Mutations - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com's Best of 1998
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

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

Album Description
Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing includes two bonus tracks. Universal. 2008.

Customer Reviews: Read 238 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

the lost '67 dylan album! April 9, 2000
43 out of 62 found this review helpful

It's 1966. Bob is traveling at light speed. He's a planetary pioneer of chaos, a cultural revolutionary, having plugged in his guitar and combined surrealist poetry and social critique with rock and roll, creating one of the most powerful forces in the Universe. But he's going too fast... He "takes too much acid and crashes his motorcycle" (either literally or metaphorically). Now in one dimension he turns to a backward looking, simplistic faith in a Big Deus Ex Machina In the Sky, starts quoting the Bible, and playing country music. But in another dimension, he reacts differently to this crisis, and makes an album very different from JOHN WESLEY HARDING -- this album, MUTATIONS!

In this alternative reality, Bob opens up to all the experimentation of the time. He incorporates all the studio effects of the Beatles and Stones. He travels to Brazil and meets Os Mutantes. He unplugs and mellows out, but with a sense of the infinite. Of course, he's reading Samuel Beckett the whole while, he's just not cut out to be an optimist. But he embraces chaos in a forward-looking way, he adopts a realistic existentialist stance rather than searching for certainty. The world is absurd and futile, but that's the starting point, not the end! Somehow, Beck has channeled this lost '67 Dylan album 30 years later. It's probably the result of his discipline of cultural recombinatory praxis, opening him up to bizarre possibilities -- he caught a matrix of flux from the past. "Diamond Bollocks," the awesome hidden track, acknowledges this explicitly:

"...looking back at some dead world that looks so new."

Beck, of course, was frustrated that the prediction from FLASHBACK, the movie about Abbie Hoffman, hadn't come true (the '90s will make the '60s look like the '50s!), and so he turned to the high point of the century as his millennial statement.

Thanks, Beck. And thanks, Bob.

5 out of 5 stars

the world owes beck December 3, 1999
15 out of 43 found this review helpful

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5 out of 5 stars

I can't think of a title, really - just a great album! June 16, 2001
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Beck Hansen's most accessible disc to date all but defies comparison. It's a little Donovon, a little early Bowie and some Beatles' white album tossed in for good measure. But these similarities do not overpower - they wash in and out with the ebb and flow of one genre morphing into another. For Mutations, Beck has put aside the discordant hip-hop of Odelay! and goofy Gen-X snicker-snicker of Mellow Gold. Languid vocals and a hypnotic mood prevail over rich layers of acoustic arrangments, twang, psychedelia, synths, sitars and even bossa nova. Like a travelogue into his subconscious, Mutations tours Beck's psyche, his influences and varying moods. Songs like "Bottle Of Blues" and "Canceled Check" are catchy, hummable ditties, while "Cold Brains," "Nobody's Fault But My Own" and "We Live Again" mesmerize with their introspective meanderings. Seems that America's most adorable geek has grown up. Lest you think he takes himself too seriously, Beck's grotesque imagery and clever musings sting with irony. Somehow, though, he still maintains a sincerity that distinguishes himself from the hipster wannabes out there trying to smirk their way onto a Rolling Stone cover.

5 out of 5 stars

A great array of colorful melodies and hot beats November 7, 1999
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

I can't believe the consistency with which Beck shows his ability to manipulate so many types of music. This is a great example. You know how there are those CDs where you listen to a few tracks, but you skip the rest? Well, this is not one of those. This is one where you listen all the way through and love it. Beck's gotta be credited as one of the greatest musicians today. Who else comes up with an album on a yearly basis? And don't say Backstreet Boys, cause that's crap. I'm talkin' about people who write their own music and lyrics, and actually put themselves into it. Beck is obviously influenced by such greats as The Beatles, Bob Dylan and others, and he's not ashamed to show it. If you liked Odelay, this may not be your bag, but if you like Beck, you'll love it.

3 out of 5 stars

softer, softest; just another side of beck December 29, 1999
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

vastly different from Odelay, this album is. one might wonder exactly what sort of mindset mr. beck was in at the time of its conception. it's true that this isn't as broad or experimental or maybe creative or blahblahblah as odelay, but what this album may lack in variety, it makes up for in genuine, lovely lyrics and gentle acoustic sets. think of it as odelay tuned and stripped down. the more jostling tracks, 'lazy flies' and 'tropicalia', along with the near ten minute hidden song, even out the flow. each track compliments well with one another; all are similar in structure with the same lazy, mellowed pace--i personally think that's a positive aspect. from the breathtaking 'cold brains', 'nobody's fault but my own', to 'static', this record is the prettiest to date. gentle and well-rounded, similar to such tracks(on odelay) as 'jackass', 'readymade', and 'ramshackle.' i personally really dig this album, i think it's soothing and just sweet. for those of you seeking more energetic, more, well, "BECK"-y beck, odelay may be more appropriate, but, if what you're seeking is a softer, gentler, more intricate beck, get this right now.

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