Disco!graphy: Beck, Part 1

Disco!graphy is a regular feature that catches up with bands by exploring their entire full-length output.

On today's mix...
Banjo Story (1988)
Golden Feelings (1993)

Beck's eighth major label album, Modern Guilt, is out this week, and from what I've listened to, it's one of the best of his career--though, given his consistency, the critical consensus hasn't branded it a special event. Of course, every time I hear a new Beck album, I think it's a career best, so I figured now might be the time to look back and assess his rich discography to see how an album like Modern Guilt fits into the picture.

If you include all his unofficial, pre-Mellow Gold releases, Beck's musical output gets rather sprawling--Wikipedia lists eight bootlegs between 1991 and 1993, and that's excluding Golden Feelings. So in the interests of conserving time, effort, and general interest, Banjo Story is the only bootleg I'm going to assess here. Recorded when he was still a teenager, Banjo Story is distinctly the Beck who went on to make albums like Midnite Vultures--the Beck who's comfortable reveling in any genre, even as he skewers it. The target here is folk, and hearing young Beck Hansen spinning a freestyle narrative in the classic structure of a song like "Detonate" might recall early Bob Dylan were the narrative not about how he has "all kinds of devices I'm gonna detonate" and how he's used them to kill his boss and "every pop star in the top-twenty charts". Similarly the opener, which has Beck declaring that they should "moon some cars", "steal some beer", and "shoot some pigs", positions Banjo Story as a distinctly anti-folk album--apparently there's a whole movement. But even if the tracks here sink into parody as often as they rise above it, there's a lot to love: it's fun to hear Beck's stream of consciousness lyrics, something he'd prove particularly gifted at with "Loser" and Odelay. Further, songs like "Goin' Nowhere Fast" and "Woe" do a lot to indicate that Beck's songwriting gifts were intact from a pretty young age. Banjo Story is ultimately something of a novelty, but it's an interesting, never dull one, giving the listener a fun look at Beck's talent and persona six years before it emerged fully-formed with Mellow Gold.

1993's Golden Feelings is Beck's first official full-length, though it might not get that distinction were it not remastered and (very briefly) re-released on CD after Beck became a major-label star. Like Banjo Story, Golden Feelings indicates Beck's immense talent more in bits and pieces than in full-form, with Beck revealing his more experimental nature here. Other than the anomalous epic "Heartland Feeling"--a track that follows the logical progession of Banjo Story, though the target this time is John Mellencamp--there are few full-fledged songs on Golden Feelings to speak of; but it doesn't make this bizarre mess any less intriguing. For the most part, the album sees Beck having a field day at the studio, packing each track with a lot of vocal experimentation, distortion, layers, and good humor. At seventeen tracks, it does all start to bleed together, making Golden Feelings a little tedious if consumed whole; but taken in pieces, the results are rough, infectious fun. Worth tracking down for Beck fans.

Banjo Story: 6/10
Golden Feelings: 7/10