Beck biography

Quickly, the major labels were vying for Beck's signature. He eventually signed for Geffen Records after label owner David Geffen gave him the unprecedented option of recording material for other companies should he wish. Beck's major label debut album, Mellow Gold, was released in March 1994, only one of three albums he recorded that year. The second, Stereo Pathetic Soul Manure, a lo-fi noise rock affair, appeared on LA's Flipside independent, and the third, One Foot In The Grave, a stark acostic folk collection emerged on K Records.

While not a runaway success, Mellow Gold, with its lo-fi synthesis of Dylanesque folk, blues and stoner hip hop on Nitemare Hippy Girl and Pay No Mind, undoubtedly heralded the arrival of a major talent.

It was his follow up album in 1996 that would win Beck the plaudits. Odelay was an outstanding record of multiple layers spawning five hit singles including Where It's At and a Noel Gallagher remix of Devil's Haircut. Produced by the Dust Brothers who'd worked with the Beastie Boys on the groundbreaking Paul's Boutique, the record featured layers of samples, distortion and musical wig-outs. The album was a visceral trawl through fuzzy psychedelia and crazy beat-box, noodly guitar breaks. The album reaped numerous Album Of The Year awards in the music press, was nominated for a Grammy and sold over 3m copies worldwide, firmly establishing Beck as a counter cultural icon. It was impossible not to get caught up in the rump-shakin', sax-filled, handclappin' pleasures of Where It's At or The New Pollution.

Beck exorcised his acoustic demons with his next album Mutations, an unofficial follow up which was only intended as a stop-gap until his next album proper. Devoid of sampling, hip hop beats and wacky leftfield observational lyrics, and produced by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Mutations was a quiet, gently trippy, and relatively straightforward record - from the solemn waltz of We Live Again to the Tom Waits-like O Maria and the bossa nova based Tropicalia. The album served to establish Beck as a complete pop maverick, more unwieldy and uncompromised than ever before.

Beck's official follow up to Odelay took over 14 months to record. Released in November 1999, Midnite Vultures was a disco-rific party album. In place of folk and slide guitar tinges it was an orgy of funk beats, blaring horns and Beck singing in a Princely falsetto. Millennial Motown if you like. The swinging single Sexx Laws even featured a complementary banjo while tracks like Pressure Zone took you back to the 70s funk of Studio 54. Beck himself said he was leaving irony behind on this album and wanted to reach "something that was true." Despite the album%u2019s comparitvely poor commercial success Beck spent the next few tears touring the album.

If Midnite Vultures was an irony free party record, his next album seemed unremittingly sincere. Again teaming up with producer Nigel Goodrich, 2002's Sea Changes was a set of introspective, acoustic based material, written in the aftermath of a breakdown of a love affair. Each song is infused with melancholy, tender acoustic strumming and lucid, melodic vocals. While songs like The Golden Age, Lost Cause and It's All In Your Mind are some of the most beautiful things Beck has ever recorded, the album seemed to be drowning in a soup of string arrangements and self-pity. Beck's newfound solemnity seemed to puzzle the critics who had him tagged as an arch, knowing, fun-loving, post modern hipster.

But now Beck has his singer-songwriter phase out of his system what will the pop maverick do next? His new album, Guero, is expected out at the end of March 2005. With tracks like Hell Yes, referencing '80s Kraftwerk style electro pop, the album promises to take the usual, sharp left turn.

Discography