⌈¤⌉ Hodně z areálu muzea — shluk budov, které jsou promíchány s venkovními nádvoří — bylo zbořeno začátkem roku 2020, aby se vytvořila souvislá struktura. Beck, kterému je čtyřicet devět, se cítil vágně nostalgický ohledně místa. Než zmizí, chtěl si pořídit několik fotografií interiéru (mosazné hodiny z poloviny století u výtahů, oblázkové betonové podlahy). Zastavil se před úsekem opotřebovaného dubového obložení. „V poslední době jsem pořizoval spoustu fotografií takových věcí,“ řekl. „Rozloučit se s minulostí. Vytváření cesty pro to nové.“
⇒ Ačkoli kritici více upřednostňují Beckovu ponurejší práci, on sám shledává radostné skládat těžší písně, když píše: „Jak uděláte něco levitujícího?“ Photograph by David Benjamin Sherry for The New Yorker
⌈¤⌉ For all his humor, Beck is consistently thoughtful and earnest in building his checkered monuments.
EDITORS’ NOTES
⌈¤⌉ Digging into Beck’s dense catalog gives you the opportunity to revel in his talents as a sonic chameleon. No genre goes untouched — “Bottle of Blues” is cosmic cowboy music laced with reverb~stained pedal steel, while “Timebomb” is fuzzy, throbbing club rock kissed with a sense of mischief. “Let’s Get Lost,” his duet with Bat for Lashes, is baroque electro~pop tethered to a bassy rumble.
Birth name: Bek David Campbell
Born: July 8, 1970, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Instruments: Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, harmonica, percussion, sitar, banjo, slide guitar, twelve~string guitar, glockenspiel, vocoder, kalimba, melodica, beatboxin
Location: LA/CA
Album release: March 2020
Record Label: Fonograf Records / Capitol Records
Duration: 66:47
Tracks:
01. Bottle Of Blues 4:54
02. Lord Only Knows 4:15
03. Que’ Onda Guero 3:29
04. Looking For A Sign 3:38
05. Timebomb 2:49
06. Diamond Dogs 4:34
07. Ramona 4:21
08. Wave 3:40
09. I Just Started Hating Some People Today 5:08
10. One Foot In The Grave 3:18
11. Tarantula 3:47
12. Gimme 2:26
13. Fuckin With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) 3:39
14. We Live Again 3:03
15. Defriended 3:45
16. Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime 5:51
17. Let’s Get Lost (Feat. Bat For Lashes) 4:10
⌈¤⌉ Nahlédnutí do Beckova hustého katalogu vám dává příležitost těšit se z jeho talentu jako zvukový chameleon. Žádný žánr zůstane nedotčen — „Bottle of Blues“ je kosmická kovbojská hudba s reverb~pedal sttelkou, zatímco „Timebomb“ je nejasný, pulzující klubový rock políbený pocitem uličnictví. „Let’s Get Lost“ je jeho duet s Bat for Lashes barokním elektro~popem připoutaným k bláznivému rachotění.
⌈¤⌉ Beck’s breakout hit, “Loser,” represented the sound of the nation’s youth wearing their slackerdom as a badge of honor. It’s a rather dubious fate for the workmanlike track, considering that if Gen X ever “had” a sound, it was the slow, snarling grunge roiling out of the Pacific Northwest, a genre far too self~possessed and clumsily aggressive to match the decidedly goofy appeal of Beck’s patchwork style. If anything, “Loser” was a middle finger to the self~serious headbangers, Beck’s own shrug at the angsty masses before ignoring them altogether and staking his career on offbeat lonerism.
⌈¤⌉ The lonesomeness that results from possessing such an individualist streak is explored rather profoundly on albums like Sea Change and Morning Phase, but regardless of the personal costs, he’s become a folk hero, having built his legacy on championing near~forgotten strains of Americana at every turn. Constructing a list of his best tracks can thus be likened to assembling a mosaic pieced together from several generations of music. The songs themselves aren’t simply attention~starved amalgams strung together randomly though: For all his humor, Beck is consistently thoughtful and earnest in building his checkered monuments, empathetic to the point where his creations often cease to be facsimiles at all, but heartfelt creations born from the same cultural conscious that inspired them. You can’t write if you can’t relate, indeed. Kevin Liedel
⌈¤⌉ “Although critics favor Beck’s darker work, he finds joyful songs harder to write: “How do you make something levitate?” Photograph by David Benjamin Sherry for The New Yorker
By Amanda Petrusich, November 25, 2019: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/02/beck-is-home
Website: https://www.beck.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beck
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Beck