Beck is all about using available resources; the early fan was often treated to some interpretive leaf blowing followed by flaming acoustic guitar jams. But this is the 21st century, with iPods and downloading, YouTube and Photoshop version eight-million-point-oh. Beck has taken it upon himself to use these new tools of technology to give us The Information.
Not only does the regularly-sized jewel case contain an album, it also holds a DVD with a music video for every song on the release. And you get stickers. Who doesn't love stickers? The idea is you can create your own cover, kind of like a visual Choose-Your-Own Adventure novel. This slightly confused reporter was also handed yet another disc by the cashier at Plan9 with a single that didn't quite make it on the 15-song album.
For the price of one LP, The Information just keeps coming. It's all part of what Beck calls "The Infinite Album," a concept that expands the traditional view of how music is released. That's why he's also in the process of making actual music videos, á la MTV, in addition to the ones found on The Information DVD; his U.S. release of the official video for "Cell Phone's Dead," directed by Michel Gondry, follows the album by about a week.
Appropriately, The Information continues all the way to Beck.com, where fans can find more songs and videos that didn't make it into stores.
On paper, the album looks great: production by Nigel Goodrich (of Radiohead's OK Computer and Beck's 1998 Grammy-winning Mutations) and the same studio musicians who helped Beck record all his critically acclaimed albums of the 90s, including the seminal Odelay.
In reality, The Information is a solid release, but it's not a good Beck album. You get a lot of low-fi videos featuring ballerinas, his family members, tight pants and men carrying giant combs but nothing that's "Where It's At."
Could it be that Beck was ruined by Scientology? Since he recently fell under the thrall of the Xenu, the alien ruler of the Galactic Confederacy, he's been detached (see last year's Guero). This detachment is evident on most of the The Information tracks that involve his version of rapping, which worked in the past because he filled each phrase with some kind of unique emotion. In this LP words often fall out of his lips like he just wants to get rid of them.
Discounting the emotion factor, however, the instrumentation and execution is tight. Beck upholds the mix-tape aesthetic of cut and paste sampling that he is famous for having pioneered. Track two, "I Think I'm in Love," features a snappy bass line (thanks in part to multi-Beck album veteran Justin Meldal-Johnson) layered with piano, various synthesizer lines and strings arranged by Beck's father, David Campbell.
"I Think I'm In Love" and "Strange Apparition" come the closest to the bar Beck set in past releases, as the only two tracks with enough texture and color to stand out on first listen. "Strange Apparition" also offers some of the most accessible lyrics on the album, supporting the LP's theme of disenchantment in a culture of wealth and technology. "Lord, please don't forsake me / in my Mercedes-Benz / all the riches and the ruins / now we all know how that story ends." Other tracks sustain the theme with titles like "Cell Phone's Dead," "Nausea" and "Elevator Music."
With some patience, listeners can begin to notice the subtle intricacies hidden in the lyrics and compositions of the other 13 tracks. But the running commentary on the over-saturation of our culture is a bit ironic. Beck should take his own advice: go for quality over quantity and avoid Information overload.
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