The parts of Midnite Vultures that hold up best today are the ones that feel more like organic extensions of Beck’s style and less like, well, culture vulture-ing.

In 1998, Mutations may have been Beck’s most cohesive album to date, but it was also his most nuanced and polished.

Nearly every song finds Beck writing shallow and meaningless lyrics.

Every vinyl collector loves the thrill of the hunt: that burst of adrenaline and that lustful feeling that accompanies a hard-earned acquisition tell the collector he’s – in very rare and very weird cases, she’s – alive. Yet few things are more depressing to a collector than the unfulfilled wishlist, no matter how much he tries to keep it at …

I had a waffle in my purse this morning and it kind of felt like a Beck lyric come to life. Yep, he’s back, and with a new album to boot. The release of Morning Phase has inspired some of the Spectrum Culture staff to revisit his back catalog and reminisce on some of our favorite tracks. From wacky to …

[xrr rating=2.75/5]If 2012’s sheet music “album” Song Reader was any indication, at this stage in his career Beck can do pretty much anything he wants. Over the past few years, he’s also been scattering standalone singles, some of which were rumored to have been culled from an unfinished project that would’ve been in the vein of his classic, Odelay. He’s …

David Lynch & Lykke Li – “I’m Waiting Here” (Sacred Bones) David Lynch has always had a thing for mysterious, alluring women. His film work has long reflected this, but lately so has his music. His second album, The Big Dream, takes a page from his first in aligning Lynch with an enchanting and established female vocalist for one of …

[xrr rating=5.0/5]When it was announced last summer that Beck’s new album would not be a recording at all but rather a collection of sheet music, industry wag Bob Lefsetz called it “a publicity stunt,” flatly stating that Beck was “unable to sell an album, people [are] no longer interested in what he has to say musically.” According to Lefsetz, Beck …

[xrr rating=3.0/5]Despite being out of the public eye for some time (at least when it came to music), Charlotte Gainsbourg’s LP IRM (released in late 2009 across most of Europe and in early 2010 in the U.S.) instantly established her as a unique and accomplished voice in the indie universe who was ready to take on the overbearing shadow of …