Beck Finalizing Quasi-Hip-Hop Album



Monday June 26, 2006 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff


http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2006/06/2608.cfm



Beck
A year after his last full-length release, Beck is nearing completion of a new album. The eccentric musician's as yet untitled record, a speedy follow-up to Guero, is expected to arrive in stores this fall via Interscope.
Beck again worked with British producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Travis, Air) on the album. After his recent performance at Bonnaroo, a loose-lipped Beck kindly provided details about the disc to MTV News.


"It's all mastered and the artwork's pretty much done," he said. "Nigel and I did about 40 tracks, and we've worked on it for about two-and-a-half years, getting it down to about 20.


"Now we're trying to squeeze them down even further. I worked on them in tandem [with sessions for Guero], and then at the beginning of this year we got together and finally mixed them and put them together."


For the new album's first video, "Cell Phone's Dead," Beck enlisted the services of Michael Gondry. The veteran director was also responsible for Beck's 1997 video for "Deadweight" from the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack.


Though the track list for the new disc hasn't been finalized, several of the prospective songs have been popping up in Beck's recent live sets, including "Soldier Jane," "Nausea" and "1,000 BPM." There's a good chance that they'll appear on the record, though nothing is certain in Beck's world.


"We're days away from finishing the record, but it's proving very difficult to come up with a track list because each song has its own identity," he said. "Nothing's really obvious.
"Before we started, Nigel said he wanted to do a hip-hop record. And in a way it is, and in a way it isn't. It has hip-hop songs, and my previous work with him was Mutations and Seachange, these sort of introspective records, and so this new one is sort of bringing those two worlds together."


One aspect of the new album that has been decided upon is the artwork, which Beck has been working on for almost a year with an unspecified production company.
"The artwork is laid out in stickers, it's modular, the cover is blank and you get a sheet of stickers and you make your own cover," he said.


Beck is also putting together a 10th anniversary version of his landmark Odelay album. The re-release, which he promises to finish before the end of the year, will likely be a double disc with b-sides and remixes. "There's quite a lot of remixes floating around from that era," he pointed out.


"Aphex Twin did one. Mario C. did some, the Dust Brothers did a bunch of them. So they're going to be on there. 'Deadweight' will be on there."


Though a full tour can be expected in conjunction with the new album, Beck isn't scheduled to come to Canada in the near future. He'll spend part of the summer playing European dates.

__________________

i hope its as good as the last one-guero.the only ones i have from him are guero,odelay,and mellow gold and i really like each of them.his other stuff never really did anything for me singles wise but perhaps the singles on those albums arent the finest example of the album/s.

yay! i cant wait for the new album..