Chimpomatic

Beck

Modern Guilt

XL/Interscope

Beck teams up with Danger Mouse for his most satisfying album for a while. Much less jokey and random, Modern Guilt is like looking through a digital kaleidescope at the 60s; nostalgic, but not lost in that preserve-the-Beatle-dust sensibility you get in a lot of retro projects. Think Caribou with some tunes.

Ten tight songs of densely-packed psychedelia, upbeat Stax rhythms and fuzzbox guitars that all wraps up at a very compact 30 minutes (why is it that the dawn of the "compact disc" ushered in the age of the anything-but compact album?). This is a set of songs so short you immediately want to play the whole thing again; when was the last time you felt like that?

Single Chemtrails is a dreamy ode to planes with some great drum-fills, Gamma Ray grooves along at a dancey pace and album closer Volcano brings things to a finish with a melancholy dusting-off of some of Beck's trademark questioning: "I don't know if it's my illusions that keep me alive."

Danger Mouse seems to be having a busy time at the moment - Gnarls Barkley came back, and he's also been behind the desk for the Shortwave Set, The Good, The Bad and The Queen and Martina Topley Bird's new one The Blue God. He's obviously on a roll, but the work rate hasn't taken its toll.

If you haven't taken the Beck train for a while, this is a short ride worth hopping back on board for.

#Music
#chimp71

8th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

So Divided

Interscope

...Or as CSF quipped 'You will know us by our really long name' and to be completely honest, that was all I really knew about them. Of course, I knew of them - a name like that doesn't erase quickly - but I mostly remember them for the one, very Sonic Youth-ish track; Mistakes and Regrets and the hectic video that went with it. After that, I mentally labelled them art/prog rock (ie. 'difficult') and filed them alongside the likes of The Mars Volta.

So, when the new album arrives and the first thing I hear is a church bell on Intro: A Song of Fire and Wine, it's a case of rolled eyes and "Here we go again!" But then track 2, Stand in Silence, bursts through the speakers and I apologise. This is one of the best tunes I've heard this year. Admittedly, I am a sucker for a meaty riff, and this one is a beauty, but to get from said riff, into a military type fanfare that wouldn't be out of place over the final scene of Top Gun and then back again: it's a tip of the hat to you guys (who we will know…)

The band then seem intent on keeping the listener guessing what is round each corner, so much so that So Divided could simply have taken it's title from the range of music within. Wasted State of Mind begins with Indian drums and ends with French Accordian, Naked Sun is a 70s blues rock/groove with rousing brass section. Gold Heart Mountain Top Queen Directory is a note perfect cover (if slightly slicker) from the mighty Guided By Voices album, Bee Thousand. Eight Day Hell is all joyously upbeat a la The Polyphonic Spree - who I find too saccharine, but in isolation one song works well here.

All this leaping around does indeed leave the record slightly divided and lacking in a clear vision. However, this can also work to it's advantage, as there is something for everyone here. All the songs are written with intelligence and performed with mucho passion so that, like the seasonal selection boxes soon to appear on supermarket shelf: you may well have your favourites (more track 2 please) but once in a while you can gorge on anything - and when the quality is this good you welcome the change.

#Music
#chimpovich

6th Nov 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet