Track Listing

1. Cold Brains
2. Nobody's Fault But My Own - Beck, Beck Hansen, David Campbell, Nigel Godrich
3. Lazy Flies
4. Canceled Check
5. We Live Again - Beck, Beck Hansen, David Campbell, Nigel Godrich
6. Tropicalia
7. Dead Melodies
8. Bottle Of Blues
9. O Maria
10. Sing It Again
11. Static
12. Diamond Bollocks
13. Runners Dial Zero

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8784 in Music
• Released on: 2002-12-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 52 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
On his 1996 breakthrough album, Odelay, Beck Hansen surprised a sleepy music community by blending funk, rock, rap, alternative, and electronica in ways that were both startlingly innovative and irresistibly catchy. Mutations is equally attention-grabbing but not in the gangbusters-pimp-rock-meets-indie-geek style you might expect. Reflective and plaintive, the album reveals Beck's more sentimental side with an eclectic collection of acoustic-based songs that will sound familiar to anyone who cherishes his indie-rock effort One Foot in the Grave. And don't think just because Beck's gone soft, he's become boring. From one song to the next, the chameleonic guru strums pensively, shimmies to a bossa nova rhythm, swirls on a psychedelic cloud, plucks Baroque strains from a harpsichord, and weeps countrified tears into a rusty tin bucket. On Mutations, Beck proves that an undistorted guitar and a bit of creativity can easily sound as exciting as two turntables and a microphone. --Jon Wiederhorn

CD Description
With ODELAY, Beck's second helping of sampladelic, hip-hop inflected alt-pop, Beck took his white-kid-with-a-sampler schtick as far as it could go (which in his capable hands, wasfarther than anyone else could have taken it). An artist ofcommendable taste and natural instinct, he followed it up by going the only route possible--straight-ahead singer/songwriter pop/rock. That's not to say this genre-hopper doesn't take a few interesting left turns, as on the Brazilian-flavoured "Tropicalia", but gone are the hip-hop beats, sampled backdrops and semi-raps of the past. In their place are solid, inventive, pop/rock arrangements played by Beck's regular touring band.
And the irrepressible Mr. Hansen inserts more melody into the songs here than anyone would have thoughtlikely; he's just plain singing more. Though there's no lack of humor inherent in MUTATIONS, Beck's dropped the off-handed jokiness of his previous work as well, coming as close to earnestness as a postmodernist like him can. The amazing thing (and the testament to his enduring artistic worth) is that he pulls it off so well. In its own way, MUTATIONS is every bit as rewarding as MELLOW GOLD or ODELAY.

Customer Reviews

Beck to basics (sorry)
The LP that saw Beck mutate back from a funky jackass whiteboy hipster with two turntables and a microphone into a rather sombre countrified folkie. This is a wonderfully performed set of rootsy songs, albeit still with a wilful eclecticism evident (as on the latino-esque Lazy Flies and Tropicalia) and still featuring head-scratching lyrics.

The oddest thing, though, about Mutations is that Beck was at pains to declare it a 'stop-gap' release, when it stands by itself as possibly his finest body of work...but such is the contrary way of the boy Hansen. You've got to love him.

Beck shows his true colours
I never had much time for Beck. I found Mellow Gold to be an unfocused, sprawling mess and after initial enthusiasm, the smart-alec aspects of Odelay left me cold. A gifted songwriter, but one that needed to find his true sound. Then he released Mutations, supposedly a collection of demos, and it has redefined him in my eyes as some kind of cosmic country cowboy, mixing beats and breaks with acoustic guitars and his uniquely jaded, mournful voice.

Cold Brains is better than anything from the patchy Odelay album, while Beck's sorrowful laments (Nobody's fault but my own, We live again, O Maria) are beautifully conceived and delivered ballads. Even the up-tempo tracks such as Cancelled Check and Tropicalia are played in a similar style that owes equal debts to the alternative country movement and the psychedelic rock period of the late 1960s. Sitars and flutes drone in the background - there's even a marimba on a couple of the tracks - but the influences gel together perfectly into a unique and consistent musical blend that suits his vocal style and songs perfectly.

I'd rate this as Beck's best album, though Sea Change is equally good if bleaker and a little less experimental. If you want to see what the fuss is about, or if you were put off by his hit and miss studio albums, give this a try and you may see things very differently.

One for all the family
Ok how do you follow a ground-breaking album like 'Odelay' wellyou hit us with your surprise punch? We are all expecting the same kind of quirkiness that has become his trademark. Beck this time around gives us a mellower album that we could listen to with our parents. He opens up with 'Cold Brains' which is a great little number that has you singing the chorus on your first listen. This is a relaxed Beck who wants us to hear what be is saying as he struts his songs along some psychedelic music. Most of the songs on the album are going to make you tap your toes but never get you on a dance floor. There is some big country; folk influence such as on 'Lazy Flies' and 'Canceled Check' which you can picture him playing at some truck stop in America somewhere. But in true Beck fashion he never disappoints. There are some great surprises in store for you on this album. Watch out for 'Tropicalia' which was the single off the album.