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Beck | Beck

Boy Wonder Beck's B-side collection
CD, beck.com

Tekst: Martÿn ter Haar

Publicatiedatum: 15 maart 2001

Whatever you think of Beck, you can't say he's lazy. Almost each single he releases contains one or more new tracks, and he's more than willing to contribute to soundtracks and compilations. And often these are great tracks. So a compilation of 'Midnite Vultures' B-sides is a good idea, especially when it only costs US $10. The execution, however, is so-so. The album is only available via beck.com, which means (especially for non-US fans) you have to add a few dollars shipping and handling costs. And the packaging is minimal: The CD comes in a white cardboard sleeve, with the same logo as on 'Midnite Vultures' printed on one side and the track listing and a number on the other. I find the numbering cheesy ("Each copy comes in its own individually numbered sleeve! Buy now and get your own exclusive copy now!"), but I guess there are lots of people who'll like this sort of thing. Then the tracks themselves. 'Arabian Nights', 'Dirty Dirty', and 'Salt In The Wound' are similar in style and quality to the 'Midnite Vultures' album tracks, with the first two freak funk a la 'Get Real Paid' and 'Hollywood Freaks' and the third more guitar-based, like 'Broken Train'. 'Midnite Vultures' (the song) sounds like Fun Lovin' Criminals at their most relaxed. The completely insane electro of Beck keyboardist and Moog Cookbook mastermind Roger Manning's Malibu remix of 'Sexx Laws' concludes the five good tracks. The four bad ones are a Flash video of the album version of 'Nicotine and Gravy' (only for Windows and Mac, not for Linux), which is actually alright, but which you are going to watch only once or twice. 'Zatyricon' is an annoying novelty track consisting of a phone conversation about body manipulation, backed by electro bleeps. More annoying novelty comes in the form of the gabber-remix of 'Mixed Bizzness' by Socket 7, one of the two winners of a remix contest. Gabber was never my favourite genre, but this track is five years late and has extremely little to do with the original. The Latin mix of the same song by Scatter-Shot Theory, the other winner, is better, but doesn't add anything to the original. And all that while remixes of the same song by Les Rhytmes Digitales and Cornelius somehow didn't make the cut, making this compilation mixed bizness.