Beck Hansen has been making music for 30 years. When he started out, he was only 14 or 15 years old, so by the time his major label debut Mellow Gold was released in 1994, he had experienced 10 years of writing and recording to hone his craft. It’s extraordinarily difficult to describe Beck in one sentence, or even with just one of his songs. He can be an acoustic guitar driven singer-songwriter, as evidenced on his Sea Change and Morning Phase albums; he can dabble in bossa nova, as he did on Tropicalia; he can do country on Country Down or Rowboat; hip-hop on Loser; or even country and hip-hop at the same God-damn time on Sissyneck. Simply put, he’s a musical genius.
Luckily, he’s also insanely good live. The first time I went to see him, I was 14 years old, attending my first music festival at Witnness in August 2000. The general excitement and feelgood atmosphere at Fairyhouse Racecourse was palpable. Bear in mind that Ireland didn’t have a whole lot of festivals in those days. Aside from events like the semi-annual Slane Castle gigs, The Big Day Out in Galway in 1998, or Féile in 1995, proper festivals were sadly few and far between in this country. Having known only about 2 songs before seeing him, after Beck’s performance, I was madly in love. I went to Dublin city centre the following weekend, bought 2 of his albums and became a lifelong fan. The gig was clearly a memorable one for Beck too; he even mentioned it in a recent interview with Hotpress magazine. It’s comforting to know that the ridiculously surreal sight of thousands of beer cups being constantly flung into the air, coupled with the presence of at least 4 or 5 human pyramids at any given time during the performance wasn’t just in my imagination. The last time I saw Beck was in 2005, supporting Radiohead. He stole the show, which is saying a lot, considering the magnificence of the average Radiohead gig. Tragically, I couldn’t make the back-to-back double whammy of Beck and OutKast at Electric Picnic last year myself, but thankfully, Beck is back in Ireland this week. Twice! Whether you’re going to see him at the Marquee in Cork, or in Kilmainham in Dublin (or possibly both, you lucky son of a bitch!) this list of songs should serve for as a perfect way to whet your appetite for what will undoubtedly be one of the finest gigs of the year. You might argue that 42 songs across 2 and half hours is overkill, but hey! The man has 12 albums and as of today, one brand new single to pick from, and he’s awesome. So if it’s too much for you, then blow it out your hole! As for the new single Dreams, people online have been comparing it to Electric Feel by MGMT, and TXFM’s Claire Beck compared it to Solitude Is Bliss by Tame Impala. It does indeed sound kind of like those two songs met, made sweet sweet love and gave birth to the pop-rock gem that is Beck’s latest single. So anyway, on to the songs! There’s also a Spotify playlist at the bottom of the page. Finally, to quote Edgar Wright:
Close your eyes, whack up the volume and let us make sweet love to your earholes.
01. Loser
02. Girl
03. The New Pollution
04. Fuckin With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock)
05. Hollow Log
06. Totally Confused
07. Lost Cause
08. Country Down
09. Deadweight
10. Beercan
11. Devils Haircut
12. Mixed Bizness
13. Modern Guilt
14. Nobody’s Fault But My Own
15. The Golden Age
16. Gettin’ Home
17. Your Love Is Weird
18. Blue Moon
19. Lazy Flies
20. Sexx Laws
21. Where It’s At
22. This Girl That I Know
23. Dreams
There’s no YouTube or Spotify link for Beck’s new single as of yet, but you can listen to a stream of the song here.
Update: The YouTube link is now below, and the song is added to the Spotify playlist at the bottom of the page.
24. Satan Gave Me a Taco
25. Tropicalia
26. Missing
27. Wave
28. Minus
29. Hell Yes
30. 1000 BPM
31. Gamma Ray
32. Black Tambourine
33. Round the Bend
34. Rowboat
35. Youthless
36. Turn Away
37. Sissyneck
38. Rental Car
39. Debra
40. One Foot in the Grave
41. Ramshackle
42. Blackhole
Spotify Playlist (which includes none of the entries from Golden Feelings, The Information, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Midnite Vultures or Stereopathetic Soulmanure. Seriously Spotify, what’s that about?):
