Beck, always one to throw a change-up, slips into the cracks and becomes glorified in the public’s eye as the pop-culture-cuisenart-cum-disco-soul-jester.
Soaked in an ambience as warm as an old tube amp, Mutations knocks off seamless collages of organic source material with his trademark nonsense-as-wit.
If you want the ’70s with a ’90s upgrade, opt for Foreskin 500. If you want some ’90s bands doing ’70s music, think Big Chief and Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver.
Retreat From the Sun is full of happy and sad pop songs about waiting for phone calls, crying, kissing, pinching cheeks, and carving initials in trees.
Fanatics and followers of grrrl grrroups like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile need to know that their sound and style was mothered by England’s The Raincoats.
The goose-pimple sing-alongs of albums past are still there, but now they’re supporting such sentiments as “big birds flying overhead/ who gives a shit?”
Astoundingly deft – no matter what mongrel genre catches his eye or what babble-of-the-gods trope trips off his lip, he always keeps one foot in the groove.