- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Track Listings
| 1. Elevator Music |
| 2. Think I'm In Love |
| 3. Cellphone's Dead |
| 4. Strange Apparition |
| 5. Soldier Jane |
| 6. Nausea |
| 7. New Round |
| 8. Dark Star |
| 9. We Dance Alone |
| 10. No Complaints |
| 11. 1000BPM |
| 12. Motorcade |
| 13. The Information |
| 14. Movie Theme |
| 15. The Horrible Fanfare / Landslide / Exoskeleton |
| 16. Inside Out |
| 17. This Girl That I Know |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Old-school Beck fans rejoice - The Information finds Beck Hansen in goofy mood for the first time since Midnite Vultures, chucking out inspired wisecracks and surrealist couplets like the sombre, acoustic-tinged moods of 2002's Sea Change never happened. Produced by sometime Beck collaborator Nigel Godrich, last seen working on Thom Yorke's The Eraser, The Information is a strange mix of bluesy Americana rootsiness, wonky hip-hop beats and cosmic synthesiser, all wound together in accordance with Beck's fried, futuristic, utterly individual vision. Most importantly, it's enjoyable and instantly accessible. The opening "Elevator Music" recalls the free-wheeling spirit of "Where It's At", all rolling beats, clacking Tropicalia scraper and distant melodica, while the excellent "Cellphone's Dead" imagines "Voodoo curses, Bible tongues/Voices coming from the mangled lungs" atop a track that veers between squelchy hip hop and Screamadelica-style acoustic strum. And sure, it gets weird – see the broiling, funky cyberpunk narrative "1000 BPM" ("Telemarketing people with cellular headsets on their skulls/Selling you wisdom from a plexiglass prism,") or the 12-minute finale "Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton", which ends with a hushed conversation about travelling into space, possibly born of Beck's membership of Hollywood celeb-religion Scientology – but the out-there moments bookend some of Beck's finest, funnest material in years. If you lost him for a bit there, now's time to tune back in. --Louis Pattison
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Back in the day when Odelay was released I'd encountered Beck only from the Loser video I saw intermittently on MTV. Liking this track and having heard a snippet of Devil's haircut, I decided to take a chance on the CD. Now considering all I lived for at that time was pure dance/garage, this was a big step. I remember listening to the album in its entirety and although it was ok I doubted that it would ever feature in my top 50 of all time. Luckily i listened a second time, and a third, and a fourth and found the sonic world of Beck opening up to me. So much so that it's addictive nature has made it one of my favourite discs of all time!! I expected more of the same from midnight vultures but was hugely disappointed. Even Guero didn't scratch that same itch. The information however has taken me back to that special place. Again it's a grower. But what a grower!!! Each track answers the music needs you require and compliments every other track. A masterpiece as good, if not better, than odelay. Free your mind and your ass will follow.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Beck has always proved a bit of an enigma; part post-modern playboy and part wounded troubador and some are not sure which is best. Some would claim the shallow fun of Odelay is his stroke of genius; while others claim Sea Change (the album most claim to be a real bore-their wrong; it's beautiful) to be the one. Well with The Information I belive he's finally done it! And the reason? He's successfully married his weird, funny cool rap style with his sensitive side. The Information is all about our modern times; the confusion, the fear, the craziness is brilliantly captured on an album that will leave you breathless. So we get those crazy indie hipster rap songs of old (Elevator Music, Cellphones Dead) and beautiful heartache songs (the brilliant Soldier Jane and We Dance Alone).
Some of said the 17 tracks is a bit much, but I disagree, there's such a range of styles here you don't have time to get bored. This is a musician realising how to marry up the contrasting musical sides of his nature, as well as telling us about our messed up modern world. This is an album that reflects this time in history; and that makes it very important!
Album of the year; no doubt; possibly album of the decade! I am not kidding; buy it NOW!
Some of said the 17 tracks is a bit much, but I disagree, there's such a range of styles here you don't have time to get bored. This is a musician realising how to marry up the contrasting musical sides of his nature, as well as telling us about our messed up modern world. This is an album that reflects this time in history; and that makes it very important!
Album of the year; no doubt; possibly album of the decade! I am not kidding; buy it NOW!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Never written a review of anything before, but the return to form of America's most consistently interesting songwriter was not something I could leave unheralded. Guero, the album Beck had out only eighteen months ago, was such a major disappointment that I had no real expectations for The Information.
Well, I only bought The Information yesterday evening and I am already giving it a fifth run through, with harmonies, grooves and melodies solidifying in my mind and new sounds, unexpected angles and hidden corners being uncovered with every listen. The songwriting is better and the sound, produced expertly again by Nigel Godrich, is richer and fuller.
Beck is back, thank God(rich)!
Well, I only bought The Information yesterday evening and I am already giving it a fifth run through, with harmonies, grooves and melodies solidifying in my mind and new sounds, unexpected angles and hidden corners being uncovered with every listen. The songwriting is better and the sound, produced expertly again by Nigel Godrich, is richer and fuller.
Beck is back, thank God(rich)!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Strange Apparitions
I'll keep this brief... I've been a Beck fan since the off (well, since "Loser" anyway) & followed his career very closely until the maudlin Sea Change. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rooksby
One Track Off Another Masterpiece
Just how good is Beck? He is just not capable of producing a bad album and I have them all. This is the last one I bought from his back catalouge. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. S. Morris
More Beck brilliance
If you are unfamiliar with the work of Beck, then please, read this. I was just checking out the top Beck downloads and unsurprisingly number one was 'Loser', followed by some... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. M. L. Hawes
Beck for Beginners
As a huge Beck fan, this is the album I always recommend to people who say "Beck? Heard of him, but don't really know/get his stuff". Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2010 by Rosey Lea
I'm disappointed.
It pains me to give a Beck album such a low rating, but for me this album is as featureless as the blank graph paper cover it comes in. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2008 by Neil
Bog standard Beck
Whenever Beck releases a great album you can guarantee that the follow up will be a real clunker, and The Information is no exception. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2008 by Grev
Beck is a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, wrapped inside a devil's...
At the end of "Brazil", Robert De Niro's character, Harry Tuttle disappears. Tuttle is caught inside a windstorm, absorbed, and eaten by stray paper. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2007 by Mr. M. A. Reed
Beck has made his masterpiece
I am furious with some of the weak, bad, mediocre reviews for this album in music magazines etc. This is his best, most complete album to date. He is a genuis. Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2007 by Jon Patrick
Beck at his best
Unless you are a die-hard fan, of which I suspect there are many, Beck's prolific career seems to slip in and out of my musical radar. Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2007 by Demob Happy
beck is back to best!
Beck is back and with a vengeance, he has always had the tendency to blow us away with great songs and albums; Odelay & Midnite Vultures but then drop below the radar with efforts... Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2006 by R. Barnes
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
