Mutations

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Artist: Beck
Label: Universal Music Group
Category: Music

List Price: ~~CDN$ 16.99~~
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

213 reviews
Sales Rank: 9164

Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5

MPN: 25309
UPC: 720642530924
EAN: 7206425309244
ASIN: B00000DHYK

Release Date: November 3, 1998
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New and Sealed.

Tracks:

•	Cold Brains
•	Nobody's Fault But My Own
•	Lazy Flies
•	Canceled Check
•	We Live Again
•	Tropicalia
•	Dead Melodies
•	Bottle of Blues
•	O Maria
•	Sing It Again
•	Static/Diamond Bollocks (hidden track)

Similar Items:

•	Sea Change
•	Mellow Gold
•	Modern Guilt
•	Odelay
•	Third

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com essential recording
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 gotten 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

It's unfortunate how much attention has been paid to how this album was recorded--quickly, without the same level of studio fuss that marked Beck's breakthrough album, Odelay. That's a shame because our favorite chameleon has pulled the neatest trick of all: he's dropped the lyrical schtick that sometimes marred his sonic wizardy, leaving listeners to wonder if he even believed in the music he was playing. That's not an issue here. At times, he sounds like Ray Davies updated for the '90s, stripping himself bare with lovely, simple songs that linger long after they've supposedly ended. Beck may have made his initial mark with "Loser," a clever but insincere admission of inferiority; he's more likely to be remembered for the similar but more heartfelt confession of "Nobody's Fault But My Own." --Keith Moerer

Customer Reviews: Read 208 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Not his Best Piece of Work... June 28, 2004
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.

5 out of 5 stars

Beck minus overproduction = Beautiful Music May 25, 2004
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.

5 out of 5 stars

Influences mutated...in a great way May 18, 2004
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.

5 out of 5 stars

AMAZING CREATIVITY COMPARABLE TO THE BEATLES February 28, 2004
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.

4 out of 5 stars "Some strange comfort For a soul to soothe" February 2, 2004
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.

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