thee well,
My only friend"
Oh how the days go
Oh how the days go
Your setting sun
Your broken drum
Your little drugs
I'll never forget you
I'll never forget you
09 Scarecrow (04:15)
Walking to the other side
With the devil trying to take my mind
And my soul's just a silhouette
On the ashes of a cigarette
Illusions never fake their lives
Trick cards fool the eyes
Carry zeroes over 'til they add up
Bury tears in the chapters you shut
Sometimes the jail can't chain the cell
And the rain's too plain to tell
All alone by a barren well
Scarecrow's only scaring himself
I've been digging the ground
Beneath the dust and the clouds
I see miles and miles
Of junkyard piles
I wanted hope from a grave
I wanted strength from a spade
What gives you comfort now
Might be the end of your vein
Crows are pulling at my clothes
The wind got my fingers froze
Standin' all day, keepin' watch
Over all the treasures we've lost
Sometimes the jail can't chain the cell
And the rain's to plain to tell
All alone by a barren well
The scarecrow's only scaring himself
Oooh ooh ooh
Oooh ooh ooh
Scarecrow's only scaring himself
Scarecrow's only scaring himself
10 Go It Alone (04:08)
I'm coming over
See me down at the station
By the lane
With my hands in my pocket
Jingling a wish coin
That I stole from a fountain
That was drownin'
All the cares in the world
When I get older
Climbing up on the back porch fence
Just to see the dogs runnin'
With a ring and a question
And my shivering voice is singing
Through a crack in the window
Na na na na na, I better go it alone
Na na na na na, I better go it alone
Na na na na na
Down on the corner
See me standing
In a makeshift home
With a dust storm comin'
In a long black shadow
Pull a hammer from a coal mine
Down where your daddy was workin'
Comb my hair back
Strike a match on the bathroom wall
Where my number was written
Driving on the sidewalk
Lookin' back at the sky
It's burning in the rearview mirror
Na na na na na, I better go it alone
Na na na na na, I better go it alone
Na na na na na
Na na na na na na
Na na na na na na
I'm coming over
See you down at the station
By the lane
With my hands in my pocket
Jingling a wish coin
That I stole from a fountain
That was drownin'
All the cares in the world
When I get older
Climbing up on the back fence
Pointing to the dogs standin' firm
With a ring and a question
Dime-a-dozen
In a voice that was singing
Underneath the window
Na na na na na, I better go it alone
Na na na na na, I better go it alone
Na na na na na
I gotta go it alone
Don't go it alone
Doo doo doo doo
I better go it alone
Doo doo doo doo
Na na na na
Na na na na
Doo doo doo doo
11 Farewell Ride (04:18)
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Carrying me to my burying ground
Some need diamonds, some need love
Some need cards, some need luck
Some need dollar bills lining their clothes
All I need is
All I need is
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Taking me for my farewell ride
Some may say this might be your last farewell ride
Some may say this might be your last farewell ride
I don't see the face of kindness
And I don't hear the mission bells
I don't smell the morning roses
All I see is
All I see is
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Carrying me to my burying ground
Some may say this might be your last farewell ride
Some may say this might be your last farewell ride
12 Rental Car (03:06)
Hey now girl, what's the matter with me?
We're on a back road, driving to sea
Straight as a razor, kicking up dust
Digging through ditches and falling to rust
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Hey now girl, at the end of the road
Down where the reaper is walking alone
Singing a death knell, clapping along
At the end of the night there's a road will be gone
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
La la la la la la music
La la la la la la music
La la la la la la music
La la la la la la music
Straight as a razor, kicking up dust
Digging through ditches and falling to rust
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
13 Emergency Exit (04:03)
Heyyy heyyy heyyy heyyy
Fourteen miles away from a landfill grave
Never pawned my watch and chain
To the landlord living inside my head
Never paid my rent 'til the lights went dead
And I saw my sign coming up the road
Dead ditch waitin' for to bury my load
On the avenues in the plain of day
Threw a Roosevelt dime in a bucket of rain
Ohh ohh oh oh
Ohh ohh oh oh
Now hold your hand up to the plow
Work the dirt til the sun goes down
What's left of death is more than fear
Let dust be dust and the good Lord near
It's a little too much to ask of faith
A little too late to wait for fate
So tell the angels what you've seen
Scarecrow's shadow on the Nazarene
Ohh ohh oh oh
Ohh ohh oh oh
Kindness will find you
When darkness is falling round your bend
Kindness will follow
Children will wander 'til the end
14 Send a Message to Her (04:30)
get up son hit you head like a drum
weeds are all grown in vain
too much time I got too much time
living in a waste of space
take yourself don't break yourself
its all gonna be ok
get used to it don't lose your head
its all gonna be the same
she knows send a message to her
she knows get a message to her
kill it dead but don't let it die there's a price sitting on your head
face it down don't turn it around
unless you wanna be where you been
take yourself don't break yourself
its all gonna be ok
get used to it don't lose your head
its all gonna be the same
she knows send a massage to her
she knows get a massage to her
spell out her name in cigarettes and knives tryin to see her
get her a massage on a dirty window tryin to see her
I've been stripping the days off the sidewark and pavement
the walls are all white and we're painting them whiter for the zig zag manline my radio's plastic and I've tasted the fodder of a saccharine ending
day job pay phone one in a trillion and the typecast heathen with the future all rancid
something to believe
something to believe
15 Chain Reaction (03:28)
comin thru the barricades
cuttin the lines
the red lights goin round
like insanity sirens
the end of the galaxy
the middle of the road
where the blackout moons
cut the weather of couls
black engines grind down
teeth are raw the rubber juggernaut
rots in a shattering jaw
helter skelter bulldozers
runnin over the block
where a pawn shop clock
is ticking out like a bomb.
its a chain reaction
like a chain reactor blowing out of my arms
shoot every paranoid phantom
thats done me harm
like a desolate specter in a pummel of fists
kicking against the pricks
burning black like wicks
they spit pig iron,
tell you nothing is wrong
put a heart on a pike
sing a ressurection song
for a paralysed mind in a kerosene jar
barracuda believer with a heathen guitar
apocolyptic nostalgia tokens
dark arts sell sail for antartica oceans
its a chain reaction.
16 Clap Hands (03:21)
I'll clap my hands along, and rattle on like a vagabond
I'll rip my uniform, and bend the floor to the early mornin’
I'll shake your dollar bill, and spend it all before the bombs 'll kill me
I'll save my best for last and after that don't even ask me
Clap hands, that's right
Clap hands, clap hands that's right
Clap hands clap-clap hands
I'll take my broken bell, and make it ring like a million churches
I'll scratch that kind of itch, down in the ditch and switch my plates out
I'll drive to San Francisco, death to disco take my shirt off
I'll swim to Mexico, don't tell the mermaids where I'm goin’
Clap hands, that's right
Clap hands, clap hands that's right
Clap hands clap-clap hands
I'll clap me hands along, and rattle on like a vagabond
I'll rip my uniform, and bend the floor to the early mornin’
I'll shake your dollar bill, and spend it all before the bombs 'll kill me
I'll save my best for last and after that don't even ask me
Clap hands, that's right clap hands, clap hands that's right
clap, clap
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