innerviews_paste_beck_sea_change frAnk "we're holding on to nothing, to see how long nothing lasts." from paper tiger a far cry from, "nightbirds will cackle, rotting like apples on trees, sending their dead melodies to me." from mutations (dead melodies) just wondering if you bought sea change yet and what you thought... folk-country? wilco-like? blue period lyrics barely rising above undergraduate poetry quarterlies? sincere? introspectic? a shocking departure? also, there is a very good interview with him in blackbook magazine that you should check out. it's fascinating to discover where he came from and what his inspirations were. so, beck's mother is a performance artist that shares the stage with a transvestite? 020923 ... (not here sorry) you think That's a departure... try "satan gave me a taco" 020923 ... paste! heya frAnk i haven't bought a cd in a long time, because i am po', but i did get a chance to download it (yeah, i'm guilty, i haven't been financially supporting musicians unless it's for a show). sea change hasn't represented a departure to me. now, mutations was surprising. beck's always had a certain melancholy, a heartbreaky side; you could see it way back in some of mellow gold and even songs like 'girl dreams' on the ancient one foot in the grave. it's silly how critics have been saying things like "beck's really depressed on his new album" and such. i guess his most common recognition has been of the zany experimentalist, funky genre hopper and cooky pastiche expert but underlying that i think he's always been bummed and it's good that he finally put this album out. as far as equating lyrics to words-meant-to-be-read, it's uncomparable. lyrics have an accomplice in vocals and toons that make it, to me at least, a completely different expression. (i think it's difficult to compare full-time writer/poets to full-time songwriter/musicians. the specialists just have too much of an advantage. even brilliant mind musicians have to spend time on sound constructs, vocals, harmonies, rhthym, this and that whereas writers solely have the language to themselves. yet, that's a completely ridiculous statement. that's like saying a highly skill-balanced, intuitive handyman is automatically worse at carpentry than someone who's been doing it solely and twenty years longer.) shucks, sometimes i don't even pay attention to lyrics. but beck is different, bowie is different, dylan, bright eyes, vu, silver jews, some others it's different. i like tones mostly. and beck's b-sides and rarities are just as good as anything put on a full length. 'cold ass fashion' and 'steve threw up' rock the house. "it's like forty pounds of avocado sauce smeared across your boss know what i'm sayin' you don't when it's comin' know what i'm sayin' it's like forty five horses running through the graveyard...with yellow pants, now that's cold." vs. "how could this love, ever changing, ever change the way i feel" you could say he's changed his emphasis. funny you brought up wilco. summer teeth and yankee hotel foxtrot have been fillin' my ears alot lately. how bout your ears? 020923 ... frAnk ash tom waits the reindeer section amelie soundtrack 020924 what's it to you? who go blather from