Customer Reviews

Mutations

5 star:		(153)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Not Beck's best album. Sounds too much like the Beatles, the Mama's and the Papa's, etc. However, there are a few songs on there that sound more original, i.e., Cancelled Check, etc. I feel his best work is on Odelay.

Why didn't he get here sooner? Odelay and Mellow Gold are good albums but could have been much better had he ditched the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, additive heavy production. This is where he really shows his colours for me.

I read someone else's review--"music to go to sleep to." What an underhanded comment! I think the reviewer meant it well, but I can't agree. The aptly titled MUTATIONS is a collection of songs, each showcasing a different genre of traditional euro-american music (or personal influence), altered or mutated by Beck here in the modern day. Many think this is his least cohesive effort, but I believe it is a collection of very different songs, all held together by a truly giffted performer. Call it a collage--an attempt by Beck to introduce you to each of his musical influences (with a little of that patented "Beck" twist). One thing missing from this mellow output that we saw on STEREOPATHETIC and ONE FOOT--the production quality of this CD is excellent. I almost miss the raw quality of his earlier "folk" sounding recordings. Evrything here is clean and polished. And once again, he astonishes me with incredibly insightful lyrics. Ther are a few weak tracks on this CD, but the good ones are by far his best recordings to date ("Cancelled Check," "Bottle O Blues," "Diamond Bollocks," "Tropicalia," "Nobody's Fault But My Own"). Songs that can make you laugh, then cry in the same breath. Truly amazing.

Most wouldn't call this one Beck's best album, but it's my personal favourite by Beck. The songs are generally laid-back although there's too much going on in them (and they're just too good) to be considered background music or easy listening. "Nobody's Fault But My Own" in particular is one of Beck's best, most moving songs (at least for someone who can relate to it). It's sooo dreamy, with exotic instruments such as sitar enhancing the mood.

Above all, this is an art album, Beck's forte, and Beck's typically off-the-wall imagery goes hand in hand with his pastiche of crazy sounds and styles. I won't gush about every song, but they're all great. Even the Bossa Nova "Tropicalia," my least favourite, is irrepressible.

Beck's lyrics are ambiguous enough to leave the songs open to wide interpretation, yet they're still so moving, like the delicate "Dead Melodies." Also worth noting is the unlisted bonus cut (whatever it's called). It's almost a conglomeration of everything he's done in the past. The only song that rocks on MUTATIONS, it rocks in a quintessential alt-rock fashion. At the same time, it's loaded with all kinds of musical noises including a Butthole Surfers' style "birdy interlude" and more transformations than you can wrap your mind around with one listen . . . (note to self: Beck is a genius!)

Highly recommended.

Length - 49:12
Conventional has never been in Beck's vocabulary, and I'm so glad it's not. You could talk about all the influences you want, but Mutations is a complete aberration. The idiosyncracies are abounding, and Beck is in as good of form on this album as on any other. Beck is like the Harry Houdini of the music world. Coming up with brilliant, other-worldly lyrics is one thing. Being able to match them with beautiful, unnerving melodies, that is truely magic. There are a few tracks I could take or leave, but overall, this is a really good record. My favorite tracks include the wistful Bottle of Blues, the intangible Tropicalia and the sweet country-inflected ballad, Sing It Again. I'd like to say for fans of ..(insert genre), get Mutations, but this album destroys the concept of genre, and in it's absence, a wonderful mutation is born.

This is Becks best work. It may not be his catchiest or most popular but musically, it stands above the rest of his stuff. One only has think back to the awfull 'Steropathetic Soul Manure' to realize how far this guy has come. He puts the 'M' in melancholy with 'Nobodies fault but my own'. The rest of the offerings are somewhat more upbeat with standouts being 'cold brains' 'Lazy Flies' and 'Bottle of Blues'. This is mostly an acoustic set and thus may dissapoint some of his more narrowminded fans who think 'Loser' and 'Where its at' are the Pinacles of Beck's musical talents. For the rest, mutations is sure to please and open some eyes.

Beck puts a lot of emotion into his music, tuning down the fast pace of his other songs. New fans might not like this album as much. Stick with Odelay or Mellow Gold if you've just been introduced to this brilliant man.

The perfect music to sleep to.

Mutations is the epitome of a great album. From beginning to end, it flows with one haunting song after another, an ideal example of an album not to download and randomly assemble. Its strength is in its power as one cohesive musical experience, connected by a sad-eyed mood present in the production and the songs themselves. The tone evokes the kind of desolate beauty one might find in junkyards or the squalor after a tornado. The sonic plushness ironically heightens the bleakness. Beck incorporates a variety of diverse instruments, including trombone, harpsichord, banjo, and sitar, which allow the songs' 'dead melodies' to resonate. "Tropicolia"'s deep subversiveness is intensified by the cheesy sounding horn section, a commentator that perfectly assesses this tourist trip to a landfill.

The production would have no meaning if it weren't built on phenomenal songwriting. As a lyricist, Beck is highly capable of writing silly lyrics- as one listen to the chorus of "Nicotine and Gravy" from his later Midnight Vultures album affirms. But in Mutations, Beck allows interesting truths to bloom. "Treated you like a rusty blade, a throwaway from an open grave; cut you loose from a chain gang and let you go" he sings on "Nobody's Fault But My Own," arguably the best song on the album. Beck has never sounded so vulnerable and lyrically on-top of things. He's also one of the few artists who writes wholly unique music. His melodes are distinctly Beck. The tragic prettiness of "Dead Melodies" and the bridge of "We Live Again" climax Beck's songwriting ingenuousness and originality. They send chills don't your spine because you've never heard anything like them.

Listening to Mutations is a highly gratifying musical experience for me. The deft originality and musical skill with which it was made is uncanny, and leaves a breathless mark on your emotions and brain. Very few music released nowadays can do that (in any genre, not just pop music). In that respect, Mutations reminds me why I love music in the first place.

Before this album,I was impressed with Beck's music.But I never bought it(with the exception of the LOSER single of course).Then fate had me not return my selection-of-the-month card and I heard the bravest piece of music since Springsteen's NEBRASKA.
It may have been a stop-gap to MIDNIGHT VULTURES(which I won't return my card again)but MUTATIONS is a quirky,yet haunting work that only sound even better with every listen.I've since bought his other major label albums,and curse myself from what I've missed out on.Beck is probably one of the most daring artist out there,and he serves as a lesson for todays overrated,overbloated acts.As Prince once said"give the public what it needs,not what it wants.

Mutations picks up were odelay ends . even though vultures was released after odelay.Again another great cd.if u liked odelay get this cd before sea change or midnite vultures. beck clearly the most unique artist since cobain. can`t wait for the new one.